By Allison Carrier
There are fireworks. A live band. Food trucks. It’s arguably Scarborough’s biggest event of the year, on the calendar for nearly 30 years. It’s Summerfest! Unlike summer celebrations that often kick off the season, this event’s traditional mid-August date feels like a reunion of friends before school starts up again. School-aged kids see their classmates again, and parents and neighbors catch up after the busy past couple of months. This is the energy in the air that fuels Nicole Hall, Deputy Director of Scarborough Community Services, who helps organize the town event. We sat down with her to learn more about what goes into the making of Summerfest and its success year after year.
When you started working for the Town in 2007, Summerfest was already ten years old. How did you get involved?
I started as an Administrative Assistant with the Community Services department, not doing events specifically. Working in this department though, if you’re on staff, you’re part of Summerfest and some other big events. I was recognized early on for being good at organization – I look at the fine details and keep things moving. At that time, I was actually planning events outside of work. I assisted a local church with wedding coordination, so that’s where it all began.
When do you start planning Summerfest each year?
As soon as Summerfest is over! We’re searching for bands and contacting the fireworks company that very next Monday. We hire the stage company and lock in the date for other bigger components. After those are secured, we pick back up again usually at six months out with vendor forms, choosing a theme, and lining up sponsors.
What’s a behind-the-scenes detail most people don’t realize goes into Summerfest?
People don’t see the overall logistics and how it’s on such a large scale. As a department, everyone works the event, from office staff, to parks and grounds, and even child care staff. Being a Town event, other departments are involved too. Police, Fire, and Public Works are part of the event interacting with the public and showing their equipment, but they are also part of the planning. We meet as a large team to go over event safety, a radio communications plan, fireworks logistics, coordinate with our Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) to direct traffic, and more. The Fire Department and Planning Department get us our necessary permits. The Clerk’s Office secures the necessary licensing for mobile food vendors, the School Department coordinates indoor backup space in case of bad weather, and SEDCO tracks attendance. Many departments, town committees, and the Town Council attend as vendors with informational and entertainment offerings. So many divisions within town have their hands in it.
How do you choose the vendors, activities, and entertainment each year?
Some elements we change up each year to keep it interesting, like the band. We’ll brainstorm, reach out to word-of-mouth recommendations, and even do a Google search sometimes. We try to keep it different from the lineup for Concerts in the Park. Other elements stay the same. We keep a running spreadsheet of local businesses, organizations, and booster groups that have participated in the past and reach out to them in January to invite them back as vendors. We’ve varied the children’s entertainment over the years, but the bounce house has been popular in recent years, so we’ve kept that coming back too.
What’s the most challenging part of putting it all together?
Making sure that all the details come together the day of the event and that everyone’s on the same page, especially when it comes to safety. We’ve gotten good at setting multiple meetings with public safety, which helps ensure we’re all speaking the same language. Also, the weather! It’s an outdoor event in Maine, in the summer. No matter how hard you plan, you have to have a Plan B and C and D in the background. We used to plan a rain date the next day, but it never works out. We’ve learned that you have to go with the date and work around that. The fireworks and band are ready for that date and those are the keystones for the event.
How do you feel when the day of the event finally arrives?
Pretty energized! I think to myself, “Ok, we’re finally here.” All the planning adds up to this one big event that the public seems to enjoy. Once it’s running, I can actually breathe. It’s fun to see when the families come in. The younger kids stay with their parents and the older kids, the tweens or teens, run off with their friends. You can tell they’re having fun getting back together.
It’s usually not stressful at that point, but I’m ready to pivot if something crazy happens. It’s a long day; the hardest is after we’re done. We still have to clean up and I need to unwind when I get home! But I couldn’t do any of it without the awesome teams behind the scenes!
What part of Summerfest are you most excited about this year?
I’m really excited about something new we’re doing this year, a Children’s Entrepreneur Market that’s been popping up at other events in Maine lately. It’s good timing because a parent in our community offered to teach a Children’s Business 101 program this spring. A lot of those kids are going to do this market, so I’m eager to see how they do.
Do you have a favorite Summerfest memory from a past year?
The 2008 Summerfest was huge because it was also the 350th anniversary of Scarborough. It sticks out to me because it was such an affair – we had big names like Rustic Overtones and Bob Marley. We hired an event planning consultant, and our team was running around handling logistics. All our staff are trauma-bonded over that event!
Why do you think Summerfest is such an important event for Scarborough?
It’s such a good tradition. It’s the end of the summer and people are coming together before school gets going. There aren’t very many things that are free nowadays, and all the bigger parts of Summerfest don’t cost a penny. I hope people walk away after the event happy they attended, and that they found some value or enjoyment in it. Maybe they got to meet someone in the community—a vendor, or a business, or a neighbor they haven’t met.
Allison Carrier is Marketing and Communications Manager for the Town of Scarborough.
(Photo courtesy of Town of Scarborough)
