Thousands stream to Apalachicola for 50th annual Seafood Festival

Thousands of people came to Apalachicola over the weekend to enjoy fresh seafood, beautiful weather, and the chance to hear Country star Kellie PIckler.

The largest crowd in recent memory attended the 50th annual Florida Seafood Festival.

The event was so popular that the festival sold out of t-shirts early Saturday afternoon and ran out of raw oysters soon afterward.

But that didn’t dampen people’s spirits.

As always the oyster eating and oyster shucking contests proved to be extremely popular.

The winner in the men’s division was Gerald Goodman of Southport who ate 324 oysters in 15 minutes.

David Payne of Wewahitchka came in a distant second with 170 oysters.

The winner in the women’s division was Dana Taylor of Apalachicola who downed 216 oysters, and second place went to Angie Harnage of Conyers, Georgia.

This year’s oyster shucking champ was Scotty O’Lear of Panama City Beach who has won the contest many times.

He won an all expense paid trip to the national oyster shucking competition in Maryland.

Attendance and earning numbers for the festival have not yet been released but judging by the crowds this will go down as one of the most successful seafood festivals in many years.

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