NORWAY — A candlelit, snow-filled trek, a three-legged race, musical chairs and a wife-carrying contest and more can be done for free — and on snowshoes — as part of the fifth annual Norway Snowshoe Festival this weekend.

The three-day event is organized by the Norway-based Western Foothills Land Trust with help from Norway Downtown and Healthy Oxford Hills as part of the statewide Great Maine Outdoor Weekend.

Lee Dassler, executive director of the Western Foothills Land Trust, said it’s obvious why Norway needs to have such a celebration in the community. The town was once known as the Snowshoe Capital of America and had four major snowshoe-makers from 1850 to 1980 — Mellie Dunham, H.H. Hosmer, W.F. Tubbs and the Aldriches with Snocraft.

The festival kicks off at 10 a.m. Friday with a snowshoe outing across Witt Swamp. Those wishing to attend the two-hour trek will meet at Shepard’s Farm Preserve at 121 Crockett Ridge Road. Call 739-2124 for snowshoes.

“It’s a really pretty snowshoe. There’s some beautiful botanics in the bog of Witt Swamp that are worth closer consideration, even if you don’t know the names,” Dassler said. “There’s something wonderful to be able to walk on a place that’s not walkable in the summer because it’s water.”

For those feeling romantic or others wishing to enjoy the great outdoors in the dark, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Roberts Farm Preserve, 64 Roberts Road, will be the candle-lit snowshoe walk. Dassler said they will make luminaria from snow or ice to place the candles on the 1.2k trek that will lead from the parking lot to the viewing point.

The 5k and 10k Norway Exile Snowshoe Races are at 11 a.m. Saturday at Roberts Farm Preserve, which are two of three activities with fees. It’s $10 in advance or $12 the day of the race. To preregister, visit www.runreg.com.

Games for children and their families have been moved to Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., which Dassler expects will be a warmer time. There will be a 1k relay, a three-legged race, a 100-yard dash, egg and spoon, musical chairs and pulk sled pull. There’ll be small prizes for those who participate.

“These are just fun games to everyone in the family out on snowshoes and having a blast. … The pulk are those little plastic sleds … usually the parent will be pulling one or two of their kids so it’s a speed race,” she said. “But it’s fun because the kids are falling out and the parents are getting involved.”

Culminating the games for the day is the world’s only Snowshoe Wife Carry.

“This area of Maine is very excited about carrying wives across finish lines, some sort of Finnish tradition I think, so we take that to snowshoes as well,” Dassler said. It doesn’t have to be a wife who is carried. She has had sisters carrying sisters, boys carrying girls and mothers carrying their sons. “It’s hard enough carrying your wife on dry land,” she said.

Dassler used to call the event the Mellie Dunham Snowshoe Festival, but has since simplified the name.

“Because Mellie was the first of the snowshoe-makers and he was so pivotal, we still include music,” Dassler said. Dunham was also a famous fiddle player.

The Valentine’s Day contradance at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Norway Grange, 15 Whitman St., has a suggested $5 donation. Bill Olson will call the dance as the Don Roy Trio plays the tunes.

“Mellie Dunham and (his son-in-law and fellow snowshoe-maker) Nate Noble used to play in front of that,” Dassler said of the painting that hangs behind the stage in the grange. “The historic resonance is so immediate.”

Chocolate snowshoes made by Auburn’s Maine Gourmet Chocolates and snowshoe valentines with Dunham’s lyrics will be available at the festival and at Books ‘N Things on Main Street. There’s antique snowshoes hanging in the windows of Cafe Nomad and Fiber and Vine, also on Main Street, for people to enjoy.

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