Slippery, chilly, and raw is generally the agreed-upon way to serve an oyster, but the Wareham Village Association hopes the weather will not mirror the title star of the Wareham Oyster Festival, scheduled for the first weekend in May.

The Wareham Oyster Festival is a celebration of the oyster, one of Wareham’s biggest seafood crops, said Wareham Village Association president Robert Brady.

“We have a fairly decent oyster farming business going,” said Brady. “The biggest objective was to draw people to the town and give local businesses a shot in the arm before the Memorial Day weekend.”

The week leading up to the festival features the Wareham Oyster Trail, in which patrons may visit restaurants that put an oyster dish on their menus, all of which are mapped out on the Wareham Village Association’s website. There will be an Oyster Gala at the Rosebrook Events Center Friday, May 1, in which attendees may participate in a silent auction.

Festival patrons may also run in the Oyster Festival 5k race Sunday morning, before the festival itself, which runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Last year’s oyster festival -- Wareham’s first -- saw between 2500 and 3000 people, despite the grey day, according to Brady.

“The feedback was positive,” said Brady. “For the involvement, and the amount of people we had to pull it off, it went quite well. Every bit of it is very much volunteer, on our part.”

Local oyster farmer Michael Besse, of Indian Cove Aquaculture, said his crew will be participating in the festival this year, as well as donating oyster to the festival.

“My crew is looking forward to it,” said Besse. “They’re all eager to get started again, after being iced in this year.”

Besse also said two more oyster growers than last year will be participating in this year’s festival, which he hopes will give people more of a chance to sample different flavors of oyster. This, he said, has to do with the water in which the oysters are grown.

“Salinity gives a good part of the flavor of an oyster,” said Besse. “As it’s exposed to stronger or lighter brine, or algaes -- they’ll have their own taste from those areas.”

In addition to Indian Cove Aquaculture, there will be three other growers at the festival, according to Linda Burke, vice president of marketing and communications at A.D. Makepeace Company, a local sponsor of the festival. Two, Big Rock Oyster and Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms, are Massachusetts-based growers, while the third, Matunuck Oyster Bar, hails from Rhode Island.

In advance of the oyster festival, Brady said he hopes to introduce aquaculture, the farming of aquatic life, to the Wareham school system.

“Young kids in the community should ideally know more about our two biggest industries, cranberries and shellfish,” said Brady.

Brady also said he is looking forward to future festivals, which could include other areas and incorporate more products, besides oysters.

“One of our missions is to promote business,” said Brady. “But right now, we’re just focused on Wareham."

For more information about the festival, please visit the event page here.