Aroostook’s biggest celebration of the potato industry starts next week

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 4, 2026

Amid the summer heat in a rural Aroostook town a stone’s throw from Canada, where blossoms are poised to explode from fields, thousands of people will soon descend on Fort Fairfield to bask in northern Maine’s chief agricultural export: the potato. They will race potatoes. Decorate potatoes. Cook potatoes. Eat potatoes. Tour potato fields. High-five a potato mascot while walking by a stack of potato barrels to watch a potato-themed parade in a region once dubbed “The Potato Empire.” Anywhere else, it would be odd. In Fort Fairfield, that’s just July. The 79th annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival kicks off on July 11, bringing with it patrons from across the state — and the country — to celebrate the region’s rich agricultural history.