Each year during the month of April, the Chicone Ruritan Club demonstrates the little known art of shad planking. The cooking of shad fish nailed to white oak planks over an open pit fire.

It's all part of the annual Nanticoke River Shad Festival at Vienna, MD. The festival is held along the banks of a river that once teemed with this popular fish, and with the fisherman who used long, hand woven seines to pull their catch from the river into large open boats called shad barges.

The Nanticoke River Shad Festival is sponsored by the Town of Vienna, the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Chicone Ruritan Club. All proceeds from the Festival are used for Nanticoke River shad restoration.

Bring your family and join us for a day of live music, delicious baked shad and many other foods, exhibits, displays, crafts and entertainment. For information on the festival contact the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at 410.543.1999 ext 500.