KENNEBUNKPORT — The Seashore Trolley Museum hosted its biggest fundraiser of the season on Friday night, as dozens showed up for the Downeast Meets Dixie Gala event.

Running from 6 to 10 p.m., guests were treated to dinner from Saco caterers The Chef and the Gardener, and a cash bar that remained open throughout the night. Portland bluegrass outfit Gumption Junction serenaded attendees in the lobby area the entire evening.

“This is our biggest single day fundraiser, and it’s always themed,” said Executive Director Sally Gates. “Last year we had Martinis and Med Men, two years before that it was a speakeasy theme.”

Many attendees came outfitted in cowboy costumes or mariner outfits, resulting in group photos throughout the night at a TapSnap photo booth the museum had ordered for the event.

“When you go to something like this you want to have great pictures, and the TapSnap definitely gives people that opportunity,” Gates said.

Gates added that every gala event features different trolley cars that are consistent with the theme.

“This is Downeast Meets Dixie, so we have New England cars and Dallas cars,” Gates said.

A higher turnout was expected, Gates said, but the rain likely caused some ticket holders to stay in for the night. Nonetheless, guests perused the inside of the museum, and many folks grabbed a 15-minute ride on the trolley cars showcased for the evening.

For many, the event was a blast from the past, old-time costumes aside.

Norm Forgey, who now lives in Scarborough, had been living in Dallas as a boy in the late 1940s when he would often take a trolley car from his mother’s house to his grandmother’s house, he said. Just a few years ago, he saw that same model car at the Seashore Trolley Museum.

“I told the conductor ‘I could have sworn I rode a similar car like that in Dallas many years ago,’ and so he brought me to the barn where the car was stored, and sure enough it had the exact same color scheme,” Forgey said.

“Now I have gone from riding that car as a little kid in Dallas decades ago, to riding it now, here in Maine,” Forgey said. “It’s really something special.”

— Staff Writer Ryder Schumacher can be reached at 282-1535, or via email at rschumacher@journaltribune.com.