KENNEBUNKPORT — Today’s rally and march for peace in Kennebunkport was largely peaceful, igniting only a couple of skirmishes between protesters and counterprotesters, police said.

Those incidents were quelled with the help of all sides, Kennebunkport Police Chief Joseph Bruni said. No arrests had been made as of late this afternoon.

Bruni said about 4,000 people took part in the protest, making it the largest demonstration in the town’s history.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone involved,” Bruni said. “In this heat, everyone did really well.”

At a pre-march rally, speakers included peace activist Cindy Sheehan and presidential candidate U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, among others.

“This is really energizing to be with people who want this war to end,” Sheehan told a cheering crowd at this weekend’s rally and march for peace in Kennebunkport. “We can’t put our signs away and sit on our couches. We have to press Congress to end this war.”

Kucinich told the crowd: “We simply have to get out of Iraq. We have to end this war.”

After the rally, an orderly but noisy crowd pounded drums, chanted slogans and waved while marching through town.

Counterprotesters from the group Gathering of Eagles demonstrated in support of President Bush and the troops.

The peace rally, which started at 10 a.m. at Consolidated School in town, featured musical performances and several speakers.

Despite the hot, muggy weather, the crowd seemed cheerful. Slogans were plentiful on T-shirts and hats, signs and banners, ranging from “Don’t Pay for this War” to “Care for Vets” to “Global Warming is Not Cool” to calls for impeachment.

Dick Nelson, of Lebanon, N.H., came to the rally with his 16-year-old daughter Andrea. “We were visiting Maine and we just had to come,” he said. “It seemed like our civic duty.”

On the school’s sports field was a small-scale, wall-like monument resembling the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, listing the names of the U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Julie Webster, of Northampton, Mass., started to cry as she found the name of a man who had served with her son, who got out of the military last week after 13 years.

“This is a hard thing to walk up to,” Webster said. “These soldiers were just doing their job.”