Catch the excitement of the 21st annual Oyster Festival as you eat your way along the waterfront, supporting your favorite charities. This year on Saturday, Oct. 16 and Sunday, Oct. 17, (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) there will be non-profits selling great food to benefit veterans, seniors, railroading, Rotary, Lions, Baymen, Legionnaires, VFW; soccer, basketball and football teams, civic groups, firefighters, the Boys & Girls Club, Hispanic culture, boy scouts, girl scouts, and the chamber of commerce. It is also supporting the outreach of the Hermansky Pudlak Syndrome Network as well as a fund-raiser for our "Poster Bay" Matthew Fetzer of Bayville fighting his second bout with leukemia. His supporters are the North Oyster Bay Baymen's Association and they will be selling steamed lobsters to benefit the boy. He has successfully won a battle against one type of leukemia and is battling a second type.

The Oyster Festival is 21 years old and fully grown up and is taking place throughout downtown Oyster Bay, the Theodore Roosevelt Park and on the western waterfront area. The festival has three musical entertainment locations, a giant carnival, the Tall Ship Gazela-Philadelphia, the Nantucket Lightship, the Christeen oyster sloop, the Merchant Marine's Growler, two large tents of arts and crafts with wide aisles for comfortable shopping and (worth repeating) food of every description.

The hamlet hosts an antique mall and a classic car show and children's craft activities. And, best of all, everyone's favorite Oyster Shucking & Eating Contests start at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16, at the main stage on the Western Waterfront, near the food court. For information call 922-2788 or visit their website: www.theoysterfest.com on which all the craft vendors are listed.

Beverly Zembko is again chairing the nonprofit food court at the Oyster Festival, Oct. 16 and 17. It will be located again in the parking lot area of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park. "We have some new things, some wonderful food and some local business owners who are partnering with the nonprofits to make this festival special," she said. "We have some really civic-minded merchants."

She said, "The Oyster Bay High School Interact Club is partnering with Goosebrry Grove to sell ice cream, homemade salt water taffy, cookies and coffee. Bob Liebold of Gooseberry Grove is a very civic-minded individual as is Ron Isaacs of the Oyster Bay Gourmet Deli. He is partnering with the Hermansky Pudlak Syndrome Network who will be selling baked potatoes with various toppings including Lobster Newburg as well as, hot wings and southern fried chicken and popcorn shrimp. Once again, Eileen O'Leary of Fiddleheads is partnering with the Friends of Locomotive 35 to sell shrimp cocktail, crab roll, seafood gumbo."

This year again, the North Oyster Bay Baymen's Association will sell clams on the half shell, steamed clams as well as steamed lobster which will be sold as a benefit for Matthew Fetzer of Bayville.

"Matthew needs a second bone marrow transplant," said Ms. Zembko. "He is a brave kid!"

Last year the North Oyster Bay Baymen's Association sold steamed lobsters at the Oyster Festival to raise funds for Matthew Fetzer's bone marrow transplant to fight Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). About 3,830 new cases of ALL are diagnosed each year in the United States and it is the most common type of leukemia under the age of 19.

Eileen Finke, a wife of bayman Joe Finke, who has been helping raise funds for Matthew said, "Matthew had a bone marrow transplant in November 2003. Then, in late August 2004 he was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). [About 11,920 new cases of AML are diagnosed each year.]

"This kid has been through so much. He's a good kid - a great kid. We are trying to sell more lobsters than last year. If the weather is like the past two days it should be great. Last year it was cold and rainy. We are going to blow up his picture for the booth so look for us," she said. "If you would like to volunteer at the booth, please call 628-8525."

Ms. Zembko whose Oyster Bay Cooperative Play School is one of the vendors, summed up working with the nonprofits and their partners saying, "It's a good group and I was happy to bring in some new groups to have a chance at the fund-raising this year."

Joining the food tents at the waterfront are some groups that will be aligned along West End Avenue. They include Long Island Harvest who distribute food to the needy and will be giving out literature of their upcoming holiday food drive. "Additionally, they will take any left over food from the nonprofit vendors for further distribution. They serve 100,000 Long Islanders," said Ms. Zembko.

There will be a variety of tables set out promoting themselves including, the North Shore Community Church, whose band will be playing on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. near the food court.

"The Mill Neck School for the Deaf will be there too, selling whatever goods they have left from their Fall Apple Festival. It's a courtesy we provide for them each year."

"Doubleday Babcock Senior Center will be selling their notecards picturing Oyster Bay scenes. Chester Mountain water, a sponsor will be there and there are other groups inquiring about space," she said.

The Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce, the group that originated the Oyster Festival is strongly involved in the event this year. Toni Junjulas, chamber executive director said, "This Oyster Festival is different from the last two festivals. We are working with Rotary this year and we are going to have a classic car show, antique mall and the town's showmobile will be located in Upper Audrey Avenue with bands and a DJ. There will be children's crafts area located on East Main near Gooseberry Grove. There will be Sand Art, Pixie Sticks (you make your own pixie sticks by filling tubes with sour sugar), Mad Science (children get to do their own science experiments - see his website: madscience.com). We also have Henna Body Art (tattoos are applied using a safe red henna to make designs on hands and faces)."

To facilitate all this activity, the town will be closed to traffic from East Main Street to South Street and Audrey Avenue will be linked with Shore Road where the carnival will take place at Firemen's Field. South Street will be closed from West Main Street to Hamilton Avenue and Spring Street will be closed from West Main Street to Audrey Avenue. Cars will able to drive on East Main Street.

For more festival information please call 922-2788 or visit their website: www.theoysterfest.com .

Tim Wright is again chairing the Oyster Festival Entertainment committee and has brought some wonderful groups to keep visitors happy. Among the many talented musicians coming to the Oyster Festival are two groups who are returning. Each are unique, as are the stories they have to tell.

Distant Twins is hoping for that big breakthrough performance. The two, Felicia Crandall and Mike Green are often mistaken for brother and sister, which is where their duo name comes from. Both have "day gigs," what they call their daytime jobs.

They do a lot of weddings and were heading out for one on Sunday, Oct. 10 as they talked to the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot.

"We've done about every format, restaurant type locations, outdoors, parties as well as weddings. We play a lot at Skippers in Northport, on the corner. It's a neat little place everyone knows," said Mike Green. He grew up in Glen Head and went to North Shore High School. He now lives in East Northport.

Mike is a songwriter. "We do a lot of different country tunes and rock tunes. A lot of times we write and send them out trying for a spot as a TV theme or for them to play a segment on a show. If you are lucky enough to get something used as a movie theme - that's great," he said.

At the festival, visitors will be hearing them play cover tunes and popular songs. "We've done the festival for three years now and that format is better suited to it." He knows how to handle a large venue and how to catch the interest of the crowd. "It's a lot for anyone to stop and really listen to something new when they are hanging out, eating and playing games. When they hear something familiar they focus in and that gets their attention and then we try for something original. It's almost spoon feeding the crowd. It's hard to do, but we've been performing a long time." They have learned how to keep people interested, he said, as he was rushing out for the wedding gig.

Distant Twins will be the opening performance on Sunday, Oct. 17 at the food court area at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park where all the nonprofit groups will be selling food. They will play from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

As he noted - people will be eating while listening. There will be picnic tables set up in the center of the food court to make the listening easy.

The Thompson Gunners have played at the Oyster Festival for many years. It seems a natural since they are all native sons. As the song says: Let Me Introduce You to Marcus Batyr, guitarist, vocalist John Lindner and drummer Dennis Ruthkowski.

Marcus Batyr is the guitarist and vocalist and songwriter of the group.

John Lindner is the son of Charles Lindner, a retired engineer who is still active around Oyster Bay, plays bass guitar and does vocals.

The third member of the trio is Dennis Ruthkowski, whose parents ran South Street Service, an electronics repair business. They were headquartered in a wooden frame house that was bought by the Oyster Bay Fire Company and was recently taken down. Dennis is a social studies teacher for 11th graders in Oyster Bay High School.

Marcus Batyr, spokesperson for the group said, "We all grew up in Oyster Bay. I moved to Huntington Station and bought a house. John moved in and for a while Dennis lived downstairs. Since then Dennis moved and has two beautiful girls and lives two blocks away. It's a nice situation.

"We are a three piece classic rock and roll band. We're not modern, or alternative - classic like the Beatles and the Stones: classic rock and roll. We do half original and half covers so our repertoire contains a lot of classic cover songs."

Marcus said there is a process to making the music. "I bring the songs to the boys and 'they beat them up;' they finish the arrangements. We have two rules: leave your ego at the door and serve the song. The boys understand anyone can go over the top with their instruments. We are here to play music and to make the three of us sound like one."

"I write about all of us and the situations we are all going through; a break up with a girl, meeting a new love, looking for someone. God gave us a beautiful imagination," he said.

Are they looking for that big break? "We're looking to enjoy ourselves. When you're looking for that big break you try really hard and more gets pushed away. Now we do it for pure fun and opportunities are being thrown at us. It's nice," said Marcus.

He offered another hint at the process. "I learned when I started writing - I can't do the music the way the other writer does. We make it our own, we put our own signature on it, we do it our way."

There is a great sense of camaraderie with the group.

The Thompson Gunners are the opening act at the Oyster Festival, Oct. 16 and 17. The opening ceremony takes place at 11 a.m. and they will play from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the gazebo in the heart of the village.