The Yarmouth Clam Festival is an annual three-day event which takes place in the American town of Yarmouth, Maine, during the third weekend in July. Established in 1965 as a successor to the town's late-August Old Home Week, it is hosted by the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, with the aim of raising money for around forty local non-profit organizations, churches, and school groups. The event draws visitors from all over the country. As a result, Yarmouth, a town with a population of around 9,000, accommodates approximately 120,000 people over the course of the weekend. A section of the former population have made it a tradition to stake out their parade viewpoint with a chair several weeks before the event — even as early as May, though this may be in a mocking fashion.
The main festival takes place on either side of the town's Main Street (Route 115). Booths offering food and drink and items for sale are set up from the First Universalist Church at its south-eastern end to Railroad Park, a mile to the north-west. Over the years, each organization has acquired the right to sell a particular delicacy. Examples include: the Barbershop Harmony Society, who offer Lime Rickeys; the First Parish Church (strawberry shortcakes); Yarmouth Ski Club (whole fried clams); the Boy Scouts of America (pizza); and various grades of Yarmouth High School offer hamburgers, hotdogs and soft drinks. A full list can be viewed here.
Other events include a parade on the Friday evening; a one-mile fun run (for children aged twelve and under) and a five-mile road race (ages thirteen and over; both on Saturday morning); a canoe and kayak race (Saturday morning); a Firefighters' Muster (Saturday afternoon); clam-shucking contests (Saturday afternoon); a fireworks display (Saturday evening); and a professional bicycle-race (Sunday morning). A carnival runs from Wednesday (two days before the official start of the festival) to Sunday.
Each year, the cover of the festival's program of events is painted by a local artist, featuring a view of the previous year's event.
The festival's official mascot is "Steamer" the clam.
Famous quotes containing the words clam and/or festival:
“Over the low, barnacled, elephant-colored rocks,
Come the first tide-ripples, moving, almost without sound, toward
me,
Running along the narrow furrows of the shore, the rows of dead clam shells;”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 16:16,17.