Bangor City Councilor Gibran Graham remembers people young and old spending time in the downtown area of his hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But when his 17-year-old daughter was a young child, he realized that wasn’t the case in Bangor.
As a result, he decided five years ago to dedicate one day to helping kids explore what Bangor has to offer them beyond the Maine Discovery Museum. On Saturday, the fifth annual Kid Central Festival will bring children downtown to celebrate their community and explore what’s available.
“It started out of a desire … to find a way to get the younger generation to take stock in downtown [Bangor],” Graham, founder of Kid Central Festival, said. “It allows children to have link about what is downtown and what is valuable to them.”
Activities scheduled for Saturday’s event are geared toward children ages 12 and under and are being sponsored by more than a dozen Bangor-based businesses and organizations, such as Rustyco Kids, Central Street Farmhouse and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Each year, Bagel Central on Central Street becomes Kid Central Headquarters, a one-stop shop for maps, directions and information about where to visit during the festival.
This year, three Maine authors will hold readings and book signings: Chris VanDusen, Liza Gardner Walsh and Russ Cox. Other activities will include a cannoli-making workshop at Giacomo’s, the annual superhero costume contest, a tomato-planting activity hosted by the Bangor Area Food Council, a pennant-making activity at Hero’s Sports Grill and a giant fabric pizza game at Blaze.
The Bangor Daily News also will host several activities at One Merchants Plaza, including a newspaper hat craft and a newspaper toss game, where children can try their hand at throwing a newspaper onto a welcome mat.
With 800 or more children and families attending each year, the area of Central and Main streets often becomes quite busy, but Graham said he never has had a formal complaint about lines or crowds. He said families that don’t want to stand or wait in line can check in at headquarters and find out what activities are less crowded.
For more information and a list of activities scheduled for the day, check out the Kid Central Festival website at kidcentralfest.com. The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This story has been updated to reflect a new location for the Bangor Daily News activities.
