Local artists, maritime exhibitors, food vendors, children's activities, live music, lobster crate race and more! Camden Windjammer Festival features the largest gathering of schooners in the Northeast. Held on Labor Day Weekend, Camden’s annual celebration brings two full days of nautical events and exhibits celebrating Camden's maritime heritage. Entrance to the Camden Windjammer Festival is free. As many as 18 windjammers and schooners parade into the harbor on opening day, greeted by a welcome ceremony and followed by a schooner crew talent show and fireworks over the harbor. Visitors can bid on a dockside dinner Saturday evening aboard one of the vessels, while schooners open for tours on Saturday. The Lobster Crate Race is Saturday’s highlight, when contestants race across a line of crates trying to avoid falling into the salty brine. The fish relay race is another spectacle, in which teams carry slippery fish and toss it into a "ship's hold." A build-a-tiny-boat event lets kids construct their own miniature vessel and a scavenger hunt sends teams around downtown to solve riddles, consider clues and gather a variety of "treasures." There are vendors and exhibitors, and raucous pirates roaming around, looking for recruits, or foes to duel. Local day-sailing schooners are available daily to treat passengers to a taste of the seafaring life on Penobscot Bay. A detailed schedule of events is available at www.camdensnowbowl.com/cwf
