For Bar Harbor area residents who love food – especially the pungent, tasty flavor of garlic – the annual Garlic Festival already is known as a premier dining event.

This year, however, a new twist is being added to the all-day affair, just in case some people don’t find the smorgasbord of garlic-flavored dishes or the keg-stacking contest reason enough to attend.

On Saturday, for the first time in its six-year history, the festival will conduct belt-sander races for anyone with a belt sander and a 50-foot extension cord. Contestants should bring whatever sandpaper they want to use.

The festival is scheduled to get under way at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, at Atlantic Brewing Co. in the Bar Harbor village of Town Hill, where the festival has been staged each year since 1998.

Racing power tools at the festival is just one way to enhance the overall experience for attendees, according to Atlantic Brewing proprietor Doug Maffucci. Maffucci said Monday that there will be races for two classes of belt-sanders.

“If your belt-sander is over 25 years old, it’ll compete in the antique class,” Maffucci said.

Garlic, of course, will be the primary focus of the festival and will be prepared in a variety of ways. It will be roasted, broasted, fired, seared, blanched, baked, grilled, smoked and sauteed, according to Maffucci, and included in dishes ranging from pasta to gazpacho. Between 10 and 12 food vendors from around Maine are expected to serve food at the event, he said.

There even will be chocolate-covered garlic, according co-proprietor Barbara Maffucci.

“That’s a tradition,” she said. “It started as a joke but people ate it and we kept doing it.”

Doug Maffucci said the festival got started when Frank Pendola, a local man, needed a place to hold an annual garlic-laden dinner he would prepare for a group of friends. The festival has since “got out of control,” Maffucci jokingly added.

In addition to the food, belt-sander races and keg-stacking contest, there will be live music by three bands, coronation of the festival’s Garlic King and Queen, and a grape-crushing party for children. The crushed grapes will be used to make a wine that will be ready for consumption next year, Maffucci said.

“We’re going to have blue feet,” he said.

Because of the festival’s growing popularity, organizers will erect a large tent to cover the brewery’s parking area, which will be used to serve food and to stage events. Tickets to the event, which wraps up at 5 p.m., cost $15 and include a souvenir drinking glass.