CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Maine’s biggest cure for spring fever was underway Saturday during Sugarloaf’s 26th annual Reggae Festival.

It was a scene in which three bananas and a chicken drank beer with a Gumby. The ski resort celebrating spring to the beat of Caribbean music got a boost from warm and sunny weather.

“People just need this,” said Jacob Martinsen of Boston. “It’s been a long, cold, brutal winter and this is just what we needed: some sun, some friends — some fun.”

Soft snow, spring skiing and riding and plenty of music, sunshine and an eclectic cast of characters from across New England and the world made memorable moments for many.

University of Maine students Samantha Harrington and Madeline Mazjanis stopped dancing long enough to shoot a “selfie” with the crowd in the background. The pair and their friends said they came to celebrate the change of seasons and the snow.

Chet Jordan, 23, said he’s been coming to the resort’s annual reggae festival since before he could walk. “My mom would bring me up here in my sled,” he said.

Others were carrying on the tradition, including Chris Heal, who was there with his infant daughter, Elise. Heal, known for his shocking blue mohawk featured in the resort’s promotional material, said the weather Saturday would put the 2014 event in the memory book as one of the best.

Many skiers and riders took to the slopes early Saturday before the snow was super soft but others skied well into the afternoon. Most ended up congregated on “the Beach” just above Sugarloaf’s base lodge.  

Heavy March snows have left Maine’s tallest ski area still heavily blanketed, including all of Sugarloaf’s above-tree-line terrain famed for its steepness and drop.

Resort spokesman Ethan Austin said both Friday and Saturday drew record numbers for the resort and revenue figures were looking to set records, too.

The festival’s headline act, Iration, a chart-topping Hawaiian reggae band, had sold out its evening show. As many as 10,000 people can visit the resort during a typical reggae festival, officials said.

Brett Baghoyan of Vassalboro and Boston was skiing in a costume made to look like a milk carton. Baghoyan’s face was positioned to be the spot where the photo of a missing child would be. Resort employees were also in on the act as Luke Wiley, a lift operator on the Whiffletree Quad, greeted skiers and riders in a giraffe suit.

Martinsen said he never misses Sugarloaf’s reggae fest and 2014 would be one for the scrapbook. 

“This is just one of those years where everything came together just right,” he said. 

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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