Though conditions were more wintry than spring-like, the rain held out long enough for a large group of visitors to attend the first-ever Wareham Oyster Festival on Sunday, and though many of those in attendance were forced to don winter gloves and other cold-weather attire, most seemed happy to dig into some freshly-shucked oysters and other ocean-inspired cuisine.

“Somebody forgot to push the button on for that sun,” said Hartley LeCorbineire, who traveled from New Bedford to the festival along with his wife Mimi.  “But it’s been fun.  We’ve been looking forward to it all week long.  I’m pleasantly surprised to see the amount of people that came out for oysters on a chilly day.”

Besides oysters, visitors were also treated to quahogs, shrimp, littlenecks, seafood bisque, chowder, and much more from a variety of restaurants and shell-fisheries/fishermen that lined Main Street and spilled into Pezzoli Square.

Kristy LaPointe, a chef at Lindsey’s Family Restaurant for over 15 years, said that by day’s end, they had gone through over 18 gallons of their seafood bisque.

“We did really well,” she said.

Same went for the gentlemen representing Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms.  Jason DaCosta, who was shucking on-site and serving up oysters throughout the day, said that after only a few hours, they had run out of supplies, and had to round up more in order to keep the patrons happy.

“We had to run out and get some more,” he said.

Though the weather didn’t necessarily cooperate, the event did bring scores of people not necessarily from Wareham to its village, and organizer Bob Brady said he considered the event a success, and with a little help from mother nature, he thinks they could have seen another thousand or so people at the event which he estimated had brought in approximately 3,000 people.

“If the weather yesterday had been like (Monday), we could have realistically seen another thousand or more people,” said Brady.  “The morning was cold and raw, and a lot of people don't care to go out in that.  We were at the mercy of mother nature—it is what it is.”

Brady said that though Sunday probably could have gone a little better, he thought that the week leading up to Sunday’s festival, including The Oyster Trail, which saw several local restaurants devoting individual nights to oyster-themed dishes and events, as well as Friday night’s Oyster Gala, were highly successful.

“The whole week, all the events, the festival itself—the participation was the best as could be expected and we’re very grateful to all those who took part in any facet of the festival, and especially all the restaurants that participated in the idea of oysters.  They (the restaurants) stepped up huge.”

He added that at the Wareham Village Association’s next meeting, they’d review the results from this year’s events and devise a plan to improve on their successes.

“We’ll put our heads together and see what more can we do to bring that same kind of reward to all the participants.”