Organisers of the Galway Oyster Festival will extend the tent on Nimmo’s Pier in anticipation of even greater crowds for the 69th world shucking championships later this month.

Last year’s attendance of 5,000 over the three days was significantly up on recent years despite the increase in ticket prices just before the pandemic, with three-quarters of them travelling from overseas.

Research carried out over the weekend showed that the vast majority of them came specifically for the Oyster Festival, with American visitors well up on recent years – a trend which is on track to being repeated for 2023 judging by ticket sales so far, according to Maria Moynihan Lee of Milestone Inventive which manages the event.

Revellers from the UK were well down, more than likely due to the flailing British pound.

“We’ve increased the size of the tent this year so we can take around 6,000 for the festival. US visitors were significantly up last year and UK significantly down and that continues this year. You only have to look around to see the huge among of Americans,” she remarked.

“Fáilte Ireland’s research shows our visitors have the highest per capita spend, more than any other festivalgoers nationwide,” she said.
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