Scarborough sends out season with Summerfest

14^th annual event to be held 4-10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19 at the Clifford Mitchell Sports Complex.

SCARBOROUGH — It may be hard to believe, but a Scarborough tradition now as old as many of its young attendees was originally supposed to be a one-off event.

This year’s Summerfest celebration, the 14^th annual event, will take place Friday, Aug. 19, 4-10 p.m., on the athletic fields behind Scarborough High School. Events will be moved to the following day, Saturday, Aug. 20, in case of steady rain.

“When we first did it, it was just a small thing to celebrate the lighting of the fields,” said Bruce Gullifer, the town’s community services director, gesturing out his office window, on the second floor of the town office, to the Clifford Mitchell Sports Complex beyond.

Mitchell, a longtime Scarborough electrician, donated many hours of his time to the community, including the project to light the fields, which were named in his honor when he died only a few years after the switch was thrown that first time.

“I never would have guessed Summer Fest would have gone on this long,” said Gullifer, with a laugh. “I didn’t know we’d do it twice. But we had so much fun that first year, we kept on doing it until, now, people really expect and look forward to it.”

Over the years, what is now known as Summer Fest has grown to become Scarborough’s annual goodbye to the summer season. The town spends about $10,000 on the fireworks show that closes out the event, while much of the remaining costs are found through in-kind donations of labor and materials.

"It's become the town's last hoo-rah before school starts," said Recreation Manager Ben Reichl.

As always, the fields will take on a carnival atmosphere, with food booths hosted by a variety of civic, school and charity groups. There also will be games, commercial displays and information booths from area nonprofits, hoping to take advantage of the 4,000-plus people who flock to the festival each year. Although the list is still being finalized, Gullifer said organizers are on track for the usual number of vendors – generally between 40 and 60.

One new booth this year, as befits a community-minded event, will be one manned by the committee pursuing a new Wentworth Intermediate School. Now that the Town Council has committed to putting a bond measure – currently proposed at $39.1 million – on the November ballot, committee members have switched gears, from planning and design to public relations.

The New Wentworth booth will have floor plans and 3-D models of the new intermediate school proponents want to build, along with plenty of committee members to answer questions.

“Information will be available concerning geothermal heating, cost to the average taxpayer and many examples of why Scarborough needs a new Wentworth now,” said Kelly Noonan Murphy, chairwoman of the committee’s public information campaign.

While parents and taxpayers are partaking of an opportunity to inform their votes, youngsters can while away the day on games, pony rides, face painting, geo-caching and balloon twisters, as well as a couple of new features to this year’s festival – a climbing wall and a bungeed trampoline jump.

The RE/MAX hot air balloon also will be on hand, giving tethered rides for a donation to the realtor’s service groups. Of course, the balloon rides are weather permitting and, if it goes off this year, it’ll be the first year in four tries.

“And, of course, we’re looking forward to the Lacrosse Boosters running a dunk tank,” said Gullifer. “That’s always popular.”

This year, musical accompaniment will be provided by local guitar trio the Coos Canyon Band, which will perform free of charge from 7 to 9 p.m.

“Yeah, it’s three-part harmonies and a lot of acoustic music,” said band leader Barney Martin. “But don’t let be lulled into thinking this is a coffee-house gig. We have the ability to absolutely blow people away.”

Using technology Martin refers to as “band in a box,” he said, “You’ll think we have a full-band backing us. Believe your ears, we are the IMAX of the summer music scene.”

Other tradition Summer Fest events include "The Amazing Lou," who will perform a stage magic show from 4 to 5 p.m., after which he’ll wander the midway doing “walk-about magic” for the crowd.

A kids one-mile fun run kicks off at 6 p.m., while the annual 5K run/walk race, organized by the School Track Boosters, tees up to the tape at 6:30 p.m. Registration for both events begins at 4:30 p.m., at the tennis courts.

But, as always, the big event is the fireworks show, with the first flares going up at about 9:15 p.m. Scarborough eschews New Year’s and Independence Day displays, instead choosing to light up the night sky at its Summer and Winter Fest events.

This year, Gullifer said, he’s chosen to “go a different route,” selecting a new vendor, R. F. Fireworks, out of Hudson, N. H.

“It’ll be about a 25-minutes show,” said Gullifer. “I’ve had very good reports on these folks and, what I’m hoping, is that this year’s show will be bigger and better than ever.”