This year’s Richmond Days will bring back the classics of the festival, such as the parade, lobster crate races and fireworks.
It will also bring back classic forms of entertainment from yesteryear, such as burlesque and a silent movie, to complement this year’s vaudeville theme.
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Victoria Boundy, the town’s community and business development director, said organizers chose the theme as a chance to do something different and an umbrella for lots of activities to get people moving.
“We just wanted to do something fun and physical as a chance to get kids of all ages involved in the day,” Boundy said.
Richmond Days is July 25 and 26.
Events that Friday include the children’s parade and an opening reception at the Southard House Museum for an exhibit of local photographer Elena Carter’s nature photography.
That evening, there will be a burlesque performance by Babes in Vaudeville. Nancy Cote said the show will be based on physical comedy, not the sort of risque material often performed by burlesque troupes. While some performers will wear short skirts or fishnet tights, it will be family-friendly, Cote said.
Cote said she’s excited about the vaudeville theme for Richmond Days because it’s a great way to let loose.
“Vaudeville is eclectic,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to get, but the idea is that you’re going to be oohing and aahing and having fun.”
Cote said the Babes in Vaudeville acts include a fire hooper, a fiddle player and her own body juggling routine. Body juggling is an exercise and performance activity that involves flowing movements atop a large exercise ball. Cote, who owns River Fitness and Wellness Center, also will take part in a body juggling and hula hoop workshop Saturday afternoon.
People also can learn to juggle at a workshop Saturday by the Woodside One Wheelers, a circus arts group from Woodside Elementary School in Topsham. The group also will put on a unicycle performance Saturday morning.
Other performances Saturday include Lexi Go-Go, the Nikki Hunt Band and the Dark Follies Vaudeville Troupe. Boundy said members of Dark Follies will wander around to perform in the streets leading up to their stationary show at 1 p.m. at the waterfront.
The Southard museum will be open free after Saturday morning’s parade and will host other free events, such as a blacksmithing demonstration and a demonstration of antique tools like the ones the museum has in its collection.
At 3 p.m. Saturday, the museum will show a silent movie accompanied by the old-time piano playing of Doug Protsik, who has provided the music for silent movies at Eveningstar Cinema in Brunswick, among other places.
Museum curator Carolyn Case said the screening will be an inauguration for the antique piano the museum recently received as a donation and restored.
The movie to be shown is a surprise. Seating will be limited to 35 because of the size of the room, and it will be first-come, first-served.
Susan McMillan — 621-5645
Twitter: @s_e_mcmillan
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