FARMINGTON – At speeds of eight to 10 miles an hour, it may take a little longer to cover a 15-mile trek, but the tractors will get there.

Members of Maine Antique Tractor Club will kick off their 12th annual Tractor Festival with a tractor trek starting at 10 this morning. They will travel from the fairgrounds to Farmington Falls and over to Chesterville to stop for a packed lunch, said festival head Richard Larrivee of Windham.

The club’s Tractor Festival will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Farmington Fairgrounds. This is the fourth year that the festival has been held here, said Larrivee, but this year it’s even bigger and better as the festival has gone national with visitors registered from others states and some other countries.

“Collectors from all over the country have been invited to bring their machines to this largest showing of antique tractors in New England,” he said. “As of Wednesday morning, there were already 100 tractors on the fairgrounds and more expected to pull in tonight.”

Larrivee and his committee have spent three years planning and advertising the national festival, one t hat has activities planned to interest all visitors, he said.

This year, the festival will feature a Gathering of the Orange-North, a national showing of Allis-Chalmers tractors and equipment. A restored 1942 Allis Chalmers Model B will be raffled off on Sunday. The Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment, no longer produced, are noted for the bright orange color, he said.

Festival gates open at 8 a.m. daily. Friday events feature tractor pulls at 8:30 a.m., lawn and garden tractor pulls at 1:30 p.m., tractor games at 3 p.m., a bean supper, 6 p.m. and a scavenger hunt at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, a progressive drag tractor pull starts at 8:30 a.m., a women’s skillet toss and a men’s hay toss at 11 a.m., and a parade at noon followed by a progressive tractor pull at 1:30 p.m. On Sunday, a lawn and garden tractor pull begins at 8:30 a.m. followed by tractor games, a parade and a stone boat tractor pull at 1:30 p.m.

While events happen, demonstrations, displays, vendors, crafters and concessions are also available, he said. The club also holds a flea market in the Starbird Building.

Some very old machinery demonstrations, an extensive antique engine show and a children’s area will be on site. There will be working equipment, a rock crusher and an exhibition of oxen pulling twitching logs, he said. Some antique trucks from the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Rockland are also expected to be on display.

The club has rented two dorms at the University of Maine at Farmington, he said, to house visitors. A tractor-drawn shuttle will make four trips a day between the fairgrounds and dorms.

The club was founded in 1994 by a few tractor lovers. It has grown to a membership of more than 650, he said. Membership is not limited to those who own restored tractors. The group holds monthly meetings around the state, he said.

The club holds a pull during Farmington Fair, he said, and there are local members so they are familiar with the fairgrounds for the festival, a major fundraiser for the club.

There is a $5 entry fee for adults, $2 for children 11-17, and children under 10 are free.

More information about the club is available at: www.maineantiquetractorclub.com