Local garlic farmer Bernard Thomas, left, stands at his vendor tent in 2022, as Cathy Hicks of Vassalboro browses the merchandise during Maine’s Garlic Fest at Lake George Regional Park in Skowhegan. This year’s festival is Saturday and Sunday. Morning Sentinel file

Vampires, beware: Maine’s Garlic Fest at Lake George Regional Park is back.

The yearly festival featuring vendors, live music and activities for families is set to return this weekend to the park on the Skowhegan-Canaan line. This year features a new farm as the lead sponsor and expanded music offerings, according to Darryll White, the park’s director.

Admission for the festival on the east side of the park, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, is $10 per day or $15 for both days. Children younger than 12 enter for free.

The annual festival, held at the park since 2018, highlights some of the unique aspects of the Skowhegan area, White said.

“We’re trying to align the festival around kind of the pillars of the economic revitalization for the area: agriculture, outdoor recreation and the arts,” White said Monday. “That’s where we kind of, philosophically, set our footing when we embarked on the partnership. And it’s kind of a guiding principle for us to highlight that aspect of our area.”

Since it began at Lake George, the park has hosted the Garlic Fest in partnership with the Canaan farm Crazy 4 Garlic. Before that, the farm’s owners, Erica and Jason Waugh, held the festival at their property, White said, and were looking to expand it.

“That went great for the five years,” White said. “We grew it every year. Crazy 4 Garlic brought to the table their network of local small farmers and other craft-related vendors.”

But a rainy 2023, combined with personal circumstances, led Crazy 4 Garlic to stop growing garlic, White said.

Maine’s Garlic Fest at Lake George Regional Park in Skowhegan in 2022. This year’s festival is Saturday and Sunday. Morning Sentinel file

Another Canaan farm, N44° Farmstead, is taking over this year as the festival’s lead sponsor. The farm, run by Karen “Punk” Neves and her husband, had attended the festival in the past as a vendor, White said.

In addition to N44° Farmstead, organizers are expecting more vendors selling food, beverages and crafts than in past years, White said.

The music side of the festival has continued to grow, too.

“We are trying to establish the music side of the festival almost on an equal footing to the agricultural side,” White said.

Saturday’s lineup has the fiddle and guitar duet of Elaine Malkin and Gail Lipfert, solo artist Lee Sykes, singer and songwriter Chris Ross, the bluegrass band Back Woods Road and the local duo Sagittarius Rising.

Entertainment is set to continue Sunday, with solo artist Brian Richmond, the blues group The Roy Hudson Band and the pop rock band The Song Pirates.

Scheduled activities suited for children throughout the two days include pumpkin painting, a straw bale maze and a bounce house.

A grand opening of the park’s storyboard trail is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Saturday, an hour before the festival begins.

The trail, created through a partnership with Jobs for Maine Graduates, Somerset Public Health and the New Balance Foundation Move More Kids initiative, leads participants to several stops, each containing part of the story, White said.

The trail now displays a story from the series “The 9 Lives of Charlie the Chicken Mushroom.” The author, Katie Kirwan, is set to lead a tour of the trail as part of the grand opening, according to White.

Organizers expect about 1,000 people to attend the Garlic Fest, White said. Last year, inclement weather forced the festival to be canceled Saturday.

“But then, with the pent-up demand, Sunday was the single busiest day ever,” White said.

Attendees last year also dealt with a muddy field, White said, due to the above-average rainfall during the summer. The park has since installed a drainage system in that part of the park, which has been working well.

“Conditions should be much better than they were last year,” White said.

As of Monday, there was a small chance of rain showers Saturday, with high temperatures over the weekend in the mid-60s, according to the National Weather Service.

For more information about Maine’s Garlic Fest at Lake George Regional Park, see mainegarlicfest.com.