8th Annual San Francisco Oyster and Beer Fest

This event is horrible. Long lines. Way over-​priced. I will never go to this again. We waited an hour and 20 min for oysters. Beer was way overpriced. Overall, a terrible event. No surprise that o’reillys went out of business. Sound was horrible. Kids should definitely not be allowed. This is hands down the worst event in San Francisco.

The reviews for this event are either by:
1) The Marina snobs
2) Snobs who hate the Marina snobs
I think both parties should suck down some oysters. It’s the new Chill Pill.
This was by no means a Beer Fest, but I still felt like it was worth the price. The Oyster lines were not as bad as the Beer lines. The Fort Mason venue offers some really great views of the bay & I can’t think of a better time of year for great weather… than the month of May.
Flogging Molly was the highlight. I will return.

We’ve been to the OysterFest for a couple years and have a great time! It takes place in a great outdoor venue overlooking the beautiful San Francisco Bay. Makes for a fun day out in the City — with great music, good food, and lots of drink! Always a fun crowd too.

What a great venue! Great music, awesome food! I had the pulled pork sandwhich and FRESH oysters! So yummy! Lots of people and the band was awesome too! Friendly servers for the food and booze. I will definitely go again this year. I highly recommend that everyone go check it out!

We’ve been going for years, and yes, it gets busy but the folks pouring the beers are wonderful and sweet, the beer cold and the lines not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. I’ve slurped my share of oysters there and gone back for more. Yeah, you can take a drive to Pt. Reyes (think of the gas $$) to get your oysters but that would be comparing apples to oranges. This is right here. A festival. In our fair city. Awesome bands, great people-​watching and fun. & did I mention they get some awesome bands?!

This is a fantastic San Francisco event. A Festival in the great lawn at Fort Mason, great music, great food, Golden Gate Bridge in the background, hard to beat. Don’t understand how some comments on here could be negative — Sorry but $ 30 for great bands, in that location is a good deal. May want to get there early and pick your spot — there are only a handful of outdoor festivals in SF that are of this caliber — does it cost money? so does getting bands and people to clean up after.

Had a really great time last year, cant wait for this years event.
Hope the weather is as good as last year.
The best band was Flogging Molly,
Get there early, avoid the lines, get a good spot and have fun,
Great show, great food, great beer.

A total ripoff. The entrance fee at the door was like $ 30 per person and included absolutely nothing. The oysters were overpriced, and nothing special. You get an outdoor venue and some music. A big letdown.

See SnagTickets review; the provider of tickets to Oyster Fest.
I have had a terrible experience with Snag Tickets, apparently as have 5 other people…
Oyster Fest may be awesome, but they need to find a different ticket provider and/​or promoter.

Since we went for a little beer and oysters and good music, we had an excellent time last year. It was a fairly beautiful day. We got there early, thus avoiding a line, and settled in with a snack. Most people seemed pretty chill. I liked several of the bands in addition to Flogging Molly who put on a great show. After the Fest we had trouble grabbing dinner in the area. I hate to say it, but I felt like we were surrounded by obnoxious college students/​overdressed Marina types. It sorta killed the chill vibe, but we enjoyed our afternoon.

For something called a «Beer fest» you would think they would have more than two beer stands. Especially when they were expecting an excess of 15,000 people. Each beer line was an hour wait minimum. The only thing that saved this event was Flogging Molly – who rocked my socks off. And the oyster sausages. Except that the stands selling the oyster sausages had their web site blazened over their stands, but when I visited the website later in hopes of purchasing those delicious oyster sausages… they didn’t actually offer them on their website. Boo.

This was the biggest letdown for me. It took us about 45 minutes or so to get into Fort Mason (not a big deal because the line WAS moving) however when we got inside…
Ok if you are going to advertise an event as a «Beer Festival» have more than FOUR FREAKIN TENTS to purchase beer from!!! It longer for us to get our beer than it did to get into the event!!! Hell am I wrong to think the term «beer festival» infers copious amounts of beer?(and when your choices are Guinness, Carlsberg and Harp that doesn’t add to the appeal). And to all you dumb Marina girls (added note: not all of you are dumb-​I do have friends who live in the Marina but just like any other group there are people who live up to stereotypes): learn to wait in a line like everyone else; don’t try that helpless/​flirty look with every guy ahead of you and stomp off huffy when it becomes apparent that he’s not going to let you cut.
All in all most disappointing. Should have brought my backpack and bought a six pack from the grocery store across the street. Could have saved time and money.

Aww… I was pretty disappointed…
I bought my tickets in advance online, later realizing that there was a service fee attached to my purchase, which meant I paid $ 18, instead of the advertised $ 15 for tickets in advance… I suppose the advantage was that I didn’t have to wait in that LONG line… but still, the lady at the will call almost denied my entrance after she ticked my name off, and then forgot that she did, and said that someone by my name had already entered the event!!!
Loud loud music, lots of beer, long long lines of people, and not great oysters is all I can really say ($ 22 for a dozen of raw oysters)… and with a steep admission fee (tack on an additional $ 10/​car if you want to park at their recommended parking site). I would really rather save up that money and drive two hours north to Point Reyes to eat at the oyster farms there where I know I’ll find them fresh, and be in a more intimate setting with a grill, table, and place for me to eat fresh shucked sweet oysters