An annual spring rite starts at 1 p.m. next Friday -- the 28th State of Maine Sportsman's Show (SMSS) at the Augusta Civic Center on Civic Center Drive within sight of Interstate 95's exit 112. This Friday-through-Sunday extravaganza draws a packed house year after year.

By out-of-state standards, the show is indeed small, but that fact insures an intimate, friendly atmosphere -- fun for the crowd and exhibitors.

It's difficult to believe SMSS is approaching 30 years old, but sure enough, it began in March 1980 at the Augusta Armory. It was such a huge success that the show producers, The Maine Sportsman magazine and Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, moved it to the Civic Center the following year, and as clichˇ-ridden sports announcers like to say, "The rest is history."

One of the big changes in this 2008 extravaganza concerns the opening time on Friday. It has always opened at 4 p.m. and run to 9 p.m., but this year, the show goes from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. I suspect late arrivers that evening will scowl at the closed doors after 7 p.m.

On the last two days of the show, the doors are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday -- the same traditional time frame as in recent years.

One common complaint about SMSS strikes me as unfair. Folks gripe that the show has little new each year, which is patently untrue. I know this for a fact because I have been involved for the last 28 years.

The show may have favorite features returning each spring, creating the illusion of the same old-same old, but the co-hosts have a slew of new seminars, stage events and exhibitors every year. And, according to Harry Vanderweide, the show's co-director, "Change is the cornerstone of the 2008 show."

ATV Maine has set up a course in the Civic Center parking lot, where children 8- to 16-years-olds can drive an ATV after instructions on safety and manual operation. This guarantees to be a crowd favorite.

Larry the eagle and Pretty the red-tailed hawk will be on hand, and handlers will allow people to stand beside these magnificent creatures to have their photo taken.

The Maine Bowhunters Association offers an interesting event for young showgoers as well as adults, an opportunity to shoot the new Genesis compound bow. This product has excited the archery world because it fits all people, and raw novices can shoot it with relative ease. The Genesis may revolutionize bowhunting nearly as much as compound bows did 30 or more years ago when manufacturers first introduced them.

Twenty-four state organizations and six state agencies will have booths, and in the latter category, that includes the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Department of Conservation, Department of Transportation, Maine Center for Disease Control, Atlantic Salmon Commission and Department of Marine Resources. Folks on hand from these agencies can answer questions on all manner of topics.

People often complain that few fly-fishing shops have booths, but for one reason or another, the show doesn't attract fly shops. However, Trout Unlimited has a wonderful weekend schedule for fly fishers, including a seminar every other hour on fly-fishing topics. In the alternate hour, folks can tie flies in the TU room off the main auditorium.

L.L. Bean exerts a huge presence at the show with an outdoors equipment display in the main auditorium and seminars in individual rooms off the main floor, where experts in their fields talk about matching the hatch, fishing rivers and streams, fishing stillwater, Maine bass, basic shotgun essentials and three separate hunting presentations for deer, coyote and spring turkey.

Art, photography and carving contests draw huge audiences as do the taxidermy displays. These exhibits are in rooms off the main auditorium.

One big appeal of the show begins and ends with seeing old friends. Folks from across the Northeast come to the Civic Center that weekend, and often, showgoers see people whom they haven't run into for years.

Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for children 5- to 12-years-old and free for children 4 years old and under.

n n n

Next week, this column will cover the few open-water fishing hot spots around central Maine and beyond. April Fool's Day can have snow and ice galore, but crowds form at a few places where open water and the chance of a bent rod attract hopefuls.

Ken Allen of Belgrade Lakes is a writer, editor and photographer.