Throngs attend Caribou summer fest

CARIBOU – It was difficult to tell where one smile began and the next one ended on the faces of organizers during this weekend’s Caribou Summer Fest and Agri-Cultural Celebration.

“It’s been excellent,” Kirk Tibbetts, event organizer, said Saturday afternoon. “We have been mobbed by people all weekend at the different venues.”

Those in charge estimated Saturday that by the time of the closing event Sunday night, more than 7,500 people had come through the city taking in the carnival, fine arts exhibit, quilt show, garden tours, antique tractor exhibit, bicycle race, concerts, fly-in and ethnic food booths.

At the quilt show in the Caribou Armory on Saturday afternoon, attendance had topped 500 for the day – double the anticipated ticket sales.

For many the events were a backdrop to the festival’s main attraction – 24 life-size caribou statues scattered around the city and decorated by local artists.

On sidewalks, on rooftops and in parks, the animals sported colors, patterns and accessories not found in nature.

Each of the beasts also contained a clue in connection with a citywide scavenger hunt. Participants needed to visit all 24 statues to solve the puzzle.

“It was a way to make sure people got a chance to see all the statues, not just the ones downtown,” Tibbetts said.

“This looks really good,” Al Babin of Limestone said as he checked off his list the statue in front of Frontier Pharmacy. “I hope they get more and do this every year.”

Apparently not everyone was a fan of the statues.

Caribou police reported that two of the caribou were damaged Friday night. The statue in front of the Nylander Museum was tipped over and a leg broken, and an antler was broken off the statue in the park.

Tibbetts shook his head at the vandalism.

“These belong to the community,” he said. “The community needs to be aware of these, and if anyone sees anybody monkeying around with them, they need to report it.”

Tibbetts is undaunted, however.

“The idea was to keep them up until the fall,” he said. “That’s still the game plan.”

The caribou were joined by one lobster statue from Rockland that was exchanged for one caribou statue as a mutual show of community support.

“Caribou is a community that is central in Aroostook County and we wanted to celebrate our area,” said Richard Scott, executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce.

From the Maritimes to Georgia, people came to see what the city had to offer over the weekend.

“Most of the people I talked to said there was more to do than could be done in a day,” said Cherie Doak, KeyBank representative. KeyBank was the event’s major sponsor.

“This is a community of which we can be proud,” Scott said. “We are really proud to live and work here and to show it off.”

Dottie Fitzgerald spent most of Saturday with her husband, Michael, operating the Lebanese food booth at the ethnic foods venue. At one point, she said, they could not see the booth across the way because of the crowds.

“I was really struck by how everybody was talking to each other and so excited about what was going on,” the cook and festival organizer said. “Everyone was enjoying being together, looking at the art, listening to the bands and having fun.”

Each evening of the three-day festival brought a different band under the big top in Teague Park for concerts of rock, folk and contemporary Christian music. Crowds were estimated in the high hundreds at each concert, Scott said.

The festival was part of the city’s Focus on the Future plan, combining business and tourism interests.

This fall, fans have the opportunity to purchase their favorite caribou when the city auctions them off.

And fans there are.

“I met one lady from Thailand today who had to make sure she saw every caribou before she returned home,” Tibbetts said.