Champion mussel eater Elmer Carampot offered only one piece of advice: Just keep swallowing.

The Blaine resident won Saturday’s mussel eating contest at the annual Penn Cove MusselFest, slurping down three red plastic cups worth of the mollusks in a few minutes.

Yes, he removed the shells first.

After planting a gooey kiss on his wife, he received a bejeweled paper crown and raised his arms in triumph.

Sunday’s winner was Matt Dunk of British Columbia, who said his strategy was downing a few beers beforehand “to get in the right mood.”

It was a highlight of the annual festival, which drew around 8,000 people Saturday and about a third as many Sunday when the weather turned windy.

“Even Sunday weather did not close us down,” said Vickie Chambers, executive director of the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association. “Folks came out to enjoy the chowder and take the boat tour in the covered, heated tour boats.”

Local shops and restaurants were filled, giving Coupeville “a healthy jolt” of activity in March, she said.

Saturday chowder tickets sold out in less than two hours. Visitors could still buy bowls of chowder and plates of mussels and other goodies from vendors along city streets. Tasters voted the chowder made by Christopher’s on Whidbey as the best.

Visitors could spend $10 and take a farm boat tour of the mussel beds at Penn Cove Shellfish, located in the most prolific mussel-growing area on the West Coast. Penn Cove captures the nutrient-rich waters of the Skagit River and that, in combination with the extra sunshine provided by the Olympic Mountains, creates a plankton buffet for hungry shellfish to grow.

The farm was established in 1975 by a former military helicopter pilot whose travels introduced him to mussels, something most people didn’t eat much less harvest here at the time, said operations manager Tim Jones.

It’s considered one of the premier mussel growers in the world. And freshness of the produce is paramount — a mussel harvested in Penn Cove can be on a plane to New York the next morning, he said.

Jones led tours, introducing visitors to the mussel rafts, which support up to 2,500 lines filled with mollusks, and the custom mussel harvesting vessels.

On dry land the beer gardens were bustling. Lines stretched long for people waiting to get a taste of mussel chowder. Inside the MusselFest headquarters, a mermaid reclined on a folding chair with a resplendent scaled tail stretched in front of her. She said she’s saving up for a nicer one.

People packed into the hall to watch cooking demonstrations, including Florence Colby of Enumclaw who came with her sons. She’s been to the island before but the festival brought her to Coupeville waterfront for the first time.

She enjoyed picking up some new recipes for mussels, a favorite food she was more likely to enjoy at a restaurant than at home. Meanwhile, her sons enjoyed the beer garden.

“We’ve enjoyed looking at the town,” she said.

She plans to return.