SUN JOURNAL • May 6, 2023
The first ever Auburn Lobster Festival drew about 3,000 visitors by 6 p.m. Saturday. The festival also featured a buoy decoration contest which earned $1,600, half of which will go to the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and the other half awarded in a random drawing. The event, which may become a perennial tradition, started as an April Fool’s joke over social media in 2021. While city officials laughed in the background, the post became viral around New England with a collective “Is this for real?” But the joke was on them once people started encouraging the city to actually hold the event.