By Max Mogensen,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The cloudy skies were ominous. But by 4:30 p.m., there was no question.

“We’ve gotta shoot ’em,” said Liberty Festival Director Dick Martin, referring to this year’s fireworks. “Once you load the powder, you have to set them off. So we’re definitely going tonight.” Martin chuckled and took a sip of soda.

Martin’s easygoing manner might have fooled many, but the weather was still a big question. Cloudy skies until 5 p.m. worried many festival-goers. High heat and humidity made movement uncomfortable.

But despite the threatening weather, the crews had loaded the fireworks, effectively “setting the cruise control,” said Martin, hot dog in hand. And cruise control seemed to work.

“It’s all going off without a hitch,” Martin said an hour into the festival.

At 4:20, the color guard launched the celebration, leading a procession of the 50 state flags around Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston. Local songstress Bette Sanborn sang the national anthem before a crowd of several hundred people. And Mike Willette, of the Mike Willette Swing Band, the festival’s emcee, announced the traditional disposal of an American flag by the veteran color guard.

Willette spoke on the current controversy surrounding the right to burn the flag. “You have the right, but you have a responsibility that goes along with that right,” he said. “I don’t make any apologies for being a flag waver,” he said, before the color guard burned a flag in the traditional manner.

Then, “the fun really started,” according to Willette, as Sanborn and Nick Knowlton took the stage. The opening act featured the local musicians’ performing a series of covers, ranging from Shania Twain to Kylie Minogue, to Tina Turner.

Those away from the stage most likely heard the booming voice of Ron Ouellette, a St. Dom’s parent who volunteered to sell fried dough. “Look at those fried doughs!” Ouellette yelled, attracting festival-goers, “they must be 9 or 10 inches wide, at least!”

“We bought 640 dough balls,” he said. “We hope to raise $4,000.”

Maryanne Pendexter of Auburn, who attended the early events at Veteran’s Park, believed “the color guard was the best part. I’d never seen it before,” she said.

The festivities continued at Veteran’s Park with a cheering demonstration by the group Maine Event, followed by the Liberty Festival Dancers, before the band Dirty McCurdy took to the stage to showcase their eclectic mix of jazz, rock and alternative sounds.

Meanwhile, in Auburn, Main Street was closed to traffic and packed with pedestrians. The Midnight Blues Club presented the Broad Street Band, which played rock covers from a stage in the middle of the street. Businesses opened sidewalk seating as patrons overflowed from the crowded establishments.

By 8 p.m., Hilton Garden Inn employees were having to direct traffic around their lawn overlooking the river. Paul Cote of Ace Security Co., Lewiston, said that the only major problem by that time was “removing people from the rocks” on the bank of the river. There was “no drunkenness, no injuries,” he added.

Fred and Neda Washer of Norway sat on Pleasant Street in Auburn to get a better view of the fireworks. “It’s away from the crowds and the traffic, but we can still see really well,” said Neda Washer. The Washers, who have been attending the Liberty Festival for several years, anticipated that the fireworks would “be very good. They’re usually reliable.”

At 8:30 p.m., musician-turned-emcee Mike Willette appeared on the Veterans Memorial Park stage with the Mike Willette Swing Band. Their big-band set lasted for an hour before the attention turned to fireworks.

The foggy skies cracked open at 9:28, with a series of brief, brilliant concussions over the Androscoggin River.

The fireworks, presented by Blue Hill Pyrotechnics, were “taken up a notch, choreographically, from last year,” Director Dick Martin said. The fireworks show lasted for just over 20 minutes, and was very “compact,” Martin said, with more than 500 individual explosions.

The show, which cost an estimated $20,000, according to Martin, featured several different types of fireworks. Shapes and sizes varied, from low altitude explosions, to those that soared high into the air and streamed down, and even some that simply flew into the sky and disappeared before exploding.

The finale featured around 50 explosions, and ended to the cheering of the crowds in Veterans Memorial Park, on the Longley Bridge, and in Great Falls Plaza.

“When you hear all the people cheer and clap at the end, you know it’s a good show,” said Liberty Festival volunteer Stephen Martelli of Auburn.

The next step? As of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, the main job was the cleanup. “We’ll be here for a couple hours taking everything down,” Martin said, standing at the empty stage in Veterans Memorial Park. But, Martin added, “it was well worth it.”