FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — Fort Fairfield held the 68th annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival parade on July 18, 2015, despite random intervals of rain.
An assortment of vintage cars kicked off the rainy parade. Drivers, along with local police, cruised through Main Street in a variety retro vehicles such as a Dodge Charger and Volkswagen bus. The rain stopped for the remainder of the parade, and a plethora of cars, trucks, tractors, and floats moved through Fort Fairfield.
Local towns touted their beauty pageant champions on floats pulled by cars and trucks. Regional businesses had their names represented on vehicles in the parade along with many other organizations.
Members of the Anah Temple Shrine were clad in bright yellow, green, and red uniforms as they marched down the road with swords, cymbals, drums, and trumpets. Later, the Anah Temple made another appearance on go-karts that raced in figure-eight patterns.
Political organizations were also featured in the parade. A car draped in flags, Americana, and Bruce Poliquin stickers loudly emitted Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to be an American” from its speakers as it drove through the festival. Aroostook County Republicans held up a sign for their organization while walking in front of an SUV with a Paul LePage banner attached to the front. Aroostook Democrats moved through the parade in a Dodge Ram 1500 while proudly displaying campaign signs for Emily Cain and Bob Saucier.
Maine Humorist Tim Sample drove through the parade in his Mercedes ragtop. He looked out his window and exclaimed “I just won a Tim Sample look-alike contest and got this car for free!”
Elvis impersonator Quentin Warren also made an appearance in the parade. Wearing a full Elvis Presley outfit, he danced in front of a car that emitted some of the iconic performer’s greatest hits.
A plethora of vendors set up stations along the road on the day of the parade.
David and Jean Herrick sold homemade crafts to help promote their business: Pocomoonshine Crafts.
“We’re from Princeton, Maine,” said David Herrick. “My wife Jean knits hats and mittens. She also makes quilts. I mostly make rag rugs and towels. We also do a little woodwork and make tool kits and wooden boxes for kids.”
“This is our first year here,” added Herrick. “The sales are good and the people are friendly, plus we have a front-row seat for the parade. It’s clear that this parade’s sponsors did a great job.”
Dale T. Phillips, a Maine author of horror, science fiction, mystery, and short stories also set up a station where visitors could learn more about his writing and influences.
Phillips has been on television, radio, and even had an appearance on “Jeopardy!”.
“I like to write in a variety of genres,” said Phillips. “That way, if someone stops by and tells me, for example, that they don’t care for horror books, I can show them some of my mystery or science fiction writing.”
Phillips is donating his books and e-books to the local library. He has gone through publishing companies as well as the independent publishing process, and says that, while independent publishing is involves more work, it ultimately gives the writer more control.
“I write books for entertainment, but there’s much more them than that,” concludes Phillips. “Stories are among the best teaching tools out there, and I believe good stories are our future.”
The festival itself ran for a total of nine days, starting on the 11th and ending on the 19th.
“This is my first year directing the festival,” said Tim Goff. “There are countless people in the community helping me out, but it’s still a monumental, yet rewarding undertaking. We’ve had an incredible turnout this year, and I’d like to implement even more to the next festival. Ever since the beginning of this year, we have dedicated a portion of each day up until now discussing and planning this festival.”
Along with directing the Potato Blossom Festival, Goff is also the the town’s marketing and economic director as well as executive director for the Chamber of Commerce.
“My main goal is to maintain momentum,” added Goff. “We want to have a great start that leads into an incredible crescendo by the end of the last day. The other night I made it my goal to see everything going on and I simply couldn’t do it. There is just such a high volume of incredible things happening at once, like free concerts, Tim Sample’s stand-up, and the human chess game, which I am personally very excited to see. I’m positive there’s no way visitors are going to get bored here.”
The director plans on making next year’s festivities even better.
“Much of what I’ve learned this year will be implemented in next year’s festival,” said Goff. “One example is that we bought this giant light for some of the live music events in case of an emergency. It seemed like overkill at first, but we soon realized that we could use it to make sure no underage visitors try to sneak in the beer garden after dark. This is actually more serious than a lot of people would think, as it could put the vendor’s liquor license in jeopardy. We eventually realized that something we perceived as going overboard is now a vital part of the festival.”
“I grew up in this town and I’ve always made it a point to come back for the festival,” Goff said. “It’s great to be able to direct this year’s festivities. In the past few days, I’ve seen license plates from areas as far away as Missouri. People from all over the country will come up to this festival, especially if they grew up in Northern Maine. We don’t have any hotels in Fort Fairfield, so the festival even helps the surrounding economies of towns like Caribou and Presque Isle.”
