LEWISTON — Liberty Festival organizers tried to outlast Wednesday’s thunderstorm, covering their stages with tarps and hoping.
But in the end, the storm won.
“We checked the forecast again, and there was another storm that could be coming right behind,” Liberty Festival representative Cathy McDonald said. “We decided not to take a chance.”
The festival returns at 6 p.m. Thursday, with live music on both sides of the Great Falls — in Veterans Memorial Park in Lewiston and Great Falls Plaza in Auburn — food and fireworks at 9:30 p.m.
“We’ll have everything then,” she said. “Food, music, games and fireworks. We’ll do it all on Thursday.”
Live music continues after the fireworks in Great Falls Plaza, until 11 p.m.
It was a daylong game of watch-and-wait for McDonald and members of the Liberty Festival’s organizing committee.
A noon review of the forecast convinced them to go ahead with the show, but they met again at 4 p.m. to go over the forecast and check with the National Weather Service. The storm was responsible for setting off a flash flood warning in Oxford County earlier in the day, but the forecast said the storm would dump plenty of rain, and move on well before the fireworks were set to go off.
The storm swept through Lewiston-Auburn on schedule, drenching festival-goers at about 7 p.m. Some gave up and went home, others sought shelter and waited out the storm.
McDonald said the committee took another look at the forecast and saw a second storm close on the first one’s heels.
“And it was scheduled to last until after 10 p.m.,” McDonald said. “We had a lot of people leaving already, and we’ve put so much money, time and effort in so far, we didn’t want to let it go to waste.”
The storm had a similar effect in Rumford. Town Manager Carlo Puiia said the rain had come and gone by the time organizers decided to call it quits for the night.
“But it drove so many people home, they figured there wouldn’t be anybody left,” Puiia said. “We only have about 1,000 people out there now. It makes more sense to do it when we can have a bigger crowd.”
Rumford’s fireworks display is now scheduled for 9 p.m. July 5 in Hosmer Field.
Fireworks Exhibits
July 5
• Naples, Barge in Long Lake at Camp Takajo
• Auburn-Lewiston, West Pitch Park over the Great Falls, 9:30 p.m. (postponed from July 4)
• Rumford, Hosmer Field, 9 p.m. (postponed from July 4)
• Oxford, Oxford Plains Speedway. All bracelets and tickets from July 4 will be honored (postponed from July 4).
July 7
• Bethel, Bethel Inn Resort
• Denmark, 4 Wheel Trail
• Freeport, ball field at Pine Tree Academy (LL Bean fireworks)
• Freeport, Morse Street ball field
• Fry Island, Long Beach Marina
• Industry, Daigle Wing Field
For a full list of public exhibits in Maine, go to http://maine.gov/dps/fmo/index.htm and click on “Fireworks Shows” in the right-hand column.
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- The band Skosh from Buckfield entertained the crowd at the Liberty Festival in the Great Falls Plaza in Lewiston on Wednesday. Band members, from left, are Sam Berce on guitar, Elijah Allen on bass, Pete Richard on sax, Tyler Russell on guitar and Jedidiah Allen on drums in back.
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- Hannah Reardon, 12, left, of Belfast with her father, Kevin Reardon, center, and Terrie Kee of Lewiston listen to the music of the band Skosh from Buckfield during the Liberty Festival in Great Falls Plaza in Lewiston on Wednesday.
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- Sue Rouleau and Pete Small, both of Lewiston, take cover under their umbrella as the rains starts to fall during the Liberty Festival in Great Falls Plaza in Lewiston on Wednesday.
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