Bearing Down on Belfast

I have seen a lot of wildlife since moving to Maine 13 years ago - moose, deer, foxes, seals, porpoises, countless varieties of sea birds, and your usual collection of "urban" dwellers - skunks, porcupines, raccoons, and squirrels. The one thing I haven't seen in the wild which I would really love to is a bear. It's not that there aren't any bear to be seen - Maine reportedly has plenty of them - it's just that they do a great job of keeping themselves hidden (unless, apparently, you bait them with stale donuts). So I was, of course, excited to learn that over 40 bears had shown up just down the road in the small town of Belfast.

The citizens of this fair town were justifiably concerned with the bear's arrivals. Many were hopeful the bears would bring tourists to the town. Others were far more skeptical, placing their bets that the bears would serve as little more than "street litter."

The bears have been in Belfast for almost five months now, and in that time they have drawn tourists. Hoards of tourists, in fact. But, I must admit that I have yet to see a bear in the wild. As you may have guessed by now, the bears that have invaded Belfast are not, nor have they ever been, alive and kicking. They are life-size, but nobody is going to mistake them for real black bears. Not too many real bears, after all, sport jet packs, or ride bicycles, or wear ballerina outfits.

The "Belfast Bearfest" was the brainchild of Mike Hurley, a local entrepreneur who has subsequently added "Mayor of Belfast" to his moniker. After seeing the attention that the "Chicago Cows" garnered for that city last year, Mike wondered why such an event couldn't up the ante of visitors in this neck of the woods. Many businesses in Maine, especially those located on the coast, live and die by the annual migration of tourists to the state, so anything that could possibly help add to the local tourist count would be beneficial to all of the area merchants, Mike reasoned.

It's probably fair to say that the initial reaction to the Bearfest proposal was, well, less than enthusiastic. A handful of businesses embraced the idea, but the majority either took a wait-and-see attitude or out-and-out decried the scheme as a folly of epic proportions. Somehow, Mike managed to talk area artists into producing the bears with the "promise" of payment at a later date. A group of enthusiastic volunteers has also emerged to help coordinate and publicize the event, and even yours truly got sucked into the bowls of the Bearfest by agreeing to produce a website and promotional materials for the event at a fraction of what ti would normally cost.

And that is how a small Maine town of 6,500 people has managed to pull off an event the likes of which have, up to now, been the exclusive domain of big cities that have much larger populations and far more resources to accomplish such a feat. In addition to last summer's Cow extravaganza in Chicago (which,with a population of 3+ million people, can be considered a slightly larger town than Belfast, Maine), this summer saw the Cow decorating idea spring forth in New York City, pigs popping up in Cincinnatti, and Buffalo roaming in (of course) Buffalo, New York.

To those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, the idea, which was first developed in a town in Europe, is to give artists a "canvas" of a life-size fiberglass animal for the purposes of decorating in any manner they see fit. These works of art (in some cases, one could argue that I use the term "art" loosely) are then set out upon a city for locals and, hopefully, tourists, to gaze at, get their pictures taken with, and, at the end of the event, buy at auction.

The menagerie that has shown up in Belfast are eclectically diverse creations that run the gamut from "road kill," a garish half-bear, half-lawnmower contraption, to Air Bear, a rollerskate-wearing bear with an impressive metal rocket strapped onto his back, to Admiral Ray, a bear which has strapped on tailfeathers and a beak so that he can "hang out with the chickens."

Word of the bears has spread far beyond the confines of Belfast. "Mr. Ambearsador" stands guard at the tourist center in Kittery in southern Maine, letting all who enter know of the event. The Boston Globe is just one of the many regional papers that has printed features on the event.

And as word has spread, the people have come. You can't drive through Belfast these days without seeing people taking pictures of the bears - usually with a friend or family member standing next to it. Rough estimates indicate that as many as 60,000 people may have come to see the bears this summer. Of course, there's no way of knowing whether or not many of these people would have come even if the bears weren't around, but it's safe to say that the gentle beasts have drawn a fair share of attention.

Of course, with 40 bears hanging around downtown all summer, a few of them are going to manage to run into trouble. A handful, it turns out, weren't rugged enough to handle being outside in the sun, wind, and rain all that time and have had to have periodic reconditioning or have found new homes within shop windows. A few have been vandalized, but, fortunately, the damage has been quite limited. Without a doubt the biggest scandal to rock the bear world was the theft of "Ursala," a bear that stands on the corner of Church and Main streets. Ursala was abducted some time during the night in June. Almost before the theft was discovered, the police got a call from a woman letting them know that her boyfriend had taken the bear. When the police went to the residence to check out the situation, the alleged thief refused to let them in. So, they ended up having to kick down the door and discovered "Ursala" stashed under the man's bed. He swore he didn't know how it got there. The next day, Ursala was back on her post on Church and Main, where she has remained ever since.

As has become tradition with these animal art fests, the whole affair is concluded with a gala auction at which the artworks are put on the block to raise funds for worthy causes. In the case of the Belfast bears, the primary "worthy cause" will be the artists themselves, since most have created the rather costly pieces of artwork gratis. It will be interesting to see how things pan out as far as the auction in concerned. In Chicago, many of the cows brought in bids of tens of thousands of dollars. I'm sure we can dismiss that happening here, where people are more concerned with feeding their family than adding a bear to their possessions. Most of the bears have a "reserve" (minimum) bid price in the $500 to $1000 range, although a couple of them might be able to be had for as low as $100. Once the artist's costs are covered, any remaining proceeds are donated to the charity of the artist's choice. Although I didn't create a bear, I did create most of the marketing materials and have been promised the opportunity to pledge some proceeds to a charity of my choice if enough money is raised. We'll see.