BANGOR – When The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront made its debut a year ago, the state’s first racino was more than two months away from opening.

But if New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July are any indication, festival weekend could be a busy one for Hollywood Slots at Bangor. Whether the three-day festival, which runs Friday through Sunday, winds up bringing record crowds to the Main Street racino is anybody’s guess.

“Who knows? It’ll be such an interesting weekend as we see it unfold,” Hollywood Slots spokeswoman Amy Kenney said Wednesday. “We’re really looking forward to finding out what it will bring.

“We are prepared for the Folk Festival in that we’re making sure we are fully staffed,” Kenney said. “We’ll have to keep an eye on [head counts], and we do have additional staff on standby if we need them.”

Heather McCarthy, the festival’s executive director, also had no way of predicting whether festival-goers would stop by Hollywood Slots.

“It certainly wouldn’t surprise me,” she said, noting that Hollywood Slots opens two hours before the festival does and closes at 2 a.m., well after the last act has left the stage.

She said many festival fans likely will do a variety of things in the area while here – and that’s a good thing.

“I think the more that we can do to attract more people to the downtown and waterfront, the more opportunities we’ll have. It just creates that much more energy,” she said.

The slots facility, which opened last November in the former Miller’s Restaurant, is located directly across the street from the Bangor Waterfront, the festival’s venue. In addition, the racino and its overflow parking area both lie directly in the path between the festival grounds and the festival parking site at Bass Park.

On New Year’s Eve, Hollywood Slots registered a head count of 4,600 patrons, Kenney said.

“That would be our biggest day so far,” she said, though she cautioned that the total likely included some patrons who left briefly, perhaps for a smoke outside, and returned.

The Fourth of July, another banner day for Hollywood Slots, saw about 3,200 visitors, she said.

The annual parade and fireworks took place and might have boosted numbers, though it was difficult to make a direct connection, Kenney said.

“That very much could have had something to do with it,” Kenney said. “We’ll be able to predict trends better once we get some more history under our belt.”

Kenney said that no special folk festival promotions were planned and that when it comes to security, it will pretty much be business as usual, though the racino’s security staff will be monitoring its parking areas to make sure spaces are filled by slots patrons.

Security staff also will be watching for anyone trying to enter who is under 21, the legal age for playing slots in Maine.

Because Hollywood Slots has been one of the festival sponsors, Kenney has been tapped to introduce some of the acts.

“This is my second year,” she said. “This is going to be a good weekend, for sure, and we wish them [festival organizers] the best. Let’s hope the weather holds up.”