Yarmouth Clam Festival


The Yarmouth Clam Festival is an annual three-day event which takes place in the American town of Yarmouth, Maine, starting on the third Friday every 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 approximately thirty 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 Friday-evening 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. 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 Yarmouth Lions Club, the First Parish Church ; Yarmouth Ski Club ; the Boy Scouts of America ; and various grades of Yarmouth High School offer hamburgers, hotdogs and soft drinks.
Other events include a parade on the Friday evening; a one-mile fun run and a five-mile road race ; a Firefighters' Muster and a clam-shucking contests ; a fireworks display ; and a professional bicycle-race. A carnival runs from Wednesday 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 since 2004 has been "Steamer" the clam.
The 2020 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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