HOWLAND — Dozens of friends and others in the Bangor area gathered this morning to help state game wardens search for a Freeport man missing from a party since Saturday night.

Dean Levasseur, 24, was last seen smoking behind the bandstand at Chickenfest, an annual outdoor festival attended by hundreds of students from the University of Maine at Orono, which took place this year in Howland.

Additional Photos

This undated driver's license photo shows Dean Levasseur, 24, of Freeport, who disappeared during a weekend party hosted by University of Maine students at a secluded location in the woods. Maine State Police/The Associated Press

Screen image from the Facebook page Search for Dean Levasseur.

Levasseur was last seen shortly before his band was scheduled to perform at 11 p.m. He did not show up for the performance even though his guitar was left at the stage, police said. He failed to respond to an announcement made over the public address system, said State Police, which are heading up the search.

His relatives helped arrange a volunteer search party with friends and well-wishers gathering this morning near the site to coordinate with police and game wardens. A Facebook site created to organize the civilian search, “Search for dean Levasseur,” showed that 68 people planned to volunteer to search and another two dozen said they might be able to make it.

Many others offered supportive comments.

Levasseur was reported missing to police in Freeport, where he lives, but the search is concentrating on the area around the Howland festival site.

His cell phone signal was last identified Monday morning from a tower in neighboring LaGrange, though police said the phone could have been anywhere within a 10 mile radius of that location.

Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said public safety personnel are searching the area today and hoping for better weather than the rain that soaked the area Monday.

“The wardens are expected to a do a ground search today,” McCausland said. “If the weather clears, I think their plane also will assist in that effort.”

Police say the Chickenfest event is held each year at secret location. It’s not sanctioned by the University of Maine, and supposedly gets its name from barbecue chicken that’s served up.

Levasseur is described as 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen in a green jacket and blue jeans.

Trooper Tom Fiske said Levasseur’s phone last pinged a cellphone tower Monday morning in neighboring LaGrange. The phone could’ve been within 10 to 11 miles of the tower, Fiske said.

“That’s a daunting search area,” Fiske said. Searchers brought in a canine team on Monday but had no luck picking up a scent in the driving rain, he added.

Police are familiar with Chickenfest, which Fiske said is akin to a mini-Woodstock with multiple bands performing in the woods. Students keep the location secret until the last minute in an effort to stay ahead of law enforcement officials, Fiske said.

There were an estimated 300 to 500 people at the site by the time police blocked the logging road and began turning people away Saturday night, he said.

Police chose not to raid the party because there were too few officers to break up a big event. He said alcohol was flowing freely and that the following morning the site was littered with broken bottles, cans, paper plates and abandoned tents and tarps.

Levasseur’s bandmates used a public address system to try to summon him for the performance but he couldn’t be found, Fiske said.

Fiske said he was troubled that the musician abandoned his guitar. “Their instrument is the tool of their trade. He left it on stage and never came back for it,” Fiske said.

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