Among the best ways to experience Atlantic Canada are its food festivals. From oyster shucking competitions to food trucks rallying on the Cabot Trail, there’s a tasty range of celebrations. We wouldn’t blame you if you booked a repeat trip.

P.E.I.’s big shellebration

Lobster! Oysters! Cutting a mussel sock to officially open the event! Nearly three decades after it began as a one-day oyster festival, the PEI International Shellfish Festival is a beloved Charlottetown mainstay drawing crowds of 10,000+. Now the lively four-day festival on the third weekend of September highlights include culinary competitions, celebrity chefs, cooking demos, and an awesome East Coast kitchen party.

“The festival is a foodie haven by day, a kitchen party by night,” says founder Liam Dolan. Back 30 years ago, there wasn’t any such thing as food festivals, says Dolan, who’d arrived in Charlottetown in the 1980s as a young chef from Ireland. Growing up in Galway, home to the World Oyster Opening Championship, he envisioned something similar for his adopted hometown.

“We have the best oysters in the world in P.E.I. and I’m not prejudiced when I say that.” He wanted to promote the stellar seafood and extend tourism. “It drove me nuts. P.E.I.’s attitude (back then) was to roll the sidewalks up after Labour Day.” He struggled with buy-in early on, but when it caught on, it caught on.

Now, visiting cruise ships sell event excursions and well-known food writers, notably Anita Stewart, have covered the fun. Not-to-miss? The chef competition, focused on P.E.I. seafood, is wildly popular with $10,000 and bragging rights up for grabs. The world’s biggest oyster bar, stuffed with P.E.I. varieties, highlights a Thursday night feast. “It’s like tasting wine,” Dolan says.

The Oyster Shucking Competition is another highlight with competitors vying to shuck 12 oysters, cleanly, in the fastest time. The junior chef competition and kitchen party are also hits. “People love to interact and talk with the fishers and the chefs, and you can’t get any fresher food,” says Dolan.

Newfoundland’s Roots, Rants, and Roars

“It’s very much a taste of the best of Newfoundland and Labrador, celebrating our culture, the province, the beauty around us, the culinary, and fabulous music. It’s two days of just fabulous experiences,” is how Tourism Ellison chairperson Marilyn Coles-Hayley describes the province’s powerhouse culinary festival, Roots, Rants and Roars.

Running annually since 2009, during the third weekend of September in Elliston, “root cellar capital of the world,” the event is so popular people plan vacations around it and accommodations fill along the Bonavista Peninsula. The draw? Three unique experiences over two days. Roots, Rants, and Roars starts Friday night with a celebration of cod. In Cod Wars, chefs from across the province, backdropped by phenomenal live music, compete for diners’ votes on best dish to be crowned King or Queen of the Cod. The Hike on Saturday afternoon traipses through four kilometres of gorgeous landscape, past seascapes and root cellars as national and international chefs serve inventive dishes utilizing local products. Musicians and a wine and beer station dot the route, which ends with a final dessert station.

That night, the Feast is a seven-course, sit-down dinner under a tent in the municipal park. A different chef prepares each course, served family-style, backdropped with an evening of music. Coles-Hayley says people seated together often become great friends by night’s end. “People come here and, in all honesty, they fall in love with it.”

Making magic in Saint Andrews, N.B.

Treat yourself the weekend after Thanksgiving to a visit to Saint Andrews, N.B., to take in the Indulge Food and Wine Festival, knowing you’re also doing something good for the community. 

“The festival weekend in Saint Andrews is a feeling of magic mixed with a lot of fun and great food and drinks,” says festival organizer Tressa Bevington. “The weekend is designed for many different interests and highlights the beautiful community of Saint Andrews. So many chefs and vendors work together to highlight their talents while working together for an amazing cause.”

Indulge Food and Wine Festival, originally started by Kingsbrae Garden to extend the tourism season, is also a fundraiser for the St. Andrews and Area Open Door Program, which Bevington says encourages the purchase of fresh food while encouraging people to shop at independent businesses. Gift cards go to people in need monthly.

With Kingsbrae’s support, the festival has transformed over the years from a single day into five fun-filled days that some say are “better than Christmas,” says Bevington. The Taste of St. Andrews, on Friday night, is one of the most popular events, but Bevington says there are many other events that make the weekend special including a wine, beer, and spirits trail, concerts, tastings at local restaurants, and shopping in area stores.

“This festival is a perfect weekend to put on your fall boots and sweaters and explore,” says Bevington. “Everyone involved in the weekend puts their heart into their work, which makes it feel even more special.”

Cabot Trail Food

Truck Rally

Cape Breton Island’s Cabot Trail is already a star, regularly featured on the world’s best drives lists: a legendary 298-kilometre road trip through fishing villages, coastal cliffs, and Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Add in magnificent fall foliage and a festival of foodie stops, and that’s the Cabot Trail Food Truck Rally, a unique offering making drivers happy since 2019. “It’s a one-of-a-kind experience,” says Terry Smith, CEO of Destination Cape Breton, which hosts the event each October (two weekends after Thanksgiving). 

As drivers navigate the engineering marvel that is the trail, they’ll find food trucks in spectacular locations with ample parking. Trucks are stationed about 15 to 20 minutes apart, popping up in places like Black Brook Beach, just north of Ingonish, at Meat Cove Campground, at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck, at the Skyline trailhead (the park’s signature hike), and at community halls.

“A lot of them, you get a beautiful view along with the food,” says Smith. Expect gourmet burgers, sweet treats, lobster rolls, and traditional Acadian dishes. The rally, with 14 trucks in 2024, runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Smith suggests arriving the night before to get an early start. Going early also provides the best choice, as dishes can sell out. With so many food options, many plan their route, plotting in hikes, artisan shops, and exploration between stops. It’s a good idea too to bring cash. Most vendors take cards, but coverage isn’t always reliable in remote areas. Download the festival app (cabottrailfoodtruckrally.com/contest, there’s a gourmet getaway draw) and make it a weekend!