Blueberry festival draws thousands

MACHIAS – Some people attending the annual Wild Blueberry Festival this weekend were trying to stay dry Saturday morning with umbrellas and raincoats.

But for about 35 people, their main worry around 11 a.m. was not the rain. It was how to eat blueberry pie without using their hands.

They were contestants in the festival’s pie-eating contest, held on the front steps of the Centre Street Congregational Church. A crowd gathered in front for each of four contests, which were separated by age categories. As light rain fell, the eaters stood at a table, hands behind their backs, and then thrust their faces deep into the pies, trying to eat as much as they could in one minute.

Contestant Matt O’Rourke, 27, of Machiasport said that keeping the blueberry filling out of his eyes as he shoved his face into the pie was easy.

“[Keeping it] out of the nose is the issue,” he said Sunday with a laugh when asked about the experience.

O’Rourke said he did not place in Saturday’s event, in which he competed in the 19-and-above age category. He said contestants get picked by lottery.

“It was a fun experience,” he said. “It was the first time I got picked.”

O’Rourke said he did not practice beforehand and might change his strategy next time around, if he gets picked to compete again. Rather than eating the crust first, he said, he would probably go straight for the bottom of the pie plate first and then eat toward the sides.

As for wearing a nose clip, it might keep pie out of his nose but could present other problems, he said.

“I wouldn’t want to restrict any air flow,” O’Rourke said with a chuckle.

While a small crowd jammed Centre Street in front of the church during the pie-eating contest, others at the festival jammed in the streets.

The What Cheer? Brigade, a Providence, R.I.-based, New-Orleans-style street band complete with horns, drums and cymbals, brought pedestrian traffic to a standstill while festival-goers stopped to take in the band’s colorful outfits and brassy sound.

Other events in the festival included a performance Sunday afternoon by the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra, craft exhibits, road races, a tug-of-war, a ukulele concert, and a blueberry-theme play, among others. Besides the blueberry pies, there were shortcake, cheesecake and pancakes, all flavored with the festival’s honored fruit, as well as other foods.

Ellen Farnsworth, co-chair of the festival, said Sunday that the festival usually attracts 15,000 to 20,000 people every year. She said the rain Saturday morning might have kept the number of visitors toward the lower end of the scale, but that there still was a good turnout.

“I’d say we were closer to 15,000 this year,” Farnsworth said. “Despite yesterday morning, with the rain and the thunder, the crowds came out. Everything went as scheduled.”

The festival had more vendors this year because the church recently acquired an adjacent lot on Court Street, so there was more room for vendors to set up tents, according to Farnsworth. She said they had “close to 300” vendors for this year’s event, and that the rainy weather actually might have helped with their sales. The tents served as refuge from the weather Saturday morning during the few moments that the rain came down hard, she said.

“The vendors I’ve spoken to are all very happy with how they did,” Farnsworth said.

People looking forward to next year’s festival already can plan ahead for it. The 2009 Wild Blueberry Festival has been scheduled for Aug. 22 and 23, 2009, she said.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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