8 Quirkiest Maine Towns To Visit In 2025

As one of few states that banned billboards and the only state with one syllable, Maine is full of quirks, but some are recurring rather than permanent. We are talking odd festivals, fairs, and other events that happen annually rather than oddities that exist year-round. Sure, you should still see static attractions while visiting Maine, but they are to complement events that are scheduled for 2025. Here are the eight quirkiest Maine towns to visit in 2025.

Belfast

Head to Belfast for Wienerfest, a celebration of wiener-shaped dogs. Each September, hundreds of dachshunds gather with their owners and fans for one dog day of late summer. Activities include the Canine Costume Contest, Doxie Distance Dash, and Grand Parade of Dachshunds. Of course, there are also vendors selling various dachshund-themed goods. Though the Maine Wienerfest bills itself as "northern New England's only festival all about wiener dogs," it cannot help but have a hot dog stand. Pet wieners while eating wieners on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

Wienerfest is quite nutty, but "there's nothing nuttier than Perry's Nut House." Sitting right off Route 1 in Belfast, this house certainly has lots of nuts (especially pecans), but also fudge, ice cream, unique gifts, and sideshow-worthy oddities. You can see everything from a stuffed gorilla to an alleged Egyptian mummy.

Fryeburg

Fryeburg is a small, rural town with one of the biggest, oldest, and wackiest festivals in Maine. The Fryeburg Fair began in 1851 and now attracts 200,000-plus people with over a week's worth of activities. Mainly an agricultural celebration, the fair features livestock exhibitions, harness racing, sheep dog trials, pig scrambles, a calf scramble, and a tractor pull. But its marquee event has nothing to do with farming. The Skillet & Anvil Throw sees how far women can toss a skillet and men can toss an anvil. See it for yourself in late September. If you're looking for a quieter Fryeburg quirk, hike to Jockey Cap Rock, a granite outcrop topped with a monument for Robert Peary, the dubious discoverer of the North Pole.

Lisbon

Maine has Moxie, which few people know about. That does not stop Lisbon from celebrating Moxie with a three-day annual festival. For those unaware, Moxie is an American soda older than Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and most other soft drinks, but way less popular. Since it was invented by a Mainer, many Mainers are uniquely fond of this bitter beverage. They made Moxie the State Soft Drink in 2005 and started the Moxie Festival in Lisbon in 1982.

For 43 years, little Lisbon has been drawing thousands of Moxie fans — and converting thousands of Moxie haters — with festivities like a Moxie recipe contest, Moxie chugging contest, and Moxie parade. If you cannot visit Lisbon till after the second weekend of July, try Moxie at Food City and Moxie ice cream at Smiley's Ice Cream Shoppe (while supplies last).

Rockland

In late July and early August, the small seaside city of Rockland hosts the Maine Lobster Festival. A lobster fest in Maine is not too strange, but one of its events certainly is. Atop 50 wooden lobster crates loosely linked and barely floating in the harbor, contestants run back and forth until they tire out or fall over. That is the International Great Crate Race, which has been running since the 1970s and awarding those who cross the most crates. The record? 6,500 crates set in 2014. Besides that "lobstacle" course, you can conquer other LobsterFest staples such as the Seafood Cooking Contest and The Big Parade. Moreover, if you return a month later, you can catch the Camden Windjammer Festival, a celebration of windjammer ships and maritime heritage in nearby Camden.

Rangeley

Wilderness reigns in Rangeley, Maine. Yet hidden among the forests, hills, lakes, and mountains are a range of human-made oddities. They include the Gnome Village, where dozens of ceramic gnomes peer from homes along the Rangeley Lakes Trails, and the Wilhelm Reich Museum, which comprises a mad scientist's former laboratory and its scenic grounds. You can walk those offbeat trails year-round, but to really blend natural serenity with human eccentricity, visit on the second weekend of July for the Rangeley Logging Festival. Its 44th edition is to feature the Burying of the Beans, a loggers' tradition where beans are baked underground overnight and eaten the next day during the Bean Hole Dinner.

Damariscotta

Damariscotta's quirkiness can be summed up in four words: pumpkins, paddles, alewives, and ladders. If that confuses things even more, do not worry: all will be revealed. Each October, giant pumpkins are turned into paddle boats and raced during the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest & Regatta. But that is not the oddest aquatic event in this Maine town. Topping pumpkin paddling is fish laddering, which occurs during the annual migration of alewives. Like salmon, these fish live in saltwater but spawn upstream in freshwater. Damariscotta was built between freshwater Damariscotta Lake and the tidal Damariscotta River, blocking the alewives' route until a fish ladder was erected in 1807. Over two centuries later, a highly evolved version of said ladder still transports the alewives and benefits the economy. Although the alewife run (and its on-land human counterpart, the Run with the Alewives) has already passed, you can still see the ladder and mark the next run(s) on your calendar.

Kennebunkport

Each year before Halloween, zombies invade Kennebunkport. They are not real zombies, of course, but they might have you temporarily convinced as they chase you through the woods during the Zombie Dash. Hosted by Kennebunkport Recreation on land from the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, the Dash is a moonlit obstacle course where you must avoid becoming too scared or undead. Survivors get prizes and all participants get treats. Regardless of how you finish, stay in the region but sharply switch gears for OgunquitFest, a yearly fall festival in neighboring Ogunquit. Its quirkiest activity is the High Heel Dash, where competitors try to avoid broken ankles rather than fake zombies.

Newry

Of all the wild Maine runs, perhaps none is wilder than the North American Wife Carrying Championship. Held each October in the small town of Newry, this event sees husbands run for 278 yards over logs, mud, relatively deep water, and a large dirt mound ... while carrying their wives on their shoulders. The winner receives their wife's weight in beer and five times their wife's weight in dollars. Since Newry centers a supremely scenic area, you can pair wife carrying with sightseeing along the Sunday River and inside Grafton Notch State Park.

Maine promises peak quirkiness for the rest of the year. This is largely due to strange events in small communities, ranging from the Maine Wienerfest in Belfast to the Moxie Festival in Lisbon to the Zombie Dash in Kennebunkport to the North American Wife Carrying Championship in Newry. Attend such singular fests in between stops at static oddities during a 2025 Maine vacation.