Northern Maine fair adds music fete

PRESQUE ISLE – With a little more than three weeks to go, organizers of the 151st Northern Maine Agricultural Fair and Music Festival say they have most of their entertainers lined up.

The festival – which organizers stress is for the entire county – will run July 29 to Aug. 6.

The biggest change to the event, the addition of the music festival, is well in hand, with most local entertainers already lined up, said Ed Nickerson, Northern Maine Fair Association president, on Tuesday.

Each day of the festival, officials will host a different genre of music.

The fair will kick off on July 29 with a concert at the Forum by the Don Campbell Band, a country music group that opened for Tanya Tucker last year. Nickerson said that crowd responded so well to the opening act that officials decided to bring the band back. Tickets for the show are $15.

As an “extra kick,” the Don Campbell Band decided to host a dance on Friday night. Following a short break after the concert, the band will take the stage again – for free – and accompany anybody willing to take the dance floor.

“For the $15 it costs people to get in, they’re going to get their money’s worth and then some,” Nickerson said.

The music will continue with a fiddle contest and a country music night on Saturday, including a country karaoke session and a concert by Debbie Myers in front of the grandstand.

There will be a jazz night on Sunday, folk-traditional night on Monday, gospel night on Tuesday, bluegrass night on Wednesday, fiddle jamboree on Thursday, a rock ‘n’ roll-teen night on Friday, and on the fair’s last day, a contradance in the afternoon and classical music at night.

Kevin and Kate McCartney have overseen the massive amount of organizing for the music festival, Nickerson said.

Organizers have interspersed the music with the fair’s more traditional events: Myers performs after the tractor pulls, the demolition derby takes place on jazz night, and McLaughlin’s Big Band will play traditional Sousa music in front of the grandstand prior to the annual fireworks display.

“This festival is really to test the waters,” Duane Walton, chair of the fair’s entertainment committee, said Tuesday. “We have heard a lot of people ask about having a music festival in Aroostook County. We thought it would be a natural to combine it with the fair. So, we’re testing the waters. If the response is positive, we’ll expand from there.”

Other firsts – and seconds – for the fair include the free petting zoo for kids, the return of the antique car show, new midway rides, a paintball tournament with a $1,000 cash prize and living history demonstrations at the historical pavilion.

This year’s fair also includes a Jim Cullen look-alike contest. Nickerson said that the fair association allowed the town of Mapleton to host the contest, named after the only man in the state’s history to be lynched, during the week-long festivities.

“That has gotten mixed reviews,” Nickerson said. “You have people who look at it and say this is a nice thing to do, bringing back the history, and you have other people thinking this isn’t very tasteful.

“What’s really going to tell us [what people think] is how many people show up for it,” the fair president said.

The contest will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4, on the fairgrounds.

The gate price for admission for a day on the fairgrounds is $6 per adult and $1 for children 12 and under.

“I think it’s going to be a good year,” Nickerson said. “This year’s event tries to have a little bit of everything for everybody, and I think that will bring everybody out.”