55th Annual Urbanna Oyster Festival - Bring your appetites!
All systems are go for the 55th annual Urbanna Oyster Festival set for Friday and Saturday, November 2-3, and once again good times and a variety of delicious food, two parades and lively music are planned for the tens of thousands of visitors.
Click through to download our special Oyster Festival section!
posted 10.30.2012
Festival royalty is crowned
The royalty of the 55th annual Urbanna Oyster Festival includes, front from left, Little Miss Spat second runner-up McKinsey Walker, Little Miss Spat Bailey Fairheart, and first runner-up Mason Welsh; back row from left, Festival Queen second runner-up Rachel Crews, Oyster Festival Queen Allison Payne, and first runner-up Jordan Walton.
posted 11.05.2012
Rappahannock oysters make comeback
In the mid-1800s the county’s economy was driven by the East Coast oyster industry. When the Civil War ended in 1865, one way for blacks and poor whites to make a living was catching and selling oysters. In the 1880s, oyster buyboats came into the Rappahannock River from New Jersey, New York and elsewhere.
posted 10.30.2012
Parade routes have changed
Both the Firemen’s Parade on Friday and Oyster Festival Parade on Saturday will wind their way through town on a different route this year and bypass the main part of Virginia Street. The parades will assemble where Urbanna Lumber used to be. The judges stand will be at the Urbanna Firehouse.
posted 10.30.2012
Grand marshal spread his legacy statewide
The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation Board has named former Virginia Marine Resources (VMRC) Commissioner William (Bill) Pruitt as the grand marshal of the 55th annual Urbanna Oyster Festival. You might say he was good at his job, or you might say he was just being Bill Pruitt.
posted 09.12.2012
Veteran railway operator is Oyster Festival Captain
The Urbanna Oyster Festival Foundation has named Deltaville native Ed Deagle the Captain of the 55th annual Urbanna Oyster Festival set for November 2-3. Deagle grew up in a maritime family. His father, Lee Deagle, operated a small railway on Jackson Creek until 1935 when he purchased Linwood Price’s large railway on Fishing Bay.
posted 09.26.2012
A celebration of this place: Marine Science Legacy Program
While the Oyster Festival is still a few weeks off, the Marine Science Legacy Program (MSLP), the branch of the Oyster Festival Foundation charged with providing educational opportunities and resources for local students and the general public, kicked off its educational offerings on October 8.
posted 10.17.2012
‘F.D. Crockett’ to be at Urbanna Oyster Festival
The hard-working restored buyboat “F.D. Crockett,” pride of the Deltaville Maritime Museum and her outreach program, will be carrying the message of the history of Chesapeake Bay watermen, their fisheries and their boatbuilding methods to Urbanna at the end of next week.
posted 10.24.2012
