The world’s largest rubber ducky comes

BY ERIK ANDERSON Special to The News-Post

The world’s largest rubber ducky seemed like the perfect fit for the little town of Crisfield on the Eastern Shore, about a 3.5-hour drive from Frederick.

“Crisfield in general is a big duck town,” said Heather Ross, the town’s Arts and Entertainment District coordinator who arranged for the duck to be the center of the town’s Little BIG Townfest this weekend. “We’re the home of the Ward Brothers, who were very famous duck decoy carvers.”

When Ross saw that the famous 61-foot-tall inflatable “Mama Duck” was slated to make its Maryland debut in Leonardtown on Aug. 4, just across the Chesapeake Bay from Crisfield, she knew her town needed a piece of the action.

“We are directly across from them, so I kind of naively thought that the duck could just float right over,” she said laughing.

Little did she know that while the duck is capable of floating, Craig Samborski, the event organizer from Duluth, Minnesota, who created the duck in 2014, prefers to keep it dry these days. Weighing in at a little over 16,000 pounds with all its rigging, a little bad weather can spell major disaster for the yellow behemoth when it sits on a floating barge or pontoon. Besides, setting it up on land lets fans get a closer look.

“Yes, it looks very cool on the water, but when you’ve got 15,000 or 20,000 people at an event, they want to be close to it to get a selfie with it,” Samborski said. “It’s just something we can’t do in the water.”

The idea for the duck dates back to 2008, when Samborski was in Los Angelos for a tall ships festival.

“I was out having beers with a colleague who worked with the city of LA, and he said to me, ‘Craig, you are a nice event producer from Minnesota, but you’re in Los Angeles, where you need to go big or go home,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m bringing a dozen tall ships here — that’s a pretty big deal,’ and he’s like, ‘No, man, you’ve got to build the world’s larg- est rubber duck.’ I thought, that’s a great idea. After many beers, most things are great ideas. I woke up the next morning, scratching my head, going, oh my gosh, what did I commit to? And there started the process.”

He said people are constantly asking him to explain the attraction of the duck and its 10-foot tall “baby duck” called Timmy, which will also be in Crisfield this weekend, but he said he finds it hard to describe and only knows “it is something people just desperately want a selfie with.”

The duck has a dedicated nationwide fanbase, what Samborski calls “a religion of rubber duck lovers,” some of whom travel to see the duck wherever it goes. He recalls once meeting a woman in Detroit who flew in from Houston for the day, just to see the faux fowl. He said he knows of several families who plan their entire vacations around visiting the Brobdingnagian bath toy.

“There’s dozens of stories like that,” Samborski said.

It’s that very star power that towns are looking for when they pay Samborski’s company to set up the duck. He said it generates millions of dollars in tourism revenue for local businesses wherever it goes.

Little BIG Townfest will be three days of special events for those who visit the duck at the Somers Cove Marina. Ten restaurants throughout the town’s walkable City Dock area will offer specials for the event, and visitors who find the hidden ducks at these establishments will be rewarded with special treats.

Many of the area restaurants focus on seafood. Ross said Crisfield has in the past been “known as the crab capital of the world” and that “it’s still a waterman’s working town, so a lot of the crabs you’re eating up in Frederick probably came form Crisfield.”

The American Legion Auxiliary will operate a cash bar in a covered pavilion near the giant duck.

Local boat tours will take visitors on 15- and 20-minute trips around the Crisfield waterfront. There will also be boats to take visitors to the nearby Tangiers and Smith islands for four- and five-hour excursions.

Different bands will perform free concerts on each day of the festival. The Folk Villains will play on Friday, the Vintage Blue Band will play on Saturday, and Sunday will feature Wisdom Flows by the Fantastic Pastor Paul Lewis.

Artists and vendors will be set up over the weekend. Art exhibits will be open at the town’s three galleries. The Heritage Museum is offering free tours and will provide art workshops for kids at their pavilions by the waterfront.

Samborski said visiting the giant duck is a particularly fun experience for children.

“It’s so much fun to see kids come to the duck, get their picture taken with the duck and play with the baby duck,” he said. “It’s just an all-around fun vibe.”

If you’re not able to visit the duck while it’s in Maryland, it’s going to be making a lot more appearances around the country in 2024. While this year it only appeared at eight summer week-