Back in 1982, the Anicetti family, who owned a store in Lisbon Falls, were Moxie enthusiasts. At the same time, author Frank Potter just finished writing his book about what would become the Maine state soft drink, “Moxie Mystique.” Hearing of the book, the Anicettis invited Potter to host an autograph signing that happened on the second week of July.

What originally started as a few postcards sent out by the Anicettis resulted in more than 500 people coming out. This, according to Moxie Festival co-organizer Kate Madore said, was the start of the Moxie Festival.

“It’s just continued to grow and grow from that point,” Madore said. “Everyone loves to come to this festival and just have fun. People keep spreading the word of the Moxie Festival and I’m so happy that it’s grown to the size it is today.”

She said last year’s festival attracted more than 40,000 attendees. Though she could not confirm how many people attended this year, she says she’s confident that this year’s Moxie Festival attendance surpassed last year’s.

“We’re all about our community,” said Madore. “The more this grows, it means our community is able to have fun and enjoy together and celebrates what makes us unique.”

Although the Moxie Festival doesn’t look like what it did in 1982, elements have been added to make the event more unique to families, one being the Moxie Day Parade, coined as “the longest parade in Maine.”

This year’s theme was “Mad About Moxie.”

“The creativity of the floats in the parades are unreal and the ideas that everyone comes up with for two hours of entertainment is amazing year after year,” said Madore. “I don’t think I can explain it unless you’ve been there.”

Madore says the Moxie Day Parade is more than providing entertainment for the community.

“It becomes a family tradition,” said Madore. “People come from out of state so they can come sit with their families and watch the parade. It’s always an amazing experience when someone tells me that they come every year from a different state. The parade feels that much more special.”

The Moxie Festival also provided free performances including from the Bazinga! Band, The Mallet Brothers Band and American Idol contestant Julia Gagnon.

Other events included the annual Moxie Bass Fishing Derby at the Androscoggin River boat launch and car show at Beaver Park.

The funds raised from the car show directly benefit seniors in the community as part of a program known as Sunshine Hill Neighbor’s Center, according to festival director Mark Stevens.

Stevens says the car show was created in 2012 to help raise funds for the program. He says it usually raises over $10,000 over three hours.

“We have a very large robust, senior program here in our community,” said Stevens. “We take trips to Europe. We’re getting ready to take a trip to Alaska next month. We buy equipment, refrigerators, stoves for their cooking. It’s just to help our senior population.”

Both Madore and Stevens say the 40th annual Moxie Festival was a tremendous success and say they’re already for next year’s festival.

“It’s a 12-month process,” said Madore. “We’re going to take what we learned that made the Moxie Festival a tremendous success and build off that. We have a few ideas we’re going to pursue.”