Knysna Oyster Festival

About the Festival

With 25 years of fun and games to celebrate this year, the ten-day annual Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival, one of the country’s longest running festivals, will boast a jam-packed programme of sport, entertainment and 200 000 oysters!

More than 80 exciting events ranging from super-popular sports events and adventure challenges to wine and whisky tastings and gala evenings, are expected to draw a crowd of some 65 000 people to the beautiful Garden Route town.


The festival’s two main sporting events, the Pick n Pay Cape Times Knysna Forest Marathon and the Pick n Pay Weekend Argus Rotary Knysna Cycle Tour, will give participants the unique opportunity to run and cycle through the ancient indigenous forests that have made Knysna famous.



And if marathons are not your style, there’s a full programme of adventure and soft sports for the whole family to participate in, including paddling, golf, bowls, soccer, night biking and angling.

To live up to its name, the festival will present a variety of oyster-related events including the annual oyster-shucking (opening) competition, the ever-popular oyster eating competition and the Pick n Pay Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras presented by Tabasco – a fabulous evening of oyster cooking and wine tasting.




If you can never have enough oysters, don’t miss the Tabasco Oyster Hotspots where participating restaurants all over town will be selling oysters in a variety of tastes and flavours at give-away prices!

Wine and whisky are a big part of the celebrations this year and will flow at the Wade Bales Wine Festival and the Knysna Whisky and Jazz Festival.



The grand minesweepers of the South African Navy will once again enter through the Knysna Heads to honour a long-standing tradition of participation in the Oyster Festival. And the Navy’s internationally acclaimed 40 odd piece Band will entertain festival-goers during the street parade and live concert at the Waterfront.