BANGOR – The name has changed, but expectations are the same.

The first American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront will premiere from Aug. 26 to 28, and officials hope it will pick up where the National Folk Festival left off after a three-year run in Maine.

With that in mind, the American Folk Festival is seeking applications for food and folk art vendors. The guidelines for accepting local vendors will remain what they have been for the past three years: strict.

“We do have some pretty strict guidelines,” Heather McCarthy, the American Folk Festival’s executive director, said Monday. “Our review committees work really hard to get a good mix of quality food vendors and artisans.”

Festival-goers looking for changes in the format and structure of the annual event are not likely to find much, McCarthy said.

“It’s going to look pretty much the same,” she said. “It’s part of a continuing theme for us to keep the event consistent from year to year.”

The review committees, each made up of no more than 10 local businesspeople, will consider from where applicants come, whether they have participated before and whether the food or artifacts are unique.

Larry Nickerson of Newburgh, who has made and sold kettle corn for the past three years at the National Folk Festival, said Monday that he sees no reason not to send in an application again this year.

“Ours is one of the busier booths; we have lines all the time, not just during meals,” Nickerson said of his popular sweet popcorn. “But if you don’t get in, you don’t get in. What are you going to do?”

Paul and Polly Moutevelis-Burgess have led an effort by St. George Greek Orthodox Church the past two years in providing Greek cuisine to festival-goers. Polly Moutevelis-Burgess said Monday that she fully expects Bangor’s Greek community to get involved again next year.

“It was great for what we could give to the Bangor community in terms of heritage and food, but it also brought our own group closer together,” she said.

Food vendors have until Jan. 31 and crafters until Feb. 4 to turn in applications to the American Folk Festival office on Main Street.

Of the nearly 550 vendor names on the festival’s mailing list, only about 72 will fill vacant spots, McCarthy said.

Last year, 34 of the 36 food vendors were Maine-based, and all 36 craft vendors hailed from the state.

“It’s important to keep the food and crafts as local as possible,” she said.

Vendors who fill out applications will know by the end of March whether they have been accepted, McCarthy said.

The fee for a 10-by-10-foot craft space is $275. For food vendors, whose space needs typically vary, the cost is $100 per frontage foot, McCarthy said. The fees are the same as in previous years, she said.

Once food vendors receive confirmation, they must apply to the city for a food handler’s license, Bangor’s Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington said Monday.

“I can’t imagine the Folk Festival being any easier on our part,” he said. “The biggest problem for vendors has been grossly underestimating of the amount of business they’re going to get.”

About 135,000 people attended the three-day National Folk Festival this year, and McCarthy said she expects more than 100,000 for the first American Folk Festival.