Liz Prescott of Freeport just likes the feel of the Yarmouth Clam Festival, the midsummer Maine classic that this year is celebrating its 50 anniversary.

Prescott will sell her handmade jewelry and paintings at the Craft Show on the North Yarmouth Academy lawn for the fifth year. She knows most of the artisans who are working around her, and many of the people who make up the huge crowd – more than 100,000 are expected for the three-day event that begins on Friday, July 17.

“The Yarmouth Clam Festival in the middle of the summer feels like classic Maine to me,” said Prescott, who has lived in the state for 20 years. “I see people I haven’t seen in 20 years to, literally, the mailman.”

Opening ceremonies for the 50th Annual Yarmouth Clam Festival are scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday on the Memorial Green, as festival mascot “Steamer the Clam” assists Boy Scouts in raising the flag, leading to the Pledge of Allegiance, led by the Downeasters Barbershop Chorus. The Fine Arts Show and the Craft Show both open at 10, and run until 9 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. They are open from 10-5 Sunday as the festival winds up.

“They’re long hours, but it’s a wonderful crowd,” Prescott said. “My business has been growing at the clam festival every year. I’m at the same location every time. The clam festival organizers want us to do well and help facilitate that. Their 50th anniversary should be a big one.”

Kate Shub, who does public relations for the Yarmouth Clam Festival, said that space for the Fine Arts Show and the Craft Show is competitive. Prescott and others who rent the space do so for the full three days.

“There’s a lot of interest,” Shub said. “There’s huge demand, because you get that audience of over 100,000 for the weekend. We really are proud that it’s a full community event. You can walk by the arts and crafters and then grab some food, or run in a race. There is really something for everyone.”

The food, of course, is a main draw. All clam festival food booths are managed by Yarmouth-based, nonprofit organizations. Food tents open at 10 a.m. Friday and 7 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Festival organizers expect people to consume more than 6,000 pounds of clams, 6,000 lobster rolls, 2,500 pancake breakfasts, 2,000 shore dinners, 400 homemade pies and 6,000 strawberry shortcakes. Lime Rickeys are a favorite drink.

But it wouldn’t be the Yarmouth Clam Festival without the arts and crafts, Shub said.

“The Fine Arts Show and the Craft Show are two of the most popular parts of the festival,” she said. “People love to shop for gifts. It allows local crafters and local artists a place to show off their work.”

Prescott owns Liz Prescott on Beach Hill Road, where she teaches painting and jewelry design. She purchases beads every February in Arizona at the Tuscon Bead Show.

“I mainly sell semi-precious gem stones, freshwater pearls and fine sterling silver,” she said. “I also sell small paintings that complement the jewelry. People love that I have both the art and the jewelry.”

Her prices range from $29-$100.

Prescott, who has a degree from the Maine College of Art, was living in Portsmouth, N.H., and owned a leather goods store in the Old Port when she met her husband-to-be, Fred Prescott, who was working at L.L. Bean. She moved to Freeport in 1995.

“I love the community,” she said. “I didn’t realize what a special place that it was until we started having children, and we began connecting with other people.”

Liz Prescott of Freeport has the same tent every year in the craft section of the Yarmouth Clam Festival, on the North Yarmouth Academy lawn near the flagpole. Courtesy photo

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