Celebration Days celebrated community
By Elizabeth Prata Salvetti

Celebration Days, the first year of a new festival arising from the earlier Old Home Days festival, held for many years in Gray, was held August 2-4 at Russell School in Gray.

The Committee, chaired by this reporter, and facilitated by Dean Bennett from Gray's Parks and Recreation Department, and many volunteers, organized and brought about the fulfillment of a celebration whose mission was to create a destination event for the community and passers-by, allow an opportunity for vibisibility to local organizations, and to offer an event that encouraged community members to recreate together in a relaxed environment.

It began with a parade on Friday, August 2, touched off by speeches from US Senator Susan Collins, US Representative Tom Allen, and a visit from Steven Joyce, who is running for Congress in Maine's First Congressional District, opposing Tom Allen. The weekend continued with a steady array of bands, jugglers, magicians, games, art cars, fine art show, acoustic cafe, Civil War re-enactment camp, and much more.

Several pages of photos follow.

	Claire, "The Fairy" was a performance artist from New York City. Claire performed as a Living Statue for three hours. She enchanted the children.
Festival goers watching Ransom, a local band that wowed the audience. Notice the couch...
	A local contingent constructed four 9-foot giant puppets, tie dyed the costume and featured it in the Friday night parade, and elsewhere...
The dunk tank was a hit! Especially as temperatures soared to the upper 90's.
	A quartet from the internationally award-winning Royal River chorus, Flashpoint! performed on Sunday.

Next page of Celebration Day photos