Potato Blossom Festival hosts new eating competition
FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — For nearly 70 years, thousands of visitors have descended upon Fort Fairfield in mid-July to enjoy the Maine Potato Blossom Festival and its nearly 100 family-friendly event. Now those crowds will be invited to leave some room in their stomachs and their schedule and take part in a unique challenge of intestinal fortitude — the first ever Maine Potato Blossom Festival International Tater Tot Eating Competition on Saturday, July 16, 2016.
The 69th annual festival will take place July 9-17.
“We’ve been talking about doing an eating competition of some sort since I became the festival director a year and a half ago,” stated Tim Goff, executive director of the Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce. “We toyed with a couple different potato dishes, and ultimately settled on Tater Tots for a couple reasons; one, who doesn’t like a pile of hot Tater Tots seasoned just right? And two, everyone can eat a mess of them, so they can relate. They can count along as they disappear.
“Our challenge is to see how fast someone can eat roughly 100 Tots. I’m curious to find out who answers the challenge and what kind of time they put up,” Goff said.
Competitors in each of the men’s and women’s divisions will be given a full plate containing 100-110 nuggets (exactly two pounds before cooking), and five minutes to eat them. The person who finishes with the fastest time will take home bragging rights, a trophy and a $100 gift card to Boondock’s Grille. Youth ages 12-17 with parental consent, will compete to eat a pound of tots (roughly 50 to 55) and the top two finishers will be rewarded with $50 gift cards. Competitors will be required to keep what they ate on the inside for a minimum of five minutes after they finish or they will be disqualified.
“We’re excited to be part of this new event during the Maine Potato Blossom Festival,” said Steve Adams, owner of Boondock’s Grille. “Potatoes and competitions are two of the cornerstones of the festival, so finding a new way to engage the thousands of people who come to town with an event that combines the two is something we eagerly joined in on.”
The competition is being sponsored by McCain Foods USA, Boondocks Grille and Maine Agri-Women and will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 16, in the food court on Main Street. Competitors should register in advance, as space is limited to 30 participants in each division. The entry fee is $5. Forms are available on the festival website, www.fortfairfield.org/mpbf-tater-tot-eating-competition.html, or at Boondock’s.
The contest is just one of nearly 100 festival events. Other highlights include nightly performances in the Community Bandstand, four nights of local and regional music on the Festival Main Stage, mashed potato wrestling and potato picking contests, pageants, athletic contests and food and craft vendors.
For more information, contact Goff at 472-3802 or email tgoff@fortfairfield.org. For a full event schedule visit fortfairfield.org/potatoblossom/maine-potato-blossom-festival-schedule-of-events.html.
