MACHIAS, Maine — Hoping to build on the success of the first ever New Year’s Eve Downeast Lobstah Drop, a local businessman is working to launch a new summer festival in Machias.
Bill Burke, owner of Pat’s Pizza, has slated July 15-17 for the Bold Coast Sea & Sky Festival, which would feature food, music and activities for the whole family.
He currently has an artist working on a logo and will launch a Facebook event page when the logo is done, he said.
Though the event is only four months away, he has just two volunteers lined up and one event sponsorship worth $1,500. He estimates the entire festival will cost about $28,000.
“Time is ticking now,” Burke said Wednesday.
Three weeks ago, Burke sent 85 fundraising letters out to members of the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, he said. So far he has heard back from only one, who offered the $1,500 breakfast sponsorship.
Burke said he believes there’s enough interest in the festival to get it off the ground. The question is whether he will have enough funding and volunteer help. He said he is not giving up, though he may have to scale back his plans.
One funding idea is to charge admission for the various events and sell bracelets that would get people into those events for the whole weekend.
But he wants that decision to be made by committee, a committee he doesn’t yet have in place.
“I don’t want to be the one who’s making all the decisions,” he said. “I need more input. I’ve never done anything this size.”
Ideally, Burke hopes to recruit 20 to 30 volunteers.
“[I need] as many as I can. Enough is not enough,” he said.
Burke has booked a number of activities already. The Machias Rotary Club is slated to run a lobster bake at the festival. The American Legion Women’s Auxiliary is handling breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.
A hot-air balloon will be tethered and floating 150 feet in the air.
“They can’t fly around the countryside because there’s no place to land. You have the ocean and then all the blueberry fields,” Burke said. The blueberry plants will be in bloom in July and a landing would harm them, he said.
Burke also has scheduled a medieval re-enactment group; a children’s area with bounce houses and a 35-foot slide; a bike race on the Sunrise Trail; a 5-kilometer foot race; and canoe and kayak races in the river.
Burke said he is still in the process of lining up bands in various genres but already has a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band scheduled for Saturday night. Sunday morning will feature gospel music with the cooperation of area churches.
The idea behind the festival is to bring people to town and entertain them so they will stay awhile and spend their money, he said.
“It’s my way of kind of giving back to the community because I get business from the community,” he said.