GORHAM – Celebrating the town’s roots in log cabin days, the third annual Gorham Founders Festival promises fun and food aplenty for fairgoers this weekend, and festival admission is free

“Planning is going well for the festival and things are shaping up,” Darryl Wright, festival director for the Westbrook/Gorham Community Chamber said on Tuesday.

The Gorham settlement began in 1736. Descendants of early settlers like Daniel Mosher, who in 1738 became one of the town’s first three settlers, will be honored at the event.

Carnival rides open this year’s festival at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 26, and the two-day fest will be capped with fireworks at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 27, at the festival grounds adjacent to the Narragansett Elementary School, 284 Main St. and Gorham Public Safety, 270 Main St.

Parking will be available at Narragansett School, with additional parking at Saint Anne Catholic Church, 299 Main St., where a youth group, YoungLife of Gorham, will staff parking and accept donations.

In a new festival event this year, representatives of the town’s founding families will be feted at a special reception under a tent at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

“There will be appetizers made by Patti Cobb and refreshments from Sebago Brewing Co.,” said Town Councilor Suzanne Phillips, who is one of the festival volunteers.

The reception includes a silent auction at 5:30 p.m. and a live auction at 6:30 p.m., with Town Council Chairman Phil Gagnon coordinating the auction events.

A multitude of booths will line the festival’s midway. Vinny Nielsen, vendor coordinator, said the carnival and vendors would begin setting up rides and booths on Thursday.

The festival features a full slate of song, dance, acts and demonstrations.

“We have entertainment for all ages,” said Dawn Caldwell, festival entertainment coordinator. “A big hit in years past is the kids music and the Granite State Zoo with the large roaming tortoise.”

Juggler Brent McCoy will entertain at 6 p.m. on Friday with the Bob Charest Band on stage at 7 p.m.

A big Saturday event, the parade, lines up at 8:15 a.m. at Village School on Robie Street and steps off at 9 a.m.

The parade will proceed from Village School to South Street, swing onto Main Street and continue to the festival grounds.

Brothers Abbott Mosher and Albert Erlon Mosher, seventh generation descendants of Daniel Mosher, will be grand marshals. The parade passes by a cemetery where many of the town’s early settlers are buried.

Saturday’s entertainment includes the Party Palooga balloon show at 10 a.m.; Phil the magician at 11:30 a.m.; Wayne from Maine and Judy Pancoast, children’s music, 1 p.m.; music by Moore, Wild and Lynch, 2 p.m.; Jukado, 3 p.m.; Centre of Movement, 4 p.m.; Gorham School of Music, 5 and 6 p.m.; and music by The Boon Dogs, 7 p.m. The Granite State Zoo will be open all day Saturday.

Besides the midway food, a pancake breakfast sponsored by Camp Susan Curtis will be served under a fair tent. Cost is $4 for pancakes; $6, pancakes and sausages; and children under 5 eat free.

The always-popular chicken barbecue dinner, sponsored by Gorham Fire Department, will be served from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday. Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said the meal would include chicken, pasta salad and a beverage.

On Tuesday, Albert Erlon Mosher pointed out Mosher graves in the South Street Cemetery in Gorham Village, where a stone reads, “In memory of early Mosher settlers in Gorham.” While the stone doesn’t indicate it, Mosher believes the site is likely the grave of James Mosher, son of the settler, and a stone nearby identifies it as that of James Mosher’s wife, Abigail.

The year that Daniel Mosher, first of the name in town, died seems unknown, but Albert Erlon Mosher said Daniel Mosher was buried in an unmarked grave on Fort Hill in the yard adjacent to the fort where settlers sought protection. He said unmarked graves in the earliest years of the settlement were common as a security measure to conceal loss of strength at the garrison.

The settlement of Gorham, a land grant named Narragansett No. 7, began in 1736 and Gorham observed its 275 anniversary in 2011 with the festival. But celebrating is not new in Gorham. A Mosher family ancestor, Mark Mosher, served on the committee that observed Gorham’s 150th anniversary celebration in 1886.

Gorham began as a backwoods settlement. Its first settler, John Phinney, and his son, Edmund, paddled up the Presumpscot and Little rivers, the highways into the wilderness. There were no roads, but Daniel Mosher helped change that.

According to the Gorham Historical Society chronology, Daniel Mosher in 1741 was instrumental in laying out a road “through the woods from the end of Gorham Street to Saccarappa Mills.”

Wright said the festival would be held rain or shine.

Gorham Founders Festival this weekend celebrates the town’s beginnings. Albert Erlon Mosher on Tuesday locates graves of his ancestors in the South Street Cemetery in Gorham Village. He believes his forebear, Daniel Mosher, who settled in Gorham in 1738, is buried in an unmarked grave on Fort Hill.This 1886 flyer announces Gorham’s 150th anniversary celebration and Mark Mosher, ancestor of today’s Mosher family in Gorham, served on the committee. The town’s first settlers arrived in 1736 and Gorham Founders Festival this weekend pays homage.