LIVERMORE FALLS — Hundreds of families and people of all ages attended the 17th annual Apple Pumpkin Festival for Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls on Saturday at the Livermore Falls Recreation Field.

Temperatures topped 85 degrees Fahrenheit by noon under a cloudless sky, prompting a run on grape, root beer and cherry snocones, along with root beer floats, water and other drinks at various vendors.

But Spruce Mountain Middle School Principal Scott Albert could thank his 3-year-old daughter, Tessa, and his students for keeping him perpetually cool. They paid a dollar a ball and took turns tossing it at the dunk tank’s target, plunging Albert underwater several times.

While eating a cherry snocone and sitting in her mother’s lap, Tessa, who sported face-painted cat whiskers and a pink nose, said her dad splashed her. So the youngster got even.

“I pushed the button, and then he fell right in,” Tessa Albert said, grinning.

“I think it’s great,” Tessa mother, Lisa Gardner-Albert of Winthrop, said of the family-oriented festival.

“Somebody said it’s the 17th annual and this is the first time I’ve been here with Tessa, and it’s really wonderful. It’s a beautiful day and it’s a great way to spend time on the weekend.”

Gardner-Albert said the fact that many young children attended the festival made it good for her daughter.

“There was lots for everybody to do,” she said. “I mean I didn’t expect it to be this varied, you know — so much food and the games and the prizes. It’s very sweet.

“Watching Scott get dunked was definitely a high point, but he said I’ll be in trouble this weekend for letting Tessa dunk him,” Gardner-Albert said, laughing.

“This is a great way to spend a fall weekend,” she said.

Gardner-Albert said she loved that prices for food and drink items were kept low for youngsters to afford.

Children had a large bounce house, gigantic tiger slide and a huge climbing wall to play in and on.

There were a variety of vendors and craft artisans, agricultural products, historical and educational displays, seasonal decorations, emergency responder vehicles and crews, antique tractors and raffles.

Over at the games’ ticket station, Regina Cote, the administrative assistant for the Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls Chamber of Commerce, said the festival had a very good crowd turnout.

“We’ve been very busy,” Cote said. “And I’m so happy there’s no rain.”

She estimated the crowd at several hundred just two hours into the five-hour festival that featured more than 30 vendors, many games and live music from five bands.

Cote said the tiger slide was the children’s favorite feature.

Keller Wyman, 10, of Auburn, said he enjoyed climbing to the top of a huge climbing wall, and then rappelling down.

At 1 p.m., zany fun took center stage when the Livermore Falls Downtown Betterment Group launched their Pie Eating Contest for children ages 7 to 12 and 13 to 17. It was a new event this year and was supposed to feature pumpkin pie, but nobody made any.

So they brought in more than a dozen vanilla and chocolate creme pies topped with whipped cream.

Following a short countdown, the competition got underway, much to the delight of a large crowd. Savannah Long, 11, of Livermore Falls, won the younger group category while a 9-year-old boy named Shane from Oxford took second place.

Afterward, Long said, “I ate it so fast it started coming out my nose.”

Eleven-year-old Dixie Peart of Livermore said she really enjoyed the vanilla creme pie and getting sixth place.

In the older age bracket, Kurt Tibbetts, 17, of Livermore Falls won first place by putting his face into the pie and slurping as fast as he could.

“It was really good,” Tibbetts said. Dylan Batchelder of Jay took second place.

Down at the other end of the field, Melissa Gilbert, who owns and operates the Berry Fruit Farm in Livermore with her husband, Joel, was giving out free Cortland apples. She was also selling gourds, pumpkins and quart baskets of late-season strawberries.

“This has been good,” Gilbert said of the crowd and festival. “I didn’t know we were going to have an August (temperature) flashback today, but it’s good for the people that are doing the snocones.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com