LISBON FALLS – Moxie, the soft drink originally marketed as a medicine for a host of ills, held central stage this weekend in this central Maine mill town.

A road race, a chicken-throwing contest and a parade featuring the traditional Moxiemobiles were among the highlights of the 19th annual Moxie Festival, which ran through Sunday.

Kennebec’s Fruit Store-House of Moxie, a downtown establishment run by Frank Anicetti, known as Mr. Moxie, was busy selling Moxie T-shirts, Moxie hats and, of course, the drink itself.

Peter Bergendahl of Henniker, N.H., set up a booth selling Moxie memorabilia. He had on his table a 40-year-old six-pack of unopened Moxie in bottles, which had a price tag of $600.

Bergendahl, a member of a Moxie collectors club known as the New England Moxie Congress, said his best seller this weekend was Moxie bumper stickers. “But I specialize in bottles and bottle caps,” he said.

The drink was created in 1885 by Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union.

“It’s really the only cure for an upset stomach,” said Gilbert Card, 57, a mechanic for the local public works department. “I’ve been drinking it since I was 16.”

But Kay Goodnoh, who traveled to the festival from Bangor, suggests that today’s Moxie doesn’t measure up to the drink she remembers.

“It doesn’t taste the way it did when I was a kid,” Goodnoh said. “I think the Food and Drug Administration cut down on the herbal ingredients. It’s not as bitter now.”

The annual festival got its start after the publication in 1981 of “The Moxie Mystique” by lifelong Moxie drinker Frank Potter. A local Moxie fan held a book-signing party for the author, Moxie lovers started getting together each year, and the gatherings evolved into the Moxie Festival.