RANGELEY — Free homemade biscuits.

Those three words could be enough to bring the crowds to Rangeley on Friday evening for the start of the 32nd Annual Logging Festival. Events begin at 3 p.m., at the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum on Route 16, a mile north of downtown, with the hallowed ritual of preparing and burying the beans, a Biscuit Bake challenge, and those free biscuits.

Visitors can bring a picnic or eat at one of the many local restaurants before going to the 7 p.m. program at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Main Street. Entertainment includes the Little Miss and Mister Wood Chip Contest, the Logger’s Hall of Fame Award to Wendall Steward, music and door prizes. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for children 6 to 18, and $1 for children 5 and under.

At 10 a. m. on Saturday, the parade down Main Street will feature floats and lots of big trucks from the logging industry. An antique car and motorcycle group will honor the late Odie Bachelder, a favorite Rangeley resident who died in January.

After the parade, the crowds will return to the Logging Museum for a traditional Maine bean-hole dinner, live music, artists and crafters, children’s activities, storytelling and entertainment.

“Featured at our Woodsmen’s Competition this year is the Great Maine Lumberjack Show,” museum docent and event organizer Carol Sullivan said.

Tina Scheer was a participant in the TV series “Survivor Panama,” and as Timber Tina, she and her Lumber Jills have taken their show around the country.

“It’s great family entertainment, and Tina gets the audience to participate,” Sullivan said. “They bring a log rolling tank, and they have these great souped-up chain saws.”

Local lumberjacks can enter the Rangeley Logging Festival Lumberjack Competition, starting with registration at 11 a.m. Competition begins shortly after noon and includes log rolling, crosscut sawing, axe throwing, wood splitting, pulp throwing, and more, Sullivan said. Winners can compete for a Stihl chain saw, safety gear and cash prizes.

“Conversations with Carvers” will feature local favorite Rodney “The Mad Whittler” Richard, Ashley Gray, and David Barten. Gray, as one of Big Sky Carvers’ Master Carvers, started his lifelong passion at age 13 and was named “Best Art Student” in Maryland as a high school junior and senior.

He recently received the People’s Choice award at the Ward Waterfowl Museum World Championships in Salisbury, Md. Sculptor David Barten of Conway, Mass, has donated five of his creations to the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum. His two tool sculptures will be exhibited this summer; three dioramas of Rangeley life will be shown in 2013.

“The logging history in Maine is rich and varied and may surprise you,” Sullivan said. “In fact, the chain saw, taken for granted in so many households worldwide, was invented right here in Maine.”

The museum is on Route 16, the Stratton Road, a mile north of Rangeley’s downtown, and is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Labor Day.

“The festival coincides with the Travis Tritt concert that evening, so Rangeley will be a very busy town,” Sullivan said.

University of Maine at Farmington geography professor Matt McCourt and his students in the Rangeley Sustainability Project will have western Maine maps on display. The museum’s exhibit, “Hand in Hand: Logging and Knitting in Maine,” displays loggers’ gloves, including a rare pair of gray woolen double-thumb mittens from New Brunswick. Worn by woodsmen, these unique mittens could be turned over and used again once the palm-side wore out.

Photography exhibits show the sweaters and mittens made by women, and sometimes mended by men, Sullivan said.

“There is a colorful knitting story to tell,” Sullivan said. “Lucille Haley Richard, Virginia Haley White and Bertha Lamb Haines, began knitting as girls, and some cared for and dressed the dolls their mothers made for them.”

Once, Rangeley’s hills were dotted with sheep from the 12 to 15 farms. The exhibit “Knit by Heart: The Art of Lucille Richard (1926-2006)” honors this knitter who founded this museum feature.