Standing room only at some of Narooma Oyster Festival's events

There was standing room only in the marquee for the two oyster shucking competitions and Colin Fassnidge's cooking demo.

Narooma Rocks chair Cath Peachey said there were another 500 to 1000 people watching the events on the big screens outside the marquee.

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For her the shucking competitions are the festival's heroes.

"It is one of the best at any food and wine event," Ms Peachey said.

Sally McLean of Jim Wild's Oysters in Shoalhaven retained her title as Australia's female shucking champion despite carrying an injury.

In a festival first, there was a tie in the men's final so there was a shuck-off between the reigning champion Jim Yiannaros of Batemans Bay Oysters and Gerard Doody Dennis who learnt to shuck oysters at his side.

Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge seemed to be everywhere, entertaining festival-goers with his cheeky banter.

He did an impromptu drumming session on Friday evening which live music MC Shanna Provost described as "quite impressive" and was also on stage at Australia's biggest oyster competition, his cooking demo and "assisting" the shucking competitions by running from one shucker to the next yelling to the crowd how many oysters each shucker had left to open.

Destination NSW CEO Steve Cox attended the festival on Friday, May 5, and was very impressed without even seeing the main event on Saturday.

The Yuin Banaan went down well with native food yarns by Uncle Noel Butler, Dreamtime stories from Patricia Ellis AO, an interactive dance and didgeridoo performance with the always engaging Nigel Stewart, bush tucker prepared by students at Narooma High School and a performance by Djinama Yilaga Choir who featured at Easter's Four Winds Music Festival.

Vanessa Mason gave the Welcome to Country followed by several performances by the Djaadjawan Dancers and Muladha Gamara Dancers.

The festival was officially opened by Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland with federal MP Kristy McBain, Eurobodalla Shire Mayor Mat Hatcher and Bega Valley Shire councillor Helen O'Neil also in attendance.

For those not into oysters and craft wine and beer there were plenty of other offerings with particularly long queues throughout the day for Bodalla Ice Cream and the Dutch pancakes.

Ms Peachey said they would not be able to stage the event without the 150 volunteers, the chefs who come purely for the fun of the festival and the businesses that donate prizes which Colin Fassnidge was liberally giving away while exchanging banter with Courtney Roulston of Farm to Fork.

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