Friday, July 27, 2012

Yarmouth Clam Festival

The Yarmouth Clam Festival is one of the best known and popular summer festivals in Maine, and I've always managed to remember it was happening either the weekend of or the weekend after it happened.  So I had never been until last weekend because I'd decided this year I was going come hell or high water.
To be honest, I'm not sure what the big deal is...it's a festival like most others -- yes, there's clams and lots of them but, other than that, it's just way too crowded.  It's held in downtown Yarmouth, a small, quaint southern Maine town, which is great; the problem is that they don't close Main Street.  So thousands of people are walking on the sidewalks because the street's not closed and the tents are on the other side of the sidewalk from the street.  It would be much more enjoyable if it were held in a park or someplace a little more open so that you didn't always have to be wading into endless waves of people.
We did have a good time for a few hours (the shuttle bus service is a major plus) -- did I mention the clams?  We looked at some nice artisan stuff -- loved some stuff by a guy who was reusing old wood from torn down old mills, for instance, and turning it into furniture; and I did buy Shel a nice picture of a lighthouse.  (She has the particulars and maybe I can get her to take a picture of it to share)  Basically he took a shot of a lighthouse with water between himself and the light, then made the whole picture black and white except for the reflection of the lighthouse in the water in the middle of the picture...very well worth the 50 bucks.  And I did buy a t-shirt, which you'll see in the photos below.  You'd have a good time but how good is dependent on how much you hate crowds...waves of them, and you'll love the clams.
Yours truly, waiting...
The street was closed for the parade only.  New t-shirt, yellow and purple