People will be dancing in the streets of Brooklet Saturday night after a day of enjoying the 21st Annual Peanut Festival.
    The festival is set for Saturday from 7 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. in downtown Brooklet. People will be up and running early as the 5K Peanut Run gets underway at 7 a.m. At 10 a.m., a parade through downtown Brooklet will showcase dozens of entries, including lots of tractors and all nine of the Brooklet Peanut Princesses.
    The festival is organized each year by members of the Brooklet Community Development Association.
    Association member Jeanette Lafond has been to each one of the previous 20 Peanut Festivals and she has volunteered to help the past 10 years.
    “There’s something about a small community coming together at an event like the Peanut Festival that makes it so much fun,” she said. “It’s a great gathering of people.”
    A number of antique tractors in the parade also will take part in a "Slow Tractor Race." The object of the race is to see how slow the tractor can go without choking and stalling.
    “Doc” Baker has won the past three races, but Lloyd Strickland, a Brooklet farmer, promises to give Baker an even tougher race this year.
    “Ol’ Doc is tough, but this may be the year I break his streak,” Strickland said.
    A kiddie pedal tractor race will precede the slow tractor race, and it begins at noon.
    The festival traditionally draws a large crowd, with visitors arriving from all over the state. There will be plenty of food vendors, offering shrimp, mini doughnuts, barbecue, pancakes, ice cream and lemonade, homemade soda pop, blooming onions, kettle corn, funnel cakes and, of course, peanuts of any imaginable kind — boiled, roasted, Cajun flavored, fried and baked into treats.
    Crafts vendors will have all sorts of items — live plants, sand candy, homemade sauces, dips and soup mixes; hand made solar lights, purses and accessories, clothing, jewelry and more.
    Lafond said the arts and crafts vendors are a particular favorite of hers at the festival.
    “You have vendors showing off handmade items they created themselves,” Lafond said. “They have a real talent that always amazes me.”
    The festival includes live entertainment all day long, as well as kiddie rides near the entertainment tent and vendor area. Entertainment begins at 11:30 a.m. and performances will be held at the gazebo downtown as well as the tent/dance floor/rest area at the festival site. Dance groups, bands, soloists, a deejay and church choirs will provide a variety of entertainment.
    At 7 p.m., the street dance begins as the Variations crank out some beach music. Brooklet Community Development Association members remind the public it is a family event.
    The event concludes at 10:30 p.m. More information is available at www.brookletpeanutfestival com.