Salty oysters, handmade treasures, novelties of all kinds — the Oyster Festival held for the eighth time on Sunday, May 26 transformed Main Street, Wareham into the South Coast place-to-be. 

Families and children crowded Wareham’s Main Street the day of the festival, shopping at the booths, sampling the food and listening to the live music at a tent in Pezzoli Square. 

Steven Santos came to the festival in a tie-dye shirt emblazoned with a sunglasses-wearing oyster, bought at last year’s festival. 

“Last year was awesome, we love oysters,” said Santos. 

The booth where he bought the tee-shirt also made a return. 

Rich Simmons, the tie-dye master with Stone Street Tye-Dye and Graphics, said he came down from Walpole for the festival. Why? “Oysters!” he said. “This is my third or fourth year.”

Sandy and Mark Johnston said that the Oyster Festival has “become a tradition” for them. While they live out of town, the festival gives them a chance to see relatives in Wareham. 

The Cormier family also came into town for the festival — their grandmother, Mary-Beth Cormier, is a Wareham resident. 

Kristen Cormier said the oysters were “delicious” and that the family “shopped a bunch.”

Attendees at the festival had over 100 craft vendors to choose from, according to the festival’s organizers. 

Some of the artists who attended came right from Wareham, like Hilary Kanter, who runs the candle-making business Wicksmith. 

“It’s very technical, actually. There’s a lot of science behind a good candle,” said Kanter. 

She makes all of her candles by hand, and started making them because she was dissatisfied with commercially available candles, she said. 

“I have been a lifelong candle user, and I got kind of tired of ones that just didn’t smell right, or they didn’t smell strong enough, and I wanted to do it right,” said Kanter.

Other vendors traveled from farther away. 

The Audet family brought a booth with hand-painted oyster shells all the way from Fall River.

“It’s a family thing,” said Loraine Audet. “[Their son] frequents oyster beds, takes them home, I make oyster stew and [her husband, Ray] turns it into artwork.”

Friends who do local fairs told them about the Oyster Festival and told them to check it out, said Loraine. 

“It’s a great fair,” added Ray.