Three days. Slippery fish relays. Awesome boats. And a Town That Shows Up For Itself

Carrie Jones

Jun 29, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.

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TREMONT— Before the lobster boats thundered across Bass Harbor, before the antique cars parked all around Gordius Garage, and before grown adults and kids slipped across the asphalt carrying giant pollock while wearing borrowed fishing gear at Archie’s Lobster, somebody had to decide this old tradition was worth saving.

The people of Tremont didn’t just save it.

They wrapped it in three days of food, music, laughter, hugs, neighbors, and enough hometown pride to make Bass Harbor feel like the center of the coast.

Just back in 2023, the Lobster Races were a stand alone event.

Town officials worried that the historic race might be dwindling out with fewer boats racing.

So they took action and formed a Lobster Boat Race Committee, chaired by Eleanor Mitchell.

That committee began a multi-day festival, the Backside Blast: three days of fun, hi-jinx, and joy in Bass Harbor.

“A lot of events in our area are geared towards tourists and less towards locals,” Lobster Boat Committee Secretary Kat Murphy told the Mount Desert Islander’s Zac Lanning last year. “So, our goal with this event is to cater to locals and give them something to celebrate, focusing especially on our generational fishing communities here on the island.”

The Backside Blast is truly about community.

It’s about neighbors cracking some lobsters next to neighbors at Archie’s Lobster while people relay race with massive, slip-sliding pollocks.

The Pollock Frolic is a slippery fish relay race requiring participants to don lobster gear before running with a slippery pollock across the pavement to a bucket.

Fishing gear must be traded off and worn during the race.

The fish can’t be gilled during the carry, emcee Jayson Clough will tell you as he encourages the racers on while rock anthems play in the background. And Chris Popper streams it all live on WDEA while taking photos. Southwest Harbor Police Officer Kristin Roulet offers a helping hand to some of the racers and when a last-minute stand-in team was needed, she, Andrew Simon, and two others hopped in and helped.

That’s it, right? Hopping in and helping.

The Backside Blast is also about checking out the cars, the band, and the pig roast at Gordius Garage.

That event was hosted by Al Gordius and his family. That garage has been in the community for more than 40 years.

The Blast is about screaming (or maybe blasting) your lungs out for your friends racing their lobster boats down Bass Harbor even when you know they aren’t going to hear you over the roar of the boat’s engine.

That’s right.

The Blast is about cheering each other on, hugging each other tight, swapping stories and lobster picks, and having each others’ backs even when nobody else is looking.

And it’s about a town committee and a community that makes things happen. Those lobster races had 43 racers back in 2024. There were just about 70 this year, organizers said. Add in food trucks, dancing, and joy?

You can’t really get better than that.

Yes, the Backside Blast started with the lobster boats, because around here that’s how it often starts.

But before the engines roar across Bass Harbor, there are neighbors hauling folding chairs to the shore, volunteers setting up tents, someone stirring pieces of pork, some musicians planning set lists, and somebody worrying about everyone else having a good time.

By the time the weekend is over, there will be races won and races lost. There will be music, dancing, roasted pork, slippery fish, scraped knees, and sore throats from cheering for boats whose captains can’t hear a thing over the engines.

And somewhere in all of it is the reason the Backside Blast has become one of Tremont’s favorite traditions: it isn’t really about lobster boats at all.

It’s about the community.

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We have more photos than we can fit here. Those are posted on our Facebook page, just scroll down a bit for them. All photos Shaun Farrar/Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story.

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