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Log inHeritage Days will showcase spruced-up downtown Bath
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Heritage Days will showcase spruced-up downtown Bath
by Outspoken on Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:25 pm
Heritage Days will showcase spruced-up downtown Bath
The 36th annual festival will run Thursday to Sunday, with fireworks above the river Friday night.
By DENNIS HOEY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
BATH — Visitors to Bath Heritage Days won't get to compete in or watch the Shipbuilder's Triathlon this year, but they will get to see competitors in the Strongman Competition pull the Bath trolley and dead-lift a car.
Those are the biggest changes to this year's Bath Heritage Days. The 36th annual celebration will begin Thursday and end Sunday, and preparations were well under way Monday.
Workers from Smokey's Greatest Shows arrived in Bath late Sunday and started setting up a Ferris wheel and carnival rides.
Increased traffic and street closures accompany the festival, but the overall feeling is that the festival is a great way to promote the city's downtown.
"Many of our retailers see a significant increase in business during Heritage Days," said City Manager Bill Giroux. "But even more important than that is getting people into our city. We have worked very hard this year to spruce up our downtown."
Giroux said his hope is that once people visit Bath, they will want to return.
Most of the festival activities are confined to the waterfront and Library Park.
By Thursday night, Commercial Street, which runs along the Kennebec River, will be closed to traffic.
"It's a lot of work, but what makes it easy is that we do it every year. We know what to expect. It's sort of like the Yarmouth Clam Festival," said Bath police Lt. Stan Cielinski.
The only unknown this year, Cielinski said, will be attendance. Several people have said to him that more people will stay in Maine for the July 4 weekend because of high gas prices, a trend that could boost festival attendance.
Kurt Frost, a spokesman for Main Street Bath, the nonprofit organization that is coordinating Bath Heritage Days, estimates that more than 50,000 people will attend over the course of the festival.
This year's Heritage Days Parade will begin at noon on Friday.
Sherry Sutton and Pam Gray, two city employees, organized the parade, which will have more than 100 entries – up from 76 last year.
Sutton said firetrucks will follow the parade walkers – to protect participants from the from the kind of accident that occurred last year, when a parade walker was hit from behind by a runaway float.
The highlight of Heritage Days will be the fireworks over the Kennebec River. The display will begin at 9:15 Friday night.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, the new Strongman Competition will give people who want to see physical competition an event to attend.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=197077&ac=PHnws
Photos By Doug Jones/Staff Photographer
The 36th annual festival will run Thursday to Sunday, with fireworks above the river Friday night.
By DENNIS HOEY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
BATH — Visitors to Bath Heritage Days won't get to compete in or watch the Shipbuilder's Triathlon this year, but they will get to see competitors in the Strongman Competition pull the Bath trolley and dead-lift a car.
Those are the biggest changes to this year's Bath Heritage Days. The 36th annual celebration will begin Thursday and end Sunday, and preparations were well under way Monday.
Workers from Smokey's Greatest Shows arrived in Bath late Sunday and started setting up a Ferris wheel and carnival rides.
Increased traffic and street closures accompany the festival, but the overall feeling is that the festival is a great way to promote the city's downtown.
"Many of our retailers see a significant increase in business during Heritage Days," said City Manager Bill Giroux. "But even more important than that is getting people into our city. We have worked very hard this year to spruce up our downtown."
Giroux said his hope is that once people visit Bath, they will want to return.
Most of the festival activities are confined to the waterfront and Library Park.
By Thursday night, Commercial Street, which runs along the Kennebec River, will be closed to traffic.
"It's a lot of work, but what makes it easy is that we do it every year. We know what to expect. It's sort of like the Yarmouth Clam Festival," said Bath police Lt. Stan Cielinski.
The only unknown this year, Cielinski said, will be attendance. Several people have said to him that more people will stay in Maine for the July 4 weekend because of high gas prices, a trend that could boost festival attendance.
Kurt Frost, a spokesman for Main Street Bath, the nonprofit organization that is coordinating Bath Heritage Days, estimates that more than 50,000 people will attend over the course of the festival.
This year's Heritage Days Parade will begin at noon on Friday.
Sherry Sutton and Pam Gray, two city employees, organized the parade, which will have more than 100 entries – up from 76 last year.
Sutton said firetrucks will follow the parade walkers – to protect participants from the from the kind of accident that occurred last year, when a parade walker was hit from behind by a runaway float.
The highlight of Heritage Days will be the fireworks over the Kennebec River. The display will begin at 9:15 Friday night.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, the new Strongman Competition will give people who want to see physical competition an event to attend.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=197077&ac=PHnws
Photos By Doug Jones/Staff Photographer
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
