The Snowshoe Fashion Show, 2018
NORWAY — After taking a year off in deference to the pandemic, the Norway Snowshoe Festival will once again kick off a week of outdoor winter fun. Recognized in 2012 by the Maine Downtown Center as a uniquely Maine festival, the Norway Snowshoe Festival returns for its 11th year to celebrate Norway’s rich cultural heritage of arts and crafts. This year’s snowshoe festival will take place on Saturday, February 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Snowshoe Festival is the kick-off to the Norway Winter Carnival, which runs Feb 19-27, school vacation week.
The day will begin with 2k, 5k, and 10k snowshoe races on the ski trails at Roberts Farm (to register go to www.runsignup.com), followed by provisions at the fire circle, a traditional snowshoe fashion parade judged by Norway’s own Kim Hamlin, and Family games on snowshoes (egg and spoon, musical chairs, 100-yard dash, parents’ pulk pull). New this year will be a corn-toss biathlon on snowshoes for all ages: family teams run laps and subtract seconds with accurate corn toss throws. TruStrength athletics will lug their tug ‘o war rope to the Preserve for a festival favorite- the 5- person team snowshoe tug of war (register on runsignup.com). The day’s finale will be a short snowshoe to hot cocoa served at the viewpoint overlooking Lake Pennessseewassee. For the full program and additional information: https://www.wfltmaine.org/snowshoe-festival.
Sponsors for the 2019 Norway Snowshoe Festival are: Bisco Properties, Café Nomad, Dolci Amici, Dunkin Donuts, Fiber & Vine, Healthy Oxford Hills, Norway Brewing Company, Norway Downtown, Oxbow Beer Garden, True North Adventureware, TruStrength Athletics, and the Western Foothills Land Trust.
Why a snowshoe festival? Farmington celebrates Chester Greenwood, who invented the earmuff, Kingfield has the Stanley Museum honoring the Stanley twins, and Rockland prides itself as the birthplace of Louise Nevelson and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Norway has its snowshoe industries and Mellie Dunham. Norway, once self-proclaimed as “The Snowshoe Town of America” was home to four major snowshoe industries between 1850 and 1980: Dunham, H.H. Hosmer, Snowcraft, and Tubbs. Norway snowshoes took Peary to the North Pole, Byrd to the South Pole, and supported our US troops during WWI and WWII. Echoing the festival, an exhibit of Norway-Made, Norway-owned snowshoes will be on display at Café Nomad and at the Norway Brewing Company throughout February.
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