Andrea Pelkey had an assignment. The coordinating producer for ESPN’s “SportsCenter” had to find an event that encapsulates each state, provides good imagery, and gives the show’s anchors a chance to interact with the activities and their people.

When determining the right choice for Maine, she had the answer right away.

“The Lobster Festival is classic summer in Maine,” the Palmyra native said.

As a result, ESPN will be making its second trip to Maine in little over a month, spotlighting the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland as part of its “50 states in 50 days” tour that began in Washington, D.C., on June 27. The sports television giant was also in Newport when Cooper Flagg was drafted by the Mavericks on June 25.

Each day through Aug. 16, “SportsCenter” will showcase a different state, either filming the show on location, splitting the broadcast between the ESPN studio and the site, or airing a pre-filmed segment that runs during the broadcast from the studio.

Maine’s turn comes on Tuesday, when the day’s “SportsCenter” airings — starting with the 7 a.m. show — will include a video segment filmed Thursday and Friday at the Lobster Festival. Pelkey had to come up with ideas for the other states, but the Nokomis Regional High grad said she was particularly excited about bringing the network to Maine.

“If I’m being honest, this one was very important to me,” she said. “Being from a smaller state, we wanted it to say ‘What is Maine?’ … This time of year, it is Lobster Fest. It is what people do; they go to the coast, they spend time with their families and that community, and this one is quintessential Maine.”

Shannon Kinney, the marketing director for the Maine Lobster Festival and Rockland Festival Corporation, said the event has received national coverage before, including being shown on “Good Morning America,” but called being profiled by ESPN “an honor.”

“We have been chosen to represent the state of Maine, and we are very proud of that,” she said. “Two of the real core industries that make Maine what it is, the seafood and the seafaring industry, lobster in particular, and also tourism. … When people think of that wonderful Maine experience, we’ll be able to have all of that for them in this segment. We’re really excited.”

The Lobster Festival is in its 78th year, having run annually since 1947, and features music performances, parades, dog shows, a 10-kilometer run, a lobster eating contest, cornhole games and a crate race, where contestants try to make it across 50 lobster crates strung together on top of water. Kinney, who worked with Pelkey and producer Emma Reed to determine which events to highlight and to set up arrangements, said the eclectic nature of the offerings often brings media personalities eager to try their hand.

“Typically, they’re very experiential,” she said. “They’re not really tourism-driven, they’re more like ‘I’m the hockey guy and I want to show I can run crates, too.’ … We’ve had people cooking, we’ve had people running the crates, we’ve had people trying to haul a lobster trap.”

That’s the approach ESPN plans to take, as anchor Shae Cornette went on a lobster boat Thursday with captain Krista Tripp. The lobsters were set to come out of the water and be cooked on Friday.

“She’s got the whole kit and caboodle,” Reed said. “Rubber boots, fishing pants. She’s going to look the part, and hopefully do the part.”

Reed said the original idea was to do a video with Virginia Oliver, the “Lobster Lady” who turned 105 in June, but pivoted after learning she’s no longer active on the water.

“I thought it was important for our viewers to see how lobstering is done in Maine,” Reed said.

In addition to the interactive lobstering piece, Reed said the rest of the video will feature Cornette taking the ESPN crew to different locations and events at the festival to best illustrate elements of Maine life.

“I got on the horn with Shannon just to pick her brain, (saying) I’m looking for characters,” said Reed, who declined to list all the areas of the festival ESPN will be highlighting. “I don’t know who’s going to be on the ground, that’s actually the beauty of having Shae and just being on the ground to feel it out and feel people’s energies. … It’s so much fun. Your creativity just runs wild.”