Courtesy / Maine Whoopie Pie Festival
Local bakers sell a wide variety of whoopie pies at the 2018 festival in Dover-Foxcroft.
Updated: September 4, 2020
Maine festival will make whoopie online, despite Pennsylvania competitor
Courtesy / Maine Whoopie Pie Festival
The Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, shown here in 2018, draws about 7,000 people to Dover-Foxcroft, which has a population of 4,000. The event is the largest one-day gathering in Piscataquis County.
By William Hall
Like many fairs, concerts and other public events where plans have changed because of COVID-19, the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival is going virtual this year.
At the same time, 600 miles south, another confectionery carnival may compete with Maine’s — using a different strategy in response to the pandemic.
Held in Dover-Foxcroft on the fourth Saturday of June, the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival typically draws about 7,000 people and is Piscataquis County’s largest one-day event. But state health restrictions currently forbid gatherings of more than 100.
So now the festival has morphed into WHOOPtoberfest, an online celebration of all things related to the disc-like sandwich of soft cookies and frosting. Organizers of the e-vent say it will include promotions of local whoopie pie bakers throughout October. A portal, still under development, will allow the public to vote for their favorite bakers, upload images of whoopie pie moments, and earn badges and prizes.
“We’re very disappointed that we can’t have the festival as planned,” said Patrick Myers, executive director of the nonprofit Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft and lead organizer of the festival, in a news release last week.
“However, we do not want 2020 to be known as ‘The Year Without Whoopie,’ so we’re excited to host a month-long celebration of our state’s whoopie pie bakers, vendors and supporters.”
Launched in 2009, the festival serves as a fundraiser for Center Theatre and also a money-maker for the area’s businesses.
“The Whoopie Pie Festival is a huge boost to our local economy,” said Denise Buzzelli, executive director of the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce, a longtime collaborator on the festival. “Losing the in-person festival will affect many of our local businesses and organizations, but we hope that WHOOPtoberfest will keep the spirit of the festival alive until we can come together again in 2021.”
Twice the whoopie
The officials originally postponed the festival to Oct. 3 after the pandemic struck. The date — and the month of virtual fun — roughly coincide with the Whoopie Pie Festival scheduled for Oct. 17 in Ronks, Pa., in the Amish region about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
That celebration was also postponed. Now in its 15th year, the event usually takes place in early September and gets a couple of thousand attendees, spokeswoman Raychel Johnson told Mainebiz.
The 2020 event is taking place in person as originally planned, but hours have been extended to prevent crowds and some of the usual activities have been curtailed, said Johnson, of Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn, the festival venue. Pennsylvania currently limits the size of gatherings to 250 people.
Both Maine and Pennsylvania have long claimed to be the origin of the whoopie pie.
"This classic confection has been a favorite of Mainers for over a century," the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival website reads, but admits there is "vigorous debate" about the home state and "no definitive proof one way or the other."
Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston touts itself as Maine's first professional creator of whoopie pies, dating to 1925. In 2011, the Legislature made the whoopie pie Maine's official state treat.
Not to be outdone, the Pennsylvania festival explains its version of the history in a brochure: "Industrious Amish women would bake these delicious desserts with leftover cake batter and icing and would put them in farmers’ lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout 'Whoopie!'"
Johnson wouldn't discuss the roots rivalry. But in May a gourmet magazine, Food & Wine, commented on it after naming Hershey Farm to its list of the top 100 U.S. bakeries. (Labadie's didn't make the cut, but the list did include Belleville, in Portland, and Biddeford's Night Moves Bread & Pie.)
"Mainers," Food & Wine wrote, "kindly take it up directly with Pennsylvania, because we’re very much not here to get in the middle of debates over who invented the whoopie pie."
Back in Dover-Foxcroft, festival organizer Myers said he's familiar with the Keystone State claim and welcomes the competition.
“I actually traveled to Lancaster County a few years ago to check out their festival, undercover,” he told Mainebiz in an email. “I hope they have a great festival so that the good people of Pennsylvania can at least enjoy what that state has to offer while travel restrictions prevent them from coming to Maine for the real thing.”
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