MILLINOCKET – The quiet town park along Millinocket Stream will come alive later this week with wooden canoe displays, art, music, food and numerous water-related activities.

The events are all part of the sixth annual Wooden Canoe Festival. The three-day event begins at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 18, in Kermit Crandall Park, located on Congress Street on the bank of Millinocket Stream.

Organizers of the three-day festival say it’s a weekend to celebrate the history and tradition of canoe making, its related recreations and to have a fun time.

“It has come a long ways,” said Randy Jackson, co-chairman of the event. “Every year, it grows a little bit. We have a greater variety of things this year.”

For festival goers, there will be lots to see including wooden canoe displays and demonstrations on building canoes and paddles, making baskets, creels and bamboo fly rods, tying flies, and planning and packing for extended canoe trips on the Allagash.

Other activities include canoe and kayak slalom races, water dog-retriever demonstrations by Ducks Unlimited, children’s games and art projects, a fly-fishing rodeo or watching Barry Dana build a birch-bark canoe the way his American Indian ancestors did centuries ago.

Visitors will see a special performance by the Penobscot Drum & Dance Group (Bur-Nur-Warb-Skeg Singers of the Penobscot Nation), which uses drums, song and dance to share knowledge about the Penobscot Indian Nation’s culture and traditions.

The festival includes a number of educational events at which people can learn about the flora and fauna and archaeology and history along Maine’s canoe routes.

Organizers said this year’s festival would include entertainment from Matthew Heintz, the Northwoods Balladeer; Sid Stutzman and the Doughty Hill Band; and a new event – a contradance with the Muddy Roads String Band from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Jackson said the dance is a cross between country and square dancing.

Visitors will be able to try a “Taste of the Katahdin Region” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. It will feature favorite recipes from a dozen area restaurants. Ducks Unlimited will be host for a smoked pork dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday. Millinocket’s Pioneer Hose Company will have a feed of beans by the stream from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday.

The three-day event also includes a wooden canoe show from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; a rubber duck race at noon Sunday; and a canoe and boat parade from the high school to the park beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday.

For more information call the local Chamber of Commerce at 723-4443 or 746-8119.