CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Saturday morning’s dark clouds gave way to the sun, and locals and the tourists turned out to celebrate summer in the valley.
With live music, art, food and a fly-in at the airport, the first Carrabassett Valley Summer Festival left people looking forward to next year’s event.
“This is a way to start up the summer season,” said Steve Pierce, a member of the organizing committee. “It’s also a way to get people up here, whether they are core Sugarloafers or tourists.”
“We truly want to make this an annual event. We’ve established it and will stay with it and grow the event and grow business for the area,” he added. “We made sure we had local vendors and local food vendors. And that’s how we handled the entertainment.”
Maine music talent, including Mill Town Ramblers and acoustic guitarist Dave Mallet, as well as area bands provided the entertainment into the evening hours.
Admission was free, and organizers relied on sponsors to fund the festival. The first donation came from the town’s selectmen, and area businesses followed.
Proceeds from a silent auction and 50-50 raffle will benefit local scholarship funds.
“We’ll continue to keep admission free and make it affordable for one and all to attend,” Pierce said.
Area artisans, including quilters, painters, fabric artists, jewelers and more set up booths behind KC’s Kreativity Center and work by the centers’ students was also on display.
Amy Grant of Carrabassett Soap Co. and Good Karma Farm in Kingfield was happy to be a part of the festival. “I think it is great, especially because it’s so close to home for me and the weather turned out so perfectly,” she said as she spun alpaca wool.
“The valley is a good place to be. It’s like home,” said Cathy Perna of Custom Cards of Maine in Rangeley. She uses special folding techniques and laser cutters to make one-of-a-kind cards.
“I thought I would come up and support Karen (Campbell) and her art,” she added.
Campbell is the head of the Carrabassett Valley Summer Festival organizing committee and owns KC’s Kreativity Center next to the Carrabassett Inn. Visitors had an opportunity to see her studio and gallery Saturday and view the products of several workshops she offered.
A jeweler for 25 years, Campbell went to many art festivals and fell in love with art’s different mediums.
“I always wanted to go to art school, so I started my own school,” she said.
Along with an open pottery night every Tuesday, she also invites other artists to the studio to teach classes in sculpture, rustic trellis making, painting, drawing and jewelry making. Her next class will be about mosaic picture frames.
Penny Hall of Kingfield retired from a career as a doctor in internal medicine and geriatrics to take up book binding, a skill she has demonstrated to the students at KC’s Kreativity Center. She’s also taken classes there, including pottery and sculpture so that she can make pottery book covers.
“Karen has worked hard to learn what people are interested in,” Hall said.
There has been no shortage of artists to teach art classes at KC’s.
“There are so many artists in this area,” Campbell said. “I think creative people are drawn to this area because it is so beautiful.”
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