So you’ve got a whole summer ahead of you-here are a few of the freakish festivals offered around the state, for those weekends when beer and blackouts in the Old Port seem just a little dull.
Fiddlehead Art and Cultural Festival. If mimes unnerve you, this may not be the festival for you; or, you can take the opportunity to overcome your phobia of the perpetually boxed-in and perennially pale little monkeys. Art workshops, craft sales, dancers, puppeteers, and-yes, mimes. Fiddlehead Center for the Arts, New Gloucester. 688-2244 for more information. Free for ages 12 and younger; $6 for the rest of us. Saturday, May 14, starting at 9:30 a.m.
Potato Blossom Festival. Yes, an entire 10 day festival devoted to potato blossoms, which until this point, I didn’t even know existed. Apparently, they’re quite lovely. The big draw for this event, I have to say, is the mashed potato wrestling-seriously. There are other potato-related festivities, but in all honesty, they pale in comparison to farm girls in Daisy Dukes slugging it out in a vat of creamy white spuds. Fort Fairfield. 472-3802 for more information. July 8 to 17.
International Film Festival. To add a little culture to your summer days, we have the Maine International Film Festival, now in its eighth year. American and foreign films, as well as independents by Maine and New England filmmakers. Waterville. 861-8138 for more information. July 15 to 24.
Egg Festival. If tubers aren’t your thing, perhaps the egg is more up your alley. The Annual Central Maine Egg Festival features an egg breakfast cooked in a 300-pound frying pan, as well as something referred to as Egglympics, which I can only imagine must be eggstraordinary to see. Sorry-it’s the last issue, what do you want from me? Manson Park, Pittsfield. 487-3136 for more information. July 18 to 23.
Maine Lobster Festival. Ode to that wily bug-eyed crustacean, the lobster. Four days of seafood served by carnies with sketchy hygiene practices and all the fried dough a body can handle-really, what more could you ask for? Rockland. 596-0376 for more information. August 3 to 7.