Pick 'n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival in Knysna

The Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival is probably one of the most popular annual events in the Western Cape. It is also something of a celebration of the good life and sport and has taken place every year since 1983, where it began as the Knysna Winter Festival - a combination of sport that drew people to Knysna during the quiet winter season.

Marketed as the 'Best 10 Days of Your Winter', the festival is spread across two weekends that promise constant fun and activities for the whole family. The sport aspect of the Knysna Oyster Festival has evolved into two major sporting events - the Pick n Pay Cape Times Forest Marathon (half marathon), and the Pick n Pay Weekend Argus Rotary Cycle Tour, now a two-day event that is the biggest of its kind in the country.

The 2009 Knysna Oyster Festival promises almost 100 mid-week events that include some exciting new additions: The Geo Oyster Geocaching Competition (a fun way to navigate around the greater Knysna Basin), the Pick n Pay Fun Event for the disabled (the first time the Oyster Festival is hosting a sports event for disabled competitors), the Navigation Drift Dive Challenge (an attempt by scuba divers to navigate their way under water from The Heads to Thesen's Jetty without surfacing), and the Night of 1 000 Pictures (two-night exhibition of photography, illustrations and paintings to raise funds for the Knysna Hospice by local artists).

Other mid-week events will include the Wade Bales Wine Festival, the Pick n Pay Oyster and Wine Mardi Gras, the Knysna Lyster Company Shucking Competition and sports events such as the Scottish Leader Whisky Bowls Tournament and the Protea Hotel Knysna Quays Waitron Race.

But of course the stars of the show are undoubtedly the oysters, served naked, cooked or garnished at over 30 local Tabasco Hotspots throughout the festival.