FARMINGTON — Antique tractor pulls and displays will be featured during this weekend’s 17th annual Tractor Festival at the Farmington Fairgrounds.

It is hosted by Maine Antique Tractor Club. Gates open at 8 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 22-24, with a full slate of activities planned each day. The featured tractor this year is the Minneapolis Moline.

A special drag tractor pull for charity, with contestants making a donation, takes place at 4 p.m. Friday. Other activities will also help raise funds for the club’s contribution to Stop Domestic Violence Fund, club member Pam Vaillancourt of Anson said. She organizes some of those activities, including a frying pan/hammer toss, flea market and photography and pie contests.

The money will be presented Sunday to club members Ralph and Linda Bagley of Dexter, who lost their daughter, Amy Lane, and her two children last June when her husband and the children’s father shot the three of them and himself.

Part of the funds will be given to an Amy, Cote and Monica Memorial Scholarship Fund, the rest to domestic violence prevention. The Bagleys are working on a law to make perpetrators wear a bracelet that alerts police if they return to their family residence, Vaillancourt said.

Last year, the club raised funds for Make A Wish Foundation. A couple members have relatives who received wishes, including Vaillancourt’s son about 10 years ago. His wish, she said, was to visit the John Deere factory in Moline, Ill.

Vaillancourt, who has been a member of the Maine Antique Tractor Club for about 15 years, has driven tractors in the past but found she wanted to do something more during the festivals. She volunteered to help with the skillet toss for women and hammer toss for men, something she already does at Skowhegan Fair.

Her uncle, Bill Clark of Skowhegan, was one of the club’s original members when it was incorporated in 1994. Her father, Bob Clark of Starks, became involved and now her boyfriend and son are into tractor pulling. The festival is a family reunion, she said.

Festival-goers can also enter the pie and photo contests. Each photo must have a tractor shown and can be entered daily. Judging takes place on Sunday.

The apple, fruit and other types of pies entered in the contest from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday are auctioned at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Club members also provide items for a flea market held daily in the Starbird Building, she said.

New this year for children is a trampoline and climbing wall. There is a small fee for these. A scavenger hunt, pedal tractor pull and barrel train are offered free, she said.

A variety of tractors, all brands and ages, are on display around the fairgrounds. A 1932 Lombard tractor is expected. A tractor parade is held at noon on Saturday.

Maine Maple Producers will offer a pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. Sunday at the Sugar House on the fairgrounds.

All activities are offered free after admission costs of $5 adults and $2 for ages 11-17. Those 10 and younger enter free.

abryant@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link