DRESDEN OK to fiddle around
07/11/2008
DRESDEN — The motto that drives the town’s arts and recreation committee — “Building a spirit of community in Dresden” — is at the heart of Saturday’s second annual Summerfest.
With free games, food, tours and music at every corner, organizers said Summerfest provides the perfect chance to get out and meet your neighbors, even those who live in other towns.
“It’s really terrific,” said Peter Walsh, chairman of the Dresden Arts and Recreation Committee, which is organizing Summerfest. “We get everyone from little babies to senior citizens.”
Festivities kick off, rain or shine, at 11 a.m., at the historic Pownalborough Court House on Route 128. There will be games for children and adults, including an egg toss, a hay scramble, a bean bag toss and live animals, including an educational presentation on owls.
“The owls are fabulous,” Walsh said.
There will be bus tours of Dresden’s historic parts, including a trip up Blinn Hill, which offers panoramic views of much of mid-Maine. There also will be pontoon boat rides along the Kennebec River.
The tours also include historic homes, but perhaps none as significant as the host for the event. Built in 1761, the Pownalborough Court House has seen its share of famous cases and lawyers, including a young attorney named John Quincy Adams who successfully tried a land ownership case in the building in 1765, more than 30 years before becoming the new nation’s second president.
“It has a lot of historical significance as well as being a beautiful setting,” Walsh said.
Like the courthouse, the fiddle playing of Frank Ferrel, of Bath, harkens back to a different era.
Ferrel, described by a Boston Globe music critic as “one of the finest living masters of the fiddle,” will offer traditional pieces throughout Summerfest, Walsh said.
Ferrel, who has appeared on National Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” was selected by the Library of Congress in their Select List of 25 Recordings of American Folk Music.
“He does just about anything,” Walsh said. “They say you just have to call out a song and he’ll play it. As soon as I heard him I said to my wife, ‘We’ve got to get this fellow.’”
Ferrel also is known as the producer and host of “Conversations with Maine” on Maine Public Broadcasting System television.
“A lot of people at work are surprised to see me playing the fiddle and people in the fiddle world are surprised to see me on television,” Ferrel chuckled.
Ferrel will be accompanied by Doug Prostic of the band Old Grey Goose, which is currently in the Middle East with the State Department playing at refugee camps.
Ferrel and Prostic will offer listeners a chance to step back in time.
“I hope they get a good taste of good, old-fashioned Maine country music,” Ferrel said. “It’s the feel of that old style of playing that we’re trying to preserve.”
When Ferrel and Prostic are not playing, there will be a bagpiper to entertain and create that feeling of nostalgia.
“When (Ferrel) takes a break the bag piper will be playing so there will be music most of the day,” Walsh said.
Summerfest dates to selectmen’s decision four years ago to establish the arts and recreation committee, Walsh said. That committee went to work looking for ways to fulfill its motto of bringing the community together.
The committee has already held two winter festivals. Saturday’s is the second Summerfest. Last year’s inaugural event had at least 300 people, Walsh said.
“It’s a nice event for the town,” he said. “It fits the spirit of the town.”
Craig Crosby–623-3811 Ext. 433
ccrosby@centralmaine.com
