HOULTON, Maine — The Town Council on Tuesday evening, May 28 again stated its opposition to the organizers of the Northern Maine Agricultural Fair petitioning to change their dates to the same time as the Houlton Agricultural Fair in 2020.
During the meeting, councilors agreed to send another letter to the commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry supporting the Houlton Fair.
This year the Northern Maine Agricultural Fair will occur from June 28 to July 3 in Presque Isle along with a Freedom Festival on the fairgrounds July 4-6, while The Houlton Fair will be held July 4-7 in Houlton. To compete, the Houlton Fair is also hosting a Barbecue Music Festival and mud runs Friday, June 28 and Saturday June 29, featuring six bands.
Paul Cleary, president of the Houlton Fair Association, acknowledged during the meeting that it means the two popular fairs will be competing for a select amount of money within a 40-mile radius over a holiday.
The Houlton Fair has been held around the Fourth of July as a licensed fair since 1986, and a Fourth of July celebration has happened in Houlton on a continuous basis since 1981.
“The Northern Maine Fair is now requesting the dates for 2020,” Town Manager Marian Anderson said during the meeting. “And obviously we don’t want to change the dates.”
The controversy over the dates actually began last year. Smokey’s Greater Shows, a midway entertainment vendor based out of Fryeburg, was awarded the bid for the Bangor State Fair in 2019. Because the Bangor State Fair is scheduled for July 27-Aug. 5, the midway company would not be able to provide rides for the Northern Maine Fair under its normal dates.
The Northern Maine Fair has typically taken place at the end of July or in early August, so fair officials sought to change the dates of their fair.
By moving the dates of the Northern Maine Fair to June 28 to July 6, 2019, the company could do both Bangor and Presque Isle, but that left Houlton in the lurch. Houlton then was asked to consider moving its dates to the end of July into early August, but Houlton’s board refused.
In the May 28 letter to Amanda Beal, commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Houlton councilors touched upon the town’s history and cultural identity and sense of place.
“It’s our opinion that altering the schedule in the manner suggested will be detrimental to the Houlton Agricultural Fair, which has become a cherished and well-established tradition for commemorating Independence Day in the town of Houlton,” they wrote.
They said that Houlton has always been “THE” place to be on Independence Day and that the fair had been a licensed fair since 1986. A Fourth of July celebration has happened in Houlton on a continuous basis since 1981.
Cleary said having the fair around the Fourth of July is a vital economic, entertainment and social engine in the community.
“There are a lot of people that come home around that time,” he said. “We have the fireworks, we have the fair, we have Midnight Madness, class reunions, the craft fair, the parade — it is one big festival.”
He said that Houlton used to be the first fair in the state.
“Now it is the third,” he said, after the Monmouth Fair and the Northern Maine Fair.
