SCARBOROUGH – Started in 1997 as a celebration of the installation of lights at Clifford Mitchell Sports Complex, Scarborough Community Services’ Summerfest has, over the years, become the town’s unofficial summer farewell before the school year begins and summer vacation ends.

This year’s festival is set to take place Friday, Aug. 20, from 4 to 10 p.m. at the sports complex, just behind Scarborough High School.

“Summerfest is a way of putting closure to the summer, connecting with family, friends and classmates and getting ready for the fall and the school year,” said Ryan Colpitts, a program coordinator for Community Services.

“We aim to provide an atmosphere and a place for people to reconnect and have a good time,” he said. “That is really what we are trying to do.”

Just as in years past, a busy schedule of activities is planned. This year’s events include a magic show from 4 to 5 p.m. and a roving magician from 5:30 to 6:30, something Colpitts said the town experimented with during its Thursday night concert series at Memorial Park as a way to get children more engaged.

A kids’ one-mile fun run is scheduled for 6 p.m. and at 6:30 a 5K run/walk for adults is set to take place.

At the same time as the 5K kickoff, Tim Bishop and the 5th Avenue Band, a local ‘80s cover band, will begin playing until just prior to a fireworks show at 9:15 p.m.

Local food vendors will be on hand to offer festival-goers food from their respective menus, as well as carnival-type food.

A new feature to this year’s event is a rock climbing wall provided by the Maine Rock Gym in Portland

The fireworks show, Colpitts said, is always popular.

“The main reason people keep coming out is because of the fireworks show,” he said. “It is always one of the highlights and probably one of the best shows I have seen in the area.”

The highlight for Joanne Abrams, a committee member for Scarborough Young Life, was her organization, a non-denominational Christian ministry group for adolescents in Scarborough, sponsoring the dunk tank.

“It is a lot of fun. It was really a blast for the kids and adults,” Abrams said of the dunk tank last year. “One thing that was especially notable was Deputy Fire Chief Glen Deering was the last spot last year after they had set up all the fireworks. All the firemen from town came and had lots of fun dunking Glen. That was probably the highlight of the evening. He is also finishing it off this year in the last spot from 8:30 to 9.”

The dunk tank, Abrams said, gives the new ministry-started a few years back-some visibility and serves as a fundraiser for the group, which hopes to use the money to send 48 youths to a weekend camp this fall in the Adirondacks in New York.

Outside of Deering, local politicians such as Maine gubernatorial candidate Shawn Moody and District 6 Senate candidate Matt Mattingly have agreed to take a seat on the dunking platform, along with Scarborough teachers and coaches, such as Josh Needle and Doug Bennett, and Scott Taube, lead pastor at Eastpoint Christian Church.

Colpitts, the eighth-grade basketball coach and recreational league basketball and soccer coach, is participating in the dunk tank for the first year and knows already he will have many people, including his players, trying to dunk him.

“I am thinking about wearing a life jacket,” he said.

The event, Colpitts said, is expected to attract between 4,000 and 6,000 people, with an increasing number of people coming from outside Scarborough to attend.

“This event keeps on bringing more and more people together,” he said. “People are coming from South Portland, Cape Elizabeth. It is good for our vendors and it is good for us.”