By Jami Badershall,Staff Writer
Farmington festival includes games, pulls

FARMINGTON – Whether you like John Deere or Case, Farmall or Oliver, you’ll see all makes and models at the 11th annual Maine Antique Tractor Club Festival this weekend at the fairgrounds.

“Every make of tractor you can imagine will be here,” said Dick Larrivee of Windham, the festival chairman and member of the club’s board of directors. He added that 265 tractors were shown at last year’s event. He expects more this year.

To qualify within the club, a tractor must have been made in 1960 or earlier, Larrivee said. This year’s feature tractor will be the International Harvester, and some from the 1920s will be on display.

As of Tuesday, several tractors were already lined up at the fairgrounds, including Larrivee’s 1960 Oliver 770 and 1956 Oliver Super 66. The most impressive tractors, he said, will be those parked inside the Starbird building, including a VC Case, Farmall H and a 1936 Farmall F-12 owned by Glen and Elizabeth DeWitt of Dresden.

“These tractors are 100 percent professionally restored,” he said. “They don’t stay outside.”

The festival begins Friday morning and continues through Sunday afternoon with gates opening at 8 a.m. each day. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for ages 11-17, and free to those 10 and younger. Most activities will take place in the Starbird Building or the pulling arena and on the lawn area between those two facilities. Friday’s events include tractor games at 9 a.m. followed by tractor pulls, which will include lawn and garden tractors, full-size tractors and the antique tractors.

The women’s skillet toss and men’s hay toss kick off at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Children will be able to compete in the pedal tractor pull at 10 a.m., and a children’s toy auction will follow.

The parade of tractors begins at noon and will proceed around the race track. At 1 p.m., the progressive (mechanical) drag for tractors will begin, and the day will end with a bean supper in the Legion bingo hall on the fairgrounds.

Sunday will be another day of tractor pulls and games. Gates open at 8 a.m.

Equipment demonstrations, youth and safety programs, tractor and equipment displays, an antique engine show, vendors, and a swap meet and flea market will be ongoing throughout the weekend.

“Whatever anyone’s imagination can come up with to do on a tractor, we do it,” Larrivee said.

For tractor enthusiasts not yet old enough to operate a tractor, Larrivee has built a barrel train. Using 50-gallon drums, he has created miniature tractor replicas that can be hauled in a line behind a real tractor.

“We try to be family-oriented,” Larrivee said. “We introduce kids to the tractors and teach them how to handle them. They all go through a safety course.”

The Maine Antique Tractor Club has been around since 1993, said Terry Spencer of Smithfield, one of the original seven who started the club.

“Now we have close to 600 members from all over New England and a couple from New Brunswick. We even have one from California,” he said.

“We started the club to restore tractors, talk about them, and to teach the younger generation about tractors and farming with them,” he added.

When asked why people are into antique tractors, Larrivee simply replies, “Why cars?”

Tractor enthusiasts are coming from near and far to this year’s festival, but Larrivee says next year’s event will be international with the Gathering of the Orange, a celebration of the Allis-Chalmers farm tractors June 22-24, 2007, at the Farmington Fairgrounds.

“We’ve heard from people all over the country and we have reservations from Canada already,” Larrivee said.

To learn more about the club, visit its Web site, www.maineantiquetractorclub.com.