FORT FAIRFIELD — The 44th annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival, July 14 to July 21, will feature the annual industry dinner honoring the Vaughn Smith family of Castle Hill as Farm Family of the Year.

The dinner will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 19, at Richard Shaw’s potato house on the Caribou Road.

Featured speakers will be Keith Bjerke, administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and Douglas Slothower, administrator of the National Potato Board’s Marketing Program.

The festival will open with an outdoor Christian music festival from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, July 14, at Fields Lane, sponsored by the Fort Fairfield Ministerial Fellowship. The rain location will be the Fort Fairfield Armory.

Activities Monday will include the Little Miss Maine Potato Blossom Pageant at 7 p.m. at the high school gymnasium. A men’s and women’s three-on-three basketball tournament will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 15-17, at the Fort Fairfield Armory.

On Thursday, July 18, sporting events will be offered. The Aroostook County swim meet will begin at 8 a.m. at the Fort Fairfield Municipal Pool. A junior and senior girls’ softball tournament will begin at 8 a.m. at Fort Fairfield Middle School and Fort Fairfield High School athletic fields. A bicycle rodeo will be held at 10 a.m. at the municipal parking lot.

The Funland amusement park in Caribou will hold a Maine Potato Blossom Festival night beginning at 6 p.m.

Events on Friday will begin at 1 p.m., with the Maine Potato Blossom Queen’s Tea at the Fort Fairfield High School cafeteria. A celebrity dunking booth will be offered at 6 p.m. on Main Street. A family night will be offered from 7 to 11 p.m. on Main Street featuring entertainment for all ages that will include “Shades of Harmony,” and the “Mad Whittler — Rodney Richards.”

A chemical-free dance will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Fort Fairfield Armory. A men’s softball tournament will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, continuing at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, events beginning at 9 a.m. include: the Potato Blossom 5-miler road race, the Aroostook Valley Country Club golf tournament and the celebrity dunking booth on Main Street. A sidewalk arts and crafts fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fields Lane.

Mashed potato wrestling will be featured from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the municipal parking lot. The Southern Victoria Pipe Band exhibition will take place at 11:30 p.m. at the municipal parking lot.

Food booths located on Main Street will open at 11 a.m., and a home-run hitting contest will be held at noon at the high school athletic field.

The festival parade titled “A Tribute to Our Troops” will begin at 1:30 p.m. The parade will move along Presque Isle Street and Main Street.

Skateboard competition will take place at 4 p.m. at the municipal parking lot. The Maine Potato Blossom Queen Scholarship Pageant will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the high school gymnasium. The Maine Potato Blossom Festival dance will be held from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Fort Fairfield Armory and will be for adults only.

Featured Saturday will be a Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Co. passenger train excursion beginning at 8 a.m. at Fort Fairfield. The train will run from Fort Fairfield to Presque Isle and back. Reservations are being accepted.

Class reunions will take place Saturday. The Class of 1981 will hold a family picnic from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Puddledock Park, with the reunion taking place at 6:30 p.m. at the Fish and Game Club. The Class of 1966 will meet at 6 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building.

On Sunday, events will begin with an auction at 10 a.m. at the town’s highway garage featuring municipal surplus and farm equipment. The “‘Roostook River Raft Run” will be held at 11 a.m. beginning at the Grimes Mill Area and finishing at the Fort Fairfield bridge. A radio control car race and “1/10th scale off-road vehicles race” will begin with registration at 1 p.m. at the Aroostook Van Lines site. A farmer’s jamboree will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the municipal parking lot featuring barrel rolling, potato picking, bag sewing and grapple throwing.

The annual 25-mile bicycle race will start at 1 p.m. at the Fort Fairfield Blockhouse. More information is available by contacting Randy Mraz. The festival finale will begin at 6 p.m. at the Fort Fairfield High School athletic field, with fireworks featured at 9 p.m.