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Perfect Partners - St Michael’s Hotel & Spa and Falmouth Oyster Festival

The organisers of Falmouth Oyster Festival (14th to 17th October) are extremely pleased to announce that St Michael’s Hotel & Spa is to be the major sponsor for the festival again this year.

“We are very pleased that a highly respected local Falmouth Hotel will be the major sponsor for the festival. St Michael’s played a key role at last years festival and we look forward to working together again this year” said Peter Mason from Falmouth Festivals Ltd.

St Michael’s Hotel & Spa will run the Seafood & Oyster Bar in the main festival marquee at Events Square in Falmouth and will be hosting a number of festival events at the hotel including a Gourmet Night with BBC’s Valentine Warner, an Oyster Lunch with Rum & Shrub Shantymen and the ever-popular Oyster Ball.

Falmouth Oyster Festival at Events Square will have something for everyone with its winning combination of cookery demonstrations by top local chefs, live music, Walter Hick’s wines, Skinner’s real ale bar and food stands offering everything from oysters and grilled mackerel to chocolate crepes. The food and craft hall will feature the very best of food produced in the county and a variety of Cornish crafts. A Grand Oyster Parade with Falmouth schools, oyster shucking competition and Working Boat race complete the line up for the event. The festival is a must for all oyster, seafood and marine heritage enthusiasts.

An exciting feature of this year’s collaboration is the inclusion of the Falmouth oystermen who will play a significant part in the festival events. The oystermen will be supplying the oysters to the festival this year and Les Angel and Marshall Vinnecombe will head up a team manning the Oyster Bar in the festival marquee and will help promote awareness of the unique methods of dredging used by the Falmouth working boats to harvest the oysters. A film about oyster dredging will be shown in the festival marquee with further information about this fragile yet important part of the fishing industry. The film ‘Brought Up On Oysters’ will also be showing in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, where children’s entry is free with a fee paying adult.

The oystermen will also play an integral part in the oyster events at St Michael’s where they will be shucking oysters alongside Valentine Warner on the Gourmet Night (Thursday 14th October). This will be a unique opportunity to meet and talk food with one of the country’s up and coming food enthusiasts. Valentine will guide guests through a six course gourmet menu, matched with wine, designed by Executive Head Chef Nick Hodges, while describing his explorations and love of oysters.

Nigel Carpenter, Proprietor of St Michael’s Hotel & Spa, said “We are very excited to once again be main sponsors of this important festival and are very excited with the close relationship we now have with the Falmouth oystermen. It is the last place on earth where wild oysters are still dredged under sail and it is important that this traditional method of harvesting continues to be appreciated and prospers in the future”.

This years Oyster Ball will be on the Friday after the festival (Friday 22nd October) to ensure that all of those festival-goers can enjoy the best of both. The black tie event includes an oyster reception, a 4-course dinner, with music from award winning singing sensation Ley Adewole and band, with top DJ Kris Kool.

For details of the festival programme and further information please check the website www.falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk or for full details of events at St Michael’s Hotel & Spa see www.stmichaelshotel.co.uk or by calling 01326 312300.

October 2010