The 45th Annual Yarmouth Clam Festival to Serve Up All the Favorites and Tasty New Attractions
YARMOUTH, Maine - On July 16, 17, and 18, this normally quiet New England village will swell to 15 times its size, as over 100,000 visitors flock to the 44th Annual Yarmouth Clam Festival.
One of Maine’s most popular summer events, this year’s festival will delight participants with perennially popular attractions, such as the Friday night parade, Saturday night block party and fireworks, the Clam Shucking contests, Firefighters’ Muster, the Diaper Derby and, of course, lots and lots of clams!
Here are a few of this year's highlights and developments:
• Seafood! As always, clams will be the featured menu item at the food circle throughout the weekend, but a boatload of other seafood will also be served up: lobster stew, lobster rolls, grilled scallops, shore dinners, and fried shrimp. A wide array of favorite foods for landlubbers includes pizza, grilled and barbecued sandwiches, fajitas, home-baked desserts, the famously thirst-quenching Lime Rickeys, and much more.
• “Three Cheers for Champions” Parade The Friday evening parade (6:00 p.m. on Main Street) will capture the memories and imaginations, as local businesses and neighborhood groups march through town with floats that celebrate this year’s theme.
• Teen “Battle of the Cover Bands” Invitational This event returns for the third year to feature a competition among local teen cover bands. Budding rock stars will showcase their talent Friday afternoon (2:30 to 5:00 pm) at Railroad Park, and the winners will perform as the festival’s closing act Sunday afternoon (1:00 to 3:00 pm).
• 130 artists and craftspeople will display and sell their work, which includes paintings, photography, pottery, jewelry, fiber arts, and some items that defy categorization.
• Over 40 performances are lined up featuring local and world-class musicians and entertainers that span a remarkable breadth of styles and talents.
• Historic Tours The Yarmouth Historical Society will lead historic tours of Yarmouth on board Pineland Farms’ trolley, “Trina,” to make the tours fun as well as educational.
• Recycling The Clam Festival and the Yarmouth Recycling Committee are working together to increase the availability and visibility of recycling at the Festival. Starting this year, food booths can recycle cooking oil, metal cans, and plastic buckets and jugs. Festival-goers will also find more plastic-bottle recycling containers placed throughout the festival grounds.
• No-Pets Policy In the interest of health and safety, the Clam Festival is adopting a no-pets policy, with the exception of service animals. Because a crowded festival is not a good environment for animals, pets should be left at home. Festival-goers are asked not to bring their pets and leave them in their cars—this can be deadly for animals.
• Facebook and Twitter Festival fans can now get up-to-the-minute information about upcoming performances as well as contest and race results on the most popular social networking sites. See
the Clam Festival's Twitter page and
the Clam Festival's Facebook page.
Admission to Yarmouth Clam Festival events is free. Proceeds from food booths and parking lots support Yarmouth’s non-profit student, sporting, music, church, and community-service organizations.
Press Contact: Clam Festival Communications
press@clamfestival.com
(207) 846-3733
