4th Annual Maine Cheese Festival – Sunday, September 8, 2019 along the Sebasticook River at Manson Park in Pittsfield, Maine, 11 am – 5 pm rain or shine.

New this year: You want more cheese, you got it! Everyone who attends the Maine Cheese Festival will receive a ticket at the entrance gate for a complimentary cheese plate! Our Sponsor, Bangor Wine and Cheese is jumping in to help us run the Cheese Bar where you can redeem your ticket for your cheese plate and mingle with some cheese fairies!

$20 advance ticketing ends Sunday at 11 am.
$25 at the gate day of Festival. Ticket includes a festival bag, a ticket for one complimentary cheese plate, and off-site parking with a shuttle to the event. Kids under 12 free.

FESTIVAL PARKING

Enter from Peltoma Avenue and follow the directions from our parking volunteers!

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ABOUT THE FESTIVAL – Ticketing  and details at Eventbrite.com

DATE: Sunday, September 8, 11 am to 5 pm, rain or shine
LOCATION: Manson Park, 51 Peltoma Avenue, Pittsfield, Maine 04967

PARKING: Enter from Peltoma Avenue and follow the directions from our parking volunteers!

TICKETS: General Admission: $20 per person in advance until 11 am day of Festival, $25 at the gate. Limited early admission online ticketing: $35 Includes a ticket for the festival with early 10am entrance, and a festival wine glass, kids under 12 are free.

Things you should know:

This is a rain or shine event. Come prepared!

No dogs or pets of any kind please! Keep your pets safely at home.

Feel free to bring some lawn chairs or your picnic blanket to enjoy your goodies and take in the music and the beautiful river setting.

Bring a valid I.D. if you want to enter the Maine Beer Garden area. Seriously…even if you’re 90! We will check all I.D.’s Children will not be allowed into the Beer Garden area. If you are carrying or strollering a baby, that is OK, you may enter with them.

Free access to water will be available on site, but it’s always a good idea to bring your own. Stay hydrated!

Parking: We’ll have free parking available at a local air stirp. Please enter from Peltoma Avenue and our volunteers will direct you. A shuttle bus will be running all day to transport you safely to and from the festival. NOTE: We will have on-site parking available for handicap use.

Refunds for purchased tickets will only be allowed on a case-by-case basis. If you purchased a ticket for a friend and they cannot come last minute, no refund will be given. This event is a fund-raiser, so consider it a donation and Thank you!

VENDORS LIST: here.

Maine’s biggest gathering and celebration of cheese. Taste and learn about Maine cheese, plus artisan and fermented foods and beverages.

About this Event

Maine Cheese Guild cheesemakers plus Maine brewers, wineries and cideries, Maine food trucks and Maine artisan foods and beverages to explore and sample. The festival is a major fundraising effort for the Maine Cheese Guild, a non-profit trade organization that works year-round to educate Maine cheesemakers and elevate the quality of Maine cheese and dairy.

Beer Garden tickets: $15 for 12 tastings available at the Festival. Bring your ID if you want to enter the Maine Beer Garden at the Festival. This year, our Beer Garden is generously sponsored by Allagash Brewing Co.

Allagash, along with a dozen other Maine breweries, wineries, and cideries, will be pouring samples throughout the day and many will be paired with a bite of cheese from our Maine Cheese Guild cheesemakers! You will need a valid photo I.D. to enter the Beer Garden as the drinking age in Maine is 21. Tasting tickets will be available for purchase on site.

Music: We’ll have live music throughout the day including Married with Chitlins and Rough Sawn! Plus we’ll have demos on cheesemaking, cheese pairing, fermentation and home-brewing in our Workshops Tent.

New this year: You want more cheese, you got it! Everyone who attends the Maine Cheese Festival will receive a ticket at the entrance gate for a complimentary cheese plate! Our Sponsor, Bangor Wine and Cheese is jumping in to help us run the Cheese Bar where you can redeem your ticket for your cheese plate and mingle with some cheese fairies!

Of course we couldn’t do this without you, our dedicated cheese lovers and our amazing sponsors:
Thank you so much to: Bangor Savings Bank, Are you Ready to Party??, Allagash Brewing Company and Bangor Wine and Cheese!

2019 Festival Vendors

Cheesemakers

Food Trucks

These Maine food trucks will be on site and ready to serve you, so bring your appetite:

Melt
Kings’ Concessions
The Ravioli-Mobile
Stone Fox Farm Ice Cream
The Yum Bus

 Maine Food Products

Fat Back
Hootenanny Bread
Pemaquid Lobster & Seafood
30 Acre Farm
Mill Cove Crackers
Turtle Rock Farm
Brazen Baking
Gryffon Ridge Spice Co.
Pete Egan’s Travelling Oyster Bar
Farmhouse Coffee Roasters
Pemaquid Lobster & Seafood
Get Sticky Popsicles
Tempest in a Teapot

Demos

1. Cottage Cheese and Bondon Making with University of Maine Cooperative Extension. (We’ll be giving away some goods from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co!)

2. Ask a Cheesemaker Panel Discussion & Q and A.

3. Building a Better Cheese Plate with Libby from the Cheese Iron

4. Taste the Milk, Taste the Cheese! A variety of milks and a variety of cheeses to try!

 

Our Festival sponsors:

Allagash Brewing Co.
Bangor Savings Bank
Are You Ready to Party??
Bangor Wine and Cheese
New England Cheesemaking
The Advertising Specialsts of Maine
Culture

Our Festival supporting partners:

Dairy Connection
Five Islands Farm
Fryeburg Fair
Rayr, the Wine Shop
Rising Tide Co-op
The Cheese Iron
The Maine Dairy Promotion Board
Tree Spirits Winery and Distillery
Whole Foods Portland
The Town of Pittsfield

Your attendance at the Festival helps support the work of the of the Maine Cheese Guild’s mission—to support and encourage the Maine cheesemaking community. We will do this through development of a collective voice to promote Maine cheese and cheesemakers, educate cheese makers and consumers, coordinate resources and share the joy and art of regional cheeses.