Country band 12/OC will take the Summerfest stage at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18. Michael G. Seamans / Morning Sentinel
Summerfest returns to Scarborough for the 26th year on Friday, Aug. 18, with live music, a bigger-than-ever Kids’ Bounce Zone, food trucks and fireworks.
The event celebrates community by bringing people together in person – something that is simple, needed, but difficult in today’s world, the festival’s organizers say.
“I think it’s important to do in this day and age because we’re all connected in some way, but it seems to be more digitally,” said Nicole Hall, operations and events manager at Scarborough Community Services. “As a department, we strive to actually – physically – bring people together … We need to get together and actually have face-to-face conversations.”
The event kicks off at 5 p.m. at the sports complex by the high school with food trucks aplenty, including Cargo Pizza, Smokin’ Phil’s Belly Bustin’ BBQ, Steemie Weenies, Cheese the Day, Char Wrig’s Sno and Dough Adventure Co., Mow’s Munchies and Poppie’s Kettle Corn. And, due to popular demand, this year’s Kids’ Bounce Zone is larger than last year’s and will once again be free.
The Summerfest 1-Mile Kids Run begins at 6 p.m. followed by the 5K at 6:30 p.m. with proceeds benefiting the Scarborough High School Cross Country and Track programs.
Country band 12/OC, whose members are three brothers and a drummer from Portland, will perform from 7 to 9 p.m., and the fireworks show begins at 9:15 p.m.
Summerfest has become more of a celebration since it skipped a year in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hall said, noting that the opportunity to gather in large groups was taken for granted before.
“It started as a fundraiser for the lighting system that goes around the sports fields. For the longest time, if you drove down Gorham Road, you would see one of those fundraising temperature gauges so you could see (how much was raised),” Hall said. “Once that passed, the event had been around long enough and it stuck.
“As the person that oversees pretty much all of the special events for our department, it’s kind of the grand crescendo of the season.”
And the best part is that Summerfest is free to attend and all are welcome.
“There really is something for everybody,” Hall said. “It’s such a fun event.”
Free parking can be found at the lots of the middle and Wentworth schools on Quentin Drive, the high school on Municipal Drive, the municipal building on Route 1 and the library on Gorham Road.
For more information, visit the Community Services page on the town’s website: scarboroughmaine.org.
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