This year marks the 38th annual Digby Scallop Days, which runs from August 3rd through 7th, and celebrates everything to do with scallops. Fishing has been the lifeblood of this Nova Scotia fishing town since the early 1900s, and Digby Scallops are famed for being plump and delicious. During the Scallop Days there are all manner of scallop related events and lots of hometown family fun, which makes this a very sweet little community event worth checking out.
The schedule of events includes a scallop net knitting contest (not done with needles and string as I’d thought, but by big burly men using pliers and metal rings), a scallop pie eating contest, a fast paced scallop shucking contest (watch out for flying bits of mollusk flesh if you are sitting close to the action), a woodsman competition, a parade of floats through the town’s main drag, the crowning of the scallop queen and a well attended classic car show and shine.
The scallop shucking contest was especially fun to watch, and the BBQ afterwards was delicious – they grilled up all the freshly shucked scallops and brushed them with garlic butter before serving them in the shell.
At last year’s event I got to experience my first ever Nova Scotian church supper, which was a big plate of barbecued scallops served with salad, bread rolls, a cup of tea and selection of homemade desserts. Served family style, and costing just $10, the supper was a treat and a great way to meet some of the locals involved with the festival.
There’s a family fun area by the waterfront, complete with bouncy castles, a touch tank, reptile shows and other interesting attractions that made my (then) three year old very happy. My daughter was also thrilled every time she saw the Scallop Queen (her coronation is another event in the festival) with her ladies in waiting, looking very princess-y in their white ball gowns. Along the boardwalk were (very professional) buskers who seemed never to go home, and there were live music and dance performances on a stage by the harbor.
Digby Scallop Days is classic seaside fun, and if you love to eat scallops, you won’t be disappointed as there is plenty of opportunity to eat them as fresh as they come.
Digby is about a three hour drive from Halifax, and there are other interesting places to visit in the area, including Bear River (a sweet little village full of galleries and artists) and Annapolis Royal (a 400 year old town with a lot of charm).