History is coming to life at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum next weekend.
A crew member on a replica of the shallop used during Captain John Smith's Chesapeake voyages 400 years ago will be on hand to discuss life on the boats, and living-history interpreters will portray a Nanticoke tribe member, a sailor from Colonial times, and villagers. They will answer questions about their characters' daily lives and demonstrate early customs.
"People think that times are hard now," said Brenda Dorr Guldenzopf, executive director of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum. "Times 400 years ago were difficult, too. We want to transport people back to that time."
These Colonial living-history interpretations are part of the annual Havre de Grace Maritime Heritage Festival, or Mari-Fest, to be held Saturday and next Sunday at the museum. The festival was started 18 years ago as a way to share the maritime heritage of the Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River. Admission is free.
Money is raised for the museum's educational programs through a catered all-you-can-eat crab feast to be held Saturday evening. The festival - which costs between $10,000 and $12,000 to present annually - is funded by grants from the Maryland Humanities Council and the Harford County Cultural Arts Board.
The festival, which has drawn as many as 8,000 people each year, has been a success because people want to take part in local history, Guldenzopf said. This year, the event will include several hands-on activities, demonstrations of boat-building and nautical skills, and trips in a canoe constructed in the museum's boat-building school.
New this year is a cardboard boat race. Festival attendees will be able to construct a boat from corrugated cardboard and duct tape, and anyone who makes a boat that floats will receive a prize, she said.
The festival celebration also commemorates the maritime museum's 20th anniversary. Organizers originally had hoped to hold the grand reopening of the museum - which includes the addition of a mezzanine level and professionally designed exhibits - during the festival, said Ann Persson, the museum's curator.
Although the exhibits aren't completed and the grand reopening will take place at a later date, two well-known living-history interpreters will present stage performances in the museum, Persson said.
