Due to the ongoing pandemic, for the second year in a row, the Moxie Festival has been cancelled.

According to News Center Maine, earlier this week, the Lisbon town council voted 5-1 to cancel the summer festival, which celebrates all things moxie.

The town is hoping to hold other summer events, like a car show, 5K race, and fireworks.  However, if those events do happen, they'll be targeted toward the local population, instead of visitors.

According to Wikipedia, the drink originated in 1876 as a "patent medicine" - ya know, those cure-alls people used to sell from the back of wagons.  Back then, it was called Moxie Nerve Food.  It was created by Lowell, Massachusetts' Augustin Thompson.  According to him, the primary ingredient was a root called gentian.  He said the beverage cured everything from paralysis to insomnia.  In the mid-1880s, he started adding soda water to it.  At that point, it became more of a beverage and less of a medicine.

At the height of its popularity, in the early and mid 20th century, it had some famous fans including President Calvin Coolidge author E B White, and the Red Sox's Ted Williams.

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