Town aims to reinvigorate Potato Feast

HOULTON – When the town first began celebrating Potato Feast Days nearly a half-century ago, hundreds flocked to the historic downtown for the celebration. Back then, the town was peppered with farmers, eager to celebrate the area’s beloved cash crop.

Forty-five years later, organizers are facing a daunting task, now that the economy has shifted and farm families have diminished – how to keep the festival attractive to participants.

“We are trying to get people back into it,” Chris Batby, administrator for the chamber of commerce, said Tuesday. “Potato Feast Days were once immensely popular, but that popularity has waned. … we are trying to have a resurgence in interest.”

The town will kick off its 45th annual celebration on Friday, starting with the parade of dolls through Market Square. The event ends after a series of events on Saturday evening.

“We are going to have many of the same events this year as we’ve had in the past, including a quilt show and the craft fair,” Batby said Tuesday. “But we have taken out some past events and substituted new ones.”

As usual, much of the focus of the event will be on the area’s staple crop, with baked potatoes, potato games and an appearance by Spuddy, the Maine Potato Board’s mascot. A custom car show on Saturday is scheduled to attract automobile enthusiasts from both out of state and Canada.

As a new feature this year, officials plan to use the festival to kick off a new reading program, dubbed “Reading Rocks.” The program was funded by a Barbara Bush Literacy Grant and is geared toward preschool age children.

“The reading activity is planned to try to get parents and children working together on reading and education,” Batby said Tuesday. “It is going to give this year’s event a learning feature.”

Music is always a highlight of potato feast days and this year organizers have scheduled concerts to appeal to both modern and alternative music fans. The performances will be held after the Shriners’ Highlander Group parade and perform at noon in Monument Park. Public suppers are scheduled to cap off the evening.

Batby said that organizers are continuing to struggle with ways to keep the festival moving forward.

“There isn’t a lot of interest anymore, but nobody wants to see it die, either,” she admitted. “There used to be events like potato-barrel rolling, but we don’t do that anymore. That’s mainly because the people who know how to do it are getting older. We have got to find ways to pass these things on to the younger generation.”