Neighbors of the Wiscasset Raceway and other Wiscasset residents exchanged wildly disparate accounts of their experience with Oxxfest during the Aug. 3 meeting of the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen.
Ray Soule said he observed the concert from 6:30 a.m. until midnight. “Never in my life have I seen 10,000 people so well-mannered and organized as these people were,” Soule said. “It was just amazing.”
“When it ended, there really wasn’t much congestion,” Soule added, calling the concert a “great thing for the town.”
Another neighbor said his daughter made $400 for college by parking cars on his property.
Steve Smith, director of sales and marketing for the Wiscasset Raceway, said two of the headlining bands told him Oxxfest “was the best show” on a tour that included stops in Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago.
“I know they’re going to mention the town of Wiscasset all across the country,” Smith said.
Rhonda Hamlin housesits on the same field where the concert was held. “I now oppose any events like this,” Hamlin said. Hamlin spoke in favor of the event at a June 1 hearing for the raceway’s permit.
Certain items, including drinks and certain types of chairs, weren’t allowed inside the concert, leading many fans, unwilling to make the trek back to their cars, to discard those things. “Everyone chose to throw their items onto my lawn,” Hamlin said.
Many concertgoers smoked cigarettes while standing in line outside Oxxfest, Hamlin said. “We picked up probably 1000 cigarette butts the next day,” she said.
Hamlin said her family and friends couldn’t park on her property. “I felt like I was trapped on my own property,” she said. Hamlin also complained about scalpers on her land.
Police were indifferent to her concerns, Hamlin said. “I was very appalled at the police that I dealt with,” she said.
As the day progressed, matters grew worse, Hamlin said. “I had people vomiting and urinating all over my property. I stopped many men midstream,” she said.
The drunks were a particular concern, Hamlin said, because she was babysitting five grandchildren to allow their parents to attend the concert.
In addition to her trials throughout the day, a “hot-tempered and vulgar” Ray Soule confronted Hamlin Sunday about her treatment of people on her lawn. Hamlin said Soule’s alleged outburst “medically” forced her to bed for two days.
Soule responded after Hamlin wrapped up her comments. “What this woman would say is absolutely not true,” Soule said. “I would not use vulgar language in front of a woman.” Soule said Hamlin, like many neighbors, profited from the concert by parking cars on her property.
Soule, a volunteer member of the Wiscasset Planning Board, turned to Hamlin for his final comments. “You are a liar and you know it,” he said, prompting a rebuke from Chairman David Nichols.
Skip Taylor also complained about a verbal confrontation with Soule. “I was accosted by Mr. Soule out in the parking lot,” Taylor said, after an earlier meeting.
“I think it’s time for [Soule] to resign from the planning board,” Taylor said.
Sherri Dunbar, the most vocal opponent of Oxxfest in the preceding weeks, called the roads after the concert “scary” and said intoxicated “kids” ran into her car while she was driving Saturday night. The concert, she said, was “not what I moved there for.”
Dunbar suggested the concert could open the town to class action lawsuits.
Harry Lewis said he lives across the street from the raceway. Lewis offered parking and estimated that 1800 people crossed his property. “When we offer our property to these people there are certain consequences,” he said. “I had no issues.”
Of the 1800, one person – a local – was rude, Harry Lewis said. The single difficult customer did little to dim Harry Lewis’ enthusiasm for the event. “This is all income that we desperately need,” he said.
Shawn Barnes said he invited “upwards of 1000 people onto my property.”
“I think [law enforcement] did an excellent job keeping the crowd under control,” Barnes said. “As far as the restaurant goes, I had two record-breaking days.”
Kathy Lewis questioned the reliability of Hamlin’s disaster narrative. Lewis said she was on her feet from 6 a.m. Saturday until 3 a.m. Sunday morning. “Rhonda was right across from me all day,” she said, parking cars in a bathing suit and enjoying herself.
The last time the women spoke, “[Hamlin] thought she had a great time,” Lewis said. Lewis also questioned Hamlin’s account of her complaints to police about scalpers and trespassers. Hamlin was excited to see people selling their tickets because they could watch from her lawn, Lewis said.
“This concert, for my family, was a gift from god,” Kathy Lewis said. Kathy and her husband, Harry Lewis, are both self-employed and were “close to losing their house” before the concert, she said.
Dunbar again took the podium to complain about “vulgarity” at the concert. “I don’t think that we should be forced to listen to that,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar also responded to assertions from several speakers that the concert provided an economic boost to area businesses. “Not all the businesses in town made money,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar said she visited several Main Street businesses during the day. Sales were slow, she said, and the businesses blamed the downturn on the concert. Dunbar did not specify which businesses she spoke to.
Wiscasset Raceway owner Doug White spoke last. “For my first one, for the town’s first one, for everyone working on it, it was exceptional,” he said.
White also addressed Taylor, the man who asked for Soule’s resignation and said Soule “accosted” him in the parking lot. “You should tell the rest of the story,” White told Taylor. “You attacked me verbally.”
