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| Someone get me a 55 gallon drum of melted butter, please… |
Oh yeah, it’s the Lobster Festival!
Rockland really goes all out for this one, it’s a regional festival that draws from all over the area. You could tell by the firetrucks in the parade (clearly labelled with the town they came from) and the Sea Princess who were not themselves labelled, but their bios in the festival guide told us where they all came from.
We weren’t sure quite what to expect. Many years ago before we were married my wife and I attended a family gathering at my Aunt’s house in Wilton, Maine which was also the same weekend as the “Wilton Blueberry Festival”. The festival was nice and, but very cute and modest in a really small town way; the parade had a lot of pickup trucks and a few floats on Radio Flyer wagons. It’s not something you’d plan to spend a couple of days at, of even more than a morning.
Without banking on a huge extravaganza, we decided that even if the Lobster Festival was a bust Rockland had more than enough to do without my wife’s brother and his kids who were coming to meet us for the weekend.
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| The primary food tent. There was LOTS more to eat elsewhere too. |
Our first clue that this was perhaps larger in scope was the tents – big ones. One huge one for food, smaller ones for various activities and displays and booths. There was also a carnival as part of this whole setup with rides, food stalls, midway games and the whole works. Also there was a central stage where music acts were to appear, including .38 Special as the headline act Saturday night, which some readers of a certain age will recognize as a reasonably major band from way back when.
Without planning it we lucked into some great stuff at the Festival. The corner of the Festival was the town dock, so if you arrived by boat you couldn’t get into town without walking though the gates, so the Festival folks were kind enough to get us wristbands to allow us into the festival. While there was a nominal charge to get in we planned to come as a group and Do The Festival on “Family and Local Day”, which was free admission Sunday. Walking back and forth through the event to get to other places though we caught some great live music including a local jazz combo and .38 Special doing two of their signature numbers. For ‘Hold on Loosely’ my son didn’t realize it was the actual band that recorded the song playing until we were through crowds…”No wonder it sounded so good” he observed. Yes, he knew the song.
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| I think L.L. Bean might have helped with this float. |
On the way to breakfast Saturday we managed to catch most of the Lobster Festival parade. After dawdling on the boat waiting for the kids to get up we finally get everyone to town around 11:00; an hour after the purported start of the parade. Of course we were coming up near the end of the parade so we still got almost a full revue of the various participants, from the Shriners zooming around in little boats, several Sea Princesses, a very warmly received marriage equality group and a very loud and raucous truck by the Maine Democrats with very loud and local rock band.
Sunday we started in true Festival fashion, with a few of the adults going in for the All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast. Blueberry pancakes in Maine, you can not go wrong except maybe not to go back for seconds. We came in later with the sleepyheads and turned them loose where they proceeded to wreak havoc on the cotton candy and fudge booths while the grownups checked out the arts and crafts and local products. Sadly we could not get any of the children to participate in the “Youth Lobster Eating Contest” which to me seemed like at least a way to get your kid a lobster for the one buck entry fee.
As we said our goodbyes to our cousins, we saw the infamous “Lobster Crate Race” under way. This is a race across part of the harbor on a chain of sunken lobster crates. The idea is to keep running crates until you get exhausted or fall in. We didn’t see anyone drop from exhaustion but more than a few took a chilly Maine plunge.
A good time was had by all!
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| Cool sky over the midway! |
