There hasn’t been a year Celia Crie Knight hasn’t been involved with the Maine Lobster Festival in some way.

“I’ve been a lifelong participant with the Maine Lobster Festival from birth,” she said. “My mother has always volunteered and was also the Director.”

Her mother, Alice Knight, who attended and volunteered for the Maine Lobster Festival since 1948, has been Celia’s role model for volunteerism.

As a child, Celia looked forward to Rockland’s longest running summer festival every year. “In our house, the Festival was like Christmas,” she said. “We talked about it all year long, so when the time came to volunteer, there wasn’t any rebellion; I wanted to do it. My mother made it fun and exciting every year. My whole family has been really involved.”

Celia grew up doing all kinds of volunteer work. “I think my first job was helping with the pancake breakfast,” she recalled. “I’ve worked in all of the various tents over the years, especially, the craft tent, and the marine tent. I became the Director myself 14 years ago. And before that, I’d been a member of the Committee, on the Executive Board and have been Vice President a couple of times.” As of October, 2018, Celia became the Maine Lobster Festival’s newest President.

Her favorite part of the Festival was helping her mother set up the craft tent and working with the artists and writers who contributed to it. This cultural aspect to the Festival was something that her mother, Alice, spearheaded in the early 1970s.

“I thought the Festival should have a craft tent,” said Alice Knight in this Bangor Daily News article. “We have many talented crafts people in the area and that would add culture to the Festival.”

With Celia bringing new energy to the Festival Committee, she’s hoping to see a positive direction for the 2019 event. Listening very closely to the local feedback is the key. “We want the local community to feel more involved with the Festival and for that reason, we’re bringing back $1 Wednesday and Free Sunday,” she said. “We’re going to switch it up with more local entertainment, more local crafters and we’re going to keep Steins ‘N Vines, which sells out every year.

“What the public is asking for, we’re trying to do,” said Celia. “I’m just really looking forward to it.”

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