Fiesta Oyster Bake confirms 2021 cancellation due to COVID-19

Crowds cheer at the 2017 Fiesta Oyster Bake on the St. Mary’s University campus. On Wednesday, St. Mary’s became the latest area university to announce it was closing its residence halls and moving courses online for the rest of the semester.

Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

While plans for Fiesta 2021 remain in limbo as the coronavirus pandemic continues, Oyster Bake has already decided to pull out of San Antonio’s largest celebration.

The headliner Fiesta event which has unfurled on the St. Mary’s University Campus for more than 100 years canceled the 2021 event, the school’s alumni association confirmed in an email sent to MySA on Friday. The event was canceled early on in 2020, when organizers announced they would not participate in Fiesta amid the early days of the pandemic. Fiesta as a whole was eventually canceled in July.

The association directly cited the pandemic as the reason for canceling again. San Antonians can expect to shuck oysters, munch on chicken-on-a-stick and enjoy live music on the St. Mary’s University grounds on April 1-2, 2022.

“I am sad to announce that we are canceling Fiesta Oyster Bake 2021 due to the substantial numbers of COVID-19 cases in our region,” Joe L. Vela Jr. president of the alumni association, said. “We cannot risk impacting the health of our campus residents, alumni and the community by scheduling the event this spring. We will return next year stronger and more focused on continuing a better and safer celebration.”

Oyster Bake organizers met with the Fiesta San Antonio Commission and Dr. Martin Adel Makary, a consultant and Johns Hopkins Medicine professor, before making the decision.

The two-day party typically brings in 60,000 to 70,000 guests a year and is one the biggest events for the first weekend of Fiesta. Funds raised support the university’s scholarship endowment.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | [email protected] | @maddyskye