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Food Festivals

We Mainers love our food and celebrate the state’s numerous culinary traditions all year long with food-themed festivals that visitors should not miss! Whether we’re honoring Maine-grown foods like potatoes, blueberries, maple syrup or our amazing seafood, there is a festival. Try the chowder at the many chowder festivals all along the coast – from Old Orchard Beach to Ellsworth. Or, head to Eastport in September for their annual Salmon and Seafood Festival on Passamaquoddy Bay. Enjoy Maine’s fresh clams at the Yarmouth Clam Festival. And of course, the world’s biggest celebration of lobster is the Maine Lobster Festival. Check here for more information on Maine Seafood. The Maine Oyster Festival in Freeport is the perfect time to sample Maine’s incredible variety of oysters – with over 150 oyster farms along the coast.

If seafood isn’t your Maine thing, be sure to check out the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival or the Maine Potato Blossom Festival. Ployes are a light buckwheat pancake brought to Maine by the French Acadians, and near the border of Canada, Fort Kent’s Ploye Festival is fantastic.

Then there are the Maine treats, like the unique-tasting Moxie soda, honored at the Moxie Festival and whoopie pies, soft cakes with sweet, creamy filling inside. Try all the varieties at the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival. You can also enjoy Maine’s maple syrup on pancakes, over ice cream or in maple sugar candies on Maine Maple Sunday at sugarhouses all across the state. And who doesn’t like chocolate? Head to Greenville for the Annual Chocolate Festival that’s brought visitors to Moosehead Lake in February for 20 years where they can create their own unique chocolate boxes. Maybe you love bread; there are more than 60 vendors at the Artisan Bread Fair each year in Skowhegan with fresh breads, pastries and pizza to tempt you. What pairs well with bread? Cheese. Each September the Maine Cheese Guild hosts the Maine Cheese Festival in Pittsfield.

Better yet, enjoy all there is about Maine food at Harvest on the Harbor each fall in Portland. Restaurants offer special tasting menus, there’s a Bloody Mary battle, Oysterfest, a Maine distillers’ happy hour and a grand tasting and culinary marketplace. You can even judge who deserves the title of the Best Maine Lobster Chef of the Year at a special competition.

Maine is for lovers. Food lovers.