18th Annual Clamfest Draws In 20,000 Attendees

Clammers and clam eaters alike took to Highlands this past weekend for the 18th annual Clamfest.

The four-day festival, held at Huddy Park, drew in about 20,000 people this year and featured seafood, musical entertainment, rides, clam shucking competitions and a clam eating competition.

Carla Cefalo-Braswell, President of the Highlands Business Partnership, has been apart of organizing the annual Clamfest for 18 years.

“Clamfest is a jewel of Highlands,” Cefalo-Braswell said. “Highlands is famous for clamming.”

The JT White Shellfish Plant, one of the major clamming industries in Highlands, is one of the last shellfish depuration plants on the East Coast.

Cefalo-Braswell said the plant uses a system that purifies clams and other seafood, collected by local fisherman, with clean salt water and ultraviolet rays.

Clams and seafood were the stars of the festival.

Bahrs, Chilangos, Clam Hut, Francesco’s, Lusty Lobster, Moby’s and Windansea each hosted food booths featuring steamed clams, fried clams and lobster dishes along with a roasted corn side dish.

The Highlands Fire Department offered ribs. While the Lions Club offered funnel cakes.

Campy's Amusements hosted local amusement rides and local musicians entertained the crowd.

But drawing in some of the largest crowds was the Lusty Lobster’s Clam Shucking Contest and the Certified Clam’s  “All You Can Eat” Clam Contest.

In the Lusty Lobster clam shucking competition, competitors raced to shuck 18 clams. Seven competitors took to the challenge including a brother face-off between Matthew and Sean Douty.

In the end, Matthew Douty took first place beating out his brother Sean by seconds. Kevin Lovgreen took third finishing shortly after Sean. Lovgreen, who shucked without gloves on, carried a tiny bottle of glue as he said, “just incase of an emergency”.

The clam eating competition followed the clam shucking competition.

Mark Arnone, of Eatontown, took home first place, as well as a clam juice covered shirt, after finishing 98 clams in the 18th annual clam eating competition.

Ed Woodruff, of Highlands, tied Arnone in last year’s competition for first place but came up short this year downing 86 clams in five minutes. Third place finisher was Nick Burbank with 57 clams. Burbank started at a leisurely pace but hustled in the last two and a half minutes.

Certified Clam Co. donated more than 1,000 clams for the eating contest. The clams were then open steamed by Station One Seafood and Bahrs Landing Seafood.

The record for the most clams eaten for the most clams eaten in five minutes remains unbeaten, with the record being 104 clams.

Seastreak, Comcast, WRAT 95, Frank Rahm Landscaping, Hufnagel Tree Experts, T&M Associates, Shore Point Distributing Company and Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort, a division of the Brown Forman Company, sponsored Clamfest.

While festival volunteers included members of the Highlands Borough Council, the Highlands Recreational Committee, the Mayor, Highlands Fire Department and other community members including the Highlands Business Partnership.

The Highlands Business Partnership is a nonprofit alliance focused on community development that started planning the festival back in January with one part-time administrator and volunteers, Cefalo-Braswell said.

The festival costs about $40,000 to run, which was recuperated throughout the festival.  The additional money raised will go back into the community, toward beautification of Highlands, holiday and seasonal decorations as well as boosting tourism through ad campaigns and visitor guides.