WILLOW CREEK — The first annual Willow Creek Fall Foliage Festival kicked off Saturday with a pancake breakfast at the Community Hall, a farmers market on Main Street, and a color-chasing hayride that wound through the hills south of town, where the maples were peaking in shades of orange and crimson.
The three-day festival, organized by a coalition of downtown businesses and the town recreation committee, was designed to extend the tourism season beyond the traditional summer window and capture some of the fall foliage traffic that drives through Aroostook County every October.
“We’ve always been a summer town, but the best colors in Maine are up here in October,” said Maeve O’Donnell, who coordinated the event from the General Store. “We just needed to give people a reason to stop the car and stay awhile.”
Events included a pie contest judged by Dean Moreau of The Dry Dock, a foliage photography workshop led by a volunteer from the historical society, and a “Harvest Supper” at the Community Hall that drew 85 people for baked ham, squash, and apple crisp made with Farr Farm apples.
Farr Family Farm reported its highest-ever October weekend traffic, with visitors buying pumpkins, corn maze tickets, and the last of the season’s sweet corn. O’Donnell estimated the festival generated $15,000 in direct spending over the weekend.
Organizers have already booked the first weekend of October for the 2021 festival.