For three days every November, between 18,000 and 20,000 visitors discover the best of Eastern Shore wildlife, nature, art, heritage, food, and fun at the annual Waterfowl Festival.
The Waterfowl Festival focuses on art, sportsmanship, and conservation, and takes place in Easton, Maryland. The streets in downtown Easton become a vast pedestrian mall, allowing you to stroll from event venues to locally owned boutiques, art exhibits, and top-notch restaurants with ease. There’s a lively vibe as families, couples, friends, and even dogs — lots of dogs — soak in the best of the season.
This year’s Festival will be held November 8-10, 2024 and tickets are $25 each and are good for all three festival days. Save $5 and purchase your tickets by October 1st. Book your hotel or vacation rental now.
Wild About Art
Excellent wildlife art defines the Waterfowl Festival. Painters, sculptors, carvers, and photographers from all over North America exhibit at multiple venues, offering a chance to engage with artists directly. Hundreds of pieces of artwork will be on sale, making this event a major attraction for art collectors, whether you’re looking for investment pieces or unique holiday gifts for friends and family.
Each year, the festival highlights a featured artist, and this year’s artist is Ronnie Wells. His work will be displayed in Artist Pavilion presented by PNC Bank on Harrison Street, across from the Waterfowl Building. You can see Wells’ work on this year’s festival poster, which features his new waterfowl-themed oil painting, “Cans In the Decoys.”
Easton is a well-regarded arts hub year-round, anchored by one of the East Coast’s finest small art museums, the Academy Art Museum. You can interact with artists and watch them work at galleries throughout downtown.
For the Sportsman
Extensive festival programming means there’s always something fun and engaging to do at the Waterfowl Festival. Retriever Demonstrations are among the most popular events of the weekend, where hunting dogs respond to their handlers’ commands as they dive into a local pond, locate objects, and bring them back to shore, always to a cheering crowd.
Animal lovers will also want to check out the Dock Dogs competition, a to see which dog can leap the furthest, as pooches put their jumping skills to the test. Dogs can be registered at the event site. The event with the highest stakes is the World Championship Duck and Goose Calling Contests, where prize packages have ranged from $5,000 to $12,000!
Falling under both the arts and sportsman categories, waterfowl decoys are an important part of the festival with a decoy tailgate event, one of the east coast’s largest decoy auctions, carving demos, exhibits and more all on the schedule of events. Read more about this important art form and its importance to Eastern Shore culture.
Crab, Oysters, and More
No visit to the Eastern Shore is complete without sampling the best of what the Chesapeake Bay offers. Food vendors will be serving crabs and oysters, served in every imaginable way. Try local favorites including cream of crab soup and freshly shucked oysters on the half shell, sold on Washington Street near the courthouse.
At the festival’s tasting pavilion, a small entrance fee in addition to your festival ticket earns you unlimited small pours, along with tastings from local artisanal purveyors.
At the VFW on Glebe Road, there will be craft beers, archery and raptor demonstrations, and more food.
People watching is a must during the festival weekend. Discover a perfect perch at one of Easton’s acclaimed restaurants, many of which offer outdoor dining on their patios, porches, and sidewalks.
Along Harrison Street, try the garden courtyard at Legal Assets for shareable bites, many with Asian flair, or the wide patio at Hunter’s Tavern, where they’ve been serving local specialties since 1949. On Washington Street, take a table on the slate patio at Scossa, renowned for Northern Italian fare, or a window seat at The Wardroom, coveted for cheese plates and an international wine selection. Reservations for any restaurant is highly recommended.
Cap off your weekend visit with a sweet treat at one of downtown Easton’s two locally owned ice cream parlors. Storm & Daughters is an old-school parlor helmed by a young family, while Bonheur serves up hand-made creations in a jewel box of a dining room, swathed in hand-painted wallpaper.
Festival Facts
A three-day pass costs $20 ($25 after October 1st) and gains entry to all the venues, including bus transportation to and from satellite sites. Scope out the event sites on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and then return to your favorites throughout the weekend.
Elevate your experience with a VIP package that includes admission to the Festival’s daytime activities, an invitation to the Festival’s Premiere Night, access to the VIP Hospitality Suite at the Bullitt House where you can relax with refreshments in between exhibits, and exclusive discounts. Plus, new for this year, VIP ticket holders can take advantage of discounted lodging at partner establishments.
Insider’s Tip: Stay in the know throughout the weekend and download the Waterfowl Festival app on GooglePlay and iTunes.
