The 62nd annual Olde Bristol Days is coming back to beautiful Fort William Henry. With all new events and activities spanning August 7-10, the festival promises to be bigger and better than ever.

“When I was a kid, it was all about the parade, kids games at the fort, and good food,” organizer Sheila McLain said. McLain grew up attending Bristol Days on a yearly basis.

In recent years, however, the festivities have suffered due to a lack of volunteers and a switch in location from Fort William Henry to Pemaquid Beach State Park, which resulted in reduced attendance.

This summer organizers have made a major effort to return the festival to its former glory. There will be a chicken barbecue and a performance by the Pete Collins Jazz band on Thursday, Aug. 7 at Pemaquid Beach as well as fireworks on Saturday, Aug. 10, but the rest of the weekend activities have returned to the popular location of Fort William Henry.

McLain wanted to ensure that there was a particular emphasis on activities for kids this summer, just like when she was growing up.

“Some of the best memories of my life are from age five to thirteen at this event,” McLain said.

In recent years activities for children appear to have waned, but this summer will feature all new old-fashioned kids games at Fort William Henry as well as a magician from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. The games were created and organized by Laurie Mahan.

“We are working really hard to make this more about the kids again,” McLain said. As always, there will be an annual water-slide sponsored by the New Harbor Fire Station.

One of the new events this year that will appeal to young and old alike are the Model Boat races hosted by Brent Benner of Walpole Model Boatworks. Brenner builds all the model boats and travels all over Maine to race them against each other at speeds over 20 miles an hour. 

At this year’s Olde Bristol Days he will be racing several classes of model boat, while the top three from each race will be entered in the “World's Fastest Race” at the end of the day.

The Vintage Car Show being held at Bristol School on Saturday, Aug. 9 is also unique to this year’s Bristol days. The day-long event will feature jazz and blues from the ‘50s and ‘60s, as well as a presentation of awards and trophies at the end of the day.

There will be live music throughout the day at the Fort on Saturday as well as all sorts of local vendors.

“This it the only annual celebration that the town of Bristol offers, so we are really hoping to bring it back in a big way this this year,” McLain said. “Next year we will be celebrating the town of Bristol's 250th anniversary, and we’ll hopefully doing a number of events throughout the year ... our hope with Olde Bristol Days this year is to get people excited about the anniversary.”

For more information, visit www.oldebristoldays.org.