In full swing Festival folk erecting stages, building anticipation

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With the start of The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront just three days away, it’s crunch time for those whose job it is to get the festival site ready for the tens of thousands of people expected to attend.

Final preparations for the festival, which opens Friday and runs through Sunday, began last week, according to City Engineer Jim Ring.

“We’ve found over the years that it takes 6 1/2 to seven days to get ready,” Ring said.

One of the first steps, he said, involves setting up the operations center for staff from the National Council for the Traditional Arts, who bring with them some of the staging used during the festival’s performances.

Besides that, wooden platforms and stages need to be built, wiring and cables run, tents, signboards and stages put up, and later, chairs, concession stands and other amenities need to be put into place.

Ring said that from now until showtime, it will be all hands on deck, involving festival volunteers – who will be clad in yellow T-shirts this year – and city personnel from several departments and divisions, including public works, engineering, electrical, parks and recreation, the police and fire departments, Bass Park and Pickering Square Parking Garage.

“We’re also taking delivery of a fair number of Porta Pottys, between 70 and 80 of them,” Ring said. So many were needed for the festival that organizers had to import some of the portable restrooms from out of state, he said.

Modeled after The National Folk Festival, which enjoyed a three-year run here from 2002 through 2004, The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront is produced by the Bangor Folk Festival, in partnership with the city of Bangor, Eastern Maine Development Corp., the National Council for the Traditional Arts and the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine.

Last year’s American Folk Festival attracted an estimated 135,000 folks to the Bangor Waterfront.

Heather McCarthy, the festival’s executive director, hopes to match or top that this year.

The weather will be a factor, she said, noting that as of Monday, it was difficult to predict how that would turn out.

“Nobody wants to commit,” McCarthy said with a laugh when asked if she’d heard any long-range forecasts for festival weekend.

According to McCarthy, it is difficult to project how many people will attend the festival from year to year.

“It’s tough to use hotel reservations because most of the people who attend [reside] within a couple hours’ drive of Bangor,” she said. McCarthy did say she has heard that hotels are beginning to fill up.

Regular festival attendees will find no changes to the site layout this year, according to Ring. The tents, food and craft vendors, stages, shuttle bus and parking areas remain unchanged from a year ago, he said.

“This is probably the first year that we haven’t had some major dig going on and had to shut down,” Ring said.

He said that probably won’t be the case next year because of several development projects in the works, including a commercial building on Front Street, a condominium project at the corner of Railroad and Main streets, and the state’s courthouse building set for the corner of Exchange and Washington streets.

Since The National Folk Festival arrived, performers have been housed at the Holiday Inn-Civic Center. Though it isn’t directly on the festival site, uncertainty surrounding its fate prompted organizers instead to put them up at the Holiday Inn on the Odlin Road. The Holiday Inn on Main Street will be razed, likely at the end of the year, to make way for Penn National’s permanent racino.

The Folk Festival’s dancers, singers, storytellers and others will be shuttled back and forth to the waterfront.

Other than that, it will be business as usual.

As in past years, festival-goers are reminded to be mindful of the trains that occasionally come through the Bangor Waterfront, and not on any particular schedule.

“It’s a working waterfront, and there is an active train schedule,” McCarthy said.

Residents and guests are asked to use caution around the active railroad tracks running through the entire length of the waterfront.

Due in large part to safety precautions established earlier by Guilford Rail System and Maine Operation Lifesaver, an education and information organization dedicated to preventing accidents at rail crossings and along railroad rights of way, there have been no train-related accidents during the festivals thus far.

During the festival, railroad and local police will be on the lookout for illegal activities such as placing objects on tracks, throwing objects at trains and trying to hop aboard trains.

As in previous years, dogs are not allowed at the festival, and people are encouraged to bring such necessities as water, sunscreen, hats with brims, lawn chairs or blankets to sit on, and festival programs and maps.

Parking fees will stay the same, with a $5 fee for one day of parking at Bass Park and $10 for a three-day pass. The shuttles, which are free, will run between Bass Park and the Heritage and Railroad stages.

Downtown Bangor has several public parking lots, plus the Pickering Square Parking Garage. Those familiar with downtown Bangor should consider parking in one of those locations.

Festival-goers unfamiliar with the city should follow these directions:

. From the north- or southbound lanes of Interstate 95, take Exit 182A to Interstate 395, then take Exit 3B to Bass Park parking.

. Easterly traffic taking Route 1A should access I-395 in Brewer and take Exit 3 to Bass Park parking.

General festival information, including schedules and maps, is available at the festival’s Web site at www.americanfolkfestival.com.

Bikers welcome

If past years are any indication, traffic can get pretty congested during Folk Festival weekend. To help reduce the number of vehicles heading to and from the waterfront, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine for the last few years has provided bicycle valet and “park and pedal” programs, both of which are free.

For those coming a short distance, the coalition has a parking spot just for bikes between the Heritage Stage and the Kenduskeag Dance Pavilion. Festival-goers also can park at any one of a number of sites listed inside and bike into downtown Bangor. See Page A2.

All distances given are one-way.

. University of Maine Steam Plant, College Avenue, Orono, 10 miles.

. Eddington School, Route 9, Eddington, 7 miles.

. Brewer Auditorium, Wilson Street, Brewer, 1 mile.

. Fruit Street School, Mount Hope Avenue, Bangor, 2 miles.

. R.H. Foster Energy LLC, Macaw Road and Route 2, Hampden, 3 miles.

. Pumpkin Patch RV Resort, Billings Road, Hermon, 8 miles, hilly.

. Dysart’s Truck Stop, Cold Brook Road, Hermon, 10 miles.

For more information and maps, visit the coalition’s Web site at www.bikemaine.org and click on the “events” icon on the left side of the home page.