WABI covers Maine History Festival
WABI (Channel 5) covered the Maine History Festival, held in conjunction with the Maine Statehood and Bicentennial Conference and hosted at the University of Maine. The conference is one of several events across the state to mark Maine’s 200th birthday in 2020. The festival took place May 31 at the Collins Center for the Arts, and featured about 50 vendors, WABI reported. “(The event) helps give us an excuse to think a little more about our distant past and all the legacies that continue right into our present,” said Liam Riordan, a UMaine history professor and event organizer. “I think all too often — I am a history professor, so I can’t help it — but we are always looking to the future. Always what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s important also to realize that our present is very much shaped by the past.” The conference continued Friday night with Pulitzer Prize-winning keynote speakers Alan Taylor and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Saturday featured a 4 p.m. concert by the Bangor Band at Wells Conference Center, according to the report.