The resurrection of the Summerfest festival in Windham is prepared to emerge next Saturday on the grounds of the high school on June 23.

“It’s certainly been a lot of work,” said Ron Eby, Summerfest organizer and the owner of Windham Automotive on Route 302. “But it’s been worth it.”

Eby estimated he’s put in more than 200 hours into preparations for the festival.

The last Summerfest was held in 2001 and ended when the organizers lost interest in the project.

Brian Ross, director of the Windham Parks & Recreation Department, said bringing back Summerfest was one of his assignments when he started working for the town a few years ago. He organized a survey of local charities last spring to see if there was enough interest in the event.

Ross said when the committee was formed last fall that Eby quickly rose to the front of the pack.

Eby said support started pouring in after he got onboard and got the attention of the local charites.

“I think there was a huge community willingness to bring it back,” he said. He does not take credit for generating all the excitement about the festival. He said he thinks the excitement was there, but people just needed a chance to express it.

The parade, set to begin at 9 a.m., has 78 groups signed on so far and will be larger than the Memorial Day parade.

“I knew if I was going to get involved in something this big, I wanted to be able to raise money for a good cause,” said Eby. All of the money being rasied at his company’s Mexican cantina will go toward the Camp Sunshine charity.

Eby said other local big charities, like the historic Parson-Smith house and the Windham Land Trust, will be helped greatly by this year’s giant summer festival.

“Hopefully next year will be bigger,” Eby added.

SummerfestCantina1&2 Summerfest organizer Ron Eby of Windham Automotive wipes the countertop of the Mexican cantina his business has erected to sell food at the Windham Summerfest next Saturday. Eby said the finely-crafted cantina was built to encourage other vendors to put effort into making Summerfest as great as it can be.SummerfestCantina1&2 Summerfest organizer Ron Eby of Windham Automotive wipes the countertop of the Mexican cantina his business has erected to sell food at the Windham Summerfest next Saturday. Eby said the finely-crafted cantina was built to encourage other vendors to put effort into making Summerfest as great as it can be.