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The world really can be your oyster during Prince Edward Island's International Shellfish Festival on Charlottetown's historic waterfront between September 16 and 18.

A self-described Maritime kitchen party, the festival serves up Atlantic food and entertainment, as gourmet chefs rub elbows with traditional musicians and Celtic dancers. Contests abound, pitting chowder champs, master oyster shuckers and buoy-tiers against each other. Boat cruises, cooking demonstrations and, of course, shellfish-tasting, also dot the festival's roster.

P.E.I.'s shellfish industry has exploded in recent years, with 2001 sales of $34 million climbing to nearly $70 million last year. Increased marketing and commercialization has boosted the industry, particularly mussel production. Since the late 1980s, more than 4,000 hectares of water has been licensed for mussel-farming, and the province now produces 80 percent of Canada's mussels. Oyster aquaculture is much more time-consuming and complicated; these bivalves need between four and six years to mature, while mussels are cultivated in just two years.