Community Calendar

This Tony Award-winning musical tells a poignant love story set in Dublin, where two musicians connect deeply through their shared love of music. Featuring a cast of talented actor-musicians, Once celebrates the power of love and community through an intimate and moving story of connection.

Shows run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm with select Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2pm. more information and tickets can be found at www.hackmatack.org

Join Wild Ones Midcoast Maine for a fun tour of another transitional native plant garden, this time at 1 Thomas Street in Camden on Saturday, September 6 between 2:00 and 4:00 pm!

See and learn about the process of shifting from cultivars to native plants, and the challenges and successes along the way.

Get tips for including local seed-grown ecotypes in your garden, and how this can rival traditional gardens in beauty and surpass them in ecological benefit.

Free and open to all. Parking is available along the street. This event is in lead-up to the annual Camden Native Plant Sale & Celebration, September 14, 2025.

Mycology Outside is an educational mushroom camp/retreat organized by North Spore that brings experts in mushroom related topics such as outdoor cultivation, lab work, forest management, composting, foraging and more to The Ecology School for an event that truly stands apart. Seriously, the educators and diversity of topics is fantastic. For a full weekend, folks learn and play in a gorgeous and intimate setting that feels very different from anything else. The event has plenty of workshops to choose from so there are options for beginners and experts alike. Excellent lodging and meals are included and if you ever want to step away from the group, a kayak on the Saco River awaits.

Experience the International Seaplane Fly-in from a unique vantage point! This one-hour cruise takes you past Burnt Jacket in hope of a view of Mt. Katahdin and then returns to East Cove, offering an up close and personal view of seaplane contests.

Sample a variety of seasonal specialty beers while enjoying the incredible ambiance of The Cellars at Allagash, our wild and sour barrel aging space. If you are looking for a traditional brewery tour, check out our "

The highlights:
6 samples
60 minutes
In-depth barrel room exploration and chance to see the Coolship
$38 before tax/fees
21+

The experience includes a welcome sample of Allagash White. Starting May 1st we are tasting: Floating Holiday - blonde with lemon and sea salt, Dark Lager with Cherries, Cellar's #11 - barrel blend with wine grapes, and World on a String - bourbon barrel aged amber inspired by an "Old Fashioned" cocktail. Final pour is a "choose your own adventure" sample between two rotating options.

Please read on before booking:
Tour-goers must be 21 or older. Infant-wearing is welcome - the tour path through our manufacturing plant is not suitable for young children or strollers. Guests who are not drinking beer will have a choice of NA beverage. Dogs are not allowed on this manufacturing plant tour.

Join the DSQ for an evening of contrasts as they performs two great works.

The program includes the second of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” quartets, String Quartet in E minor, Op 59 no 2, a work that begins and ends in a stormy manner, similar to the Appassionata Sonata for piano and written during the same period of Beethoven’s life.

The sunny and often humorous Korngold Second String Quartet is a work which seems to reflect a 20th century nostalgia for the “old world”, including a Straussian waltz, and bears glimpses of the great film scores Korngold goes on to write in Hollywood in the ’40s and ’50s.

Join us for music workshops with the incredible musicians and teachers of Canadian super-group, Genticorum at 3:00 pm on Saturday, September 6, at the UU Church of Belfast, 37 Miller St in Belfast. The band will teach Quebecois repertoire, including some of the phrasing and ornamentation that are unique to this musical tradition. All levels are welcome, and participants will also get focused time in three distinct workshop groups:

Pascal Gemme ~ fiddlers
Nicholas Williams ~ other melody players
Yann Falquet ~ rhythm/accompaniment players
Participate in the workshop only, or stay for the 7pm evening concert in the same venue! Plus, there’s a singing workshop and matinee concert with Genticorum in Blue Hill on Sunday, 9/7.

General Admission – $27 advance, Student/Young Adult Admission – $15 advance, Keeper of the Arts – $50. Purchase advance tickets here. (Space permitting, tickets at the door are $37 general, $25 student)

BFS Partnership Program with Bagaduce Music with support from media sponsor, WERU Community Radio

A Community Concert by Akiwacu and Pihcintu Multinational Girl’s Choir. Saturday, September 6 at 4:00 p.m.
This event is part of The Gospel Messiah Project, a series of performances presented by the collaborators of Gospel Messiah: A Refugee Oratorio, leading up to the project's culmination on November 14-16.

Other events in the series include:

The Scent of Grief, spoken word performance by Moon Machar, former Indigo Arts Resident. Open mic after the performance. August 28 at 5:00. Free event, no tickets needed.
Gospel Music Lecture/Demo by composer/arranger Jack Maeby: "Soul stirring gospel joy that will knock you down and leave you speaking in tongues... (Maeby) burns rubber on your immortal soul." LA Weekly. Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Free event

Main Event

The Gospel Messiah is more relevant than ever, given the ever-increasing number of refugees seeking shelter worldwide. The performances will feature local musicians and a core group of singers, along with the multi-national girls' refugee choir Pihcintu, interlaced with spoken word pieces by Moon Machar, former Indigo Arts Resident along with alumni of The Telling Room. The power of Handel's music in a dynamic gospel interpretation will create a riveting theatrical experience you won't soon forget!
November 14 - 16, 2025. Matinee and Evening performances. $15 and $5 community tickets.

Generously funded in part by The Onion Foundation. Maine Humanities Council and The Nichols Fund

Halcyon String Quartet returns to Searsmont' 'Live Outside the Library' concert series this year with a very special new work by composer Nathan Davis and Maine poet laureate (and librarian!) Julie Bouwsma. Ghost Apples is a lyric suite for two voices, string quartet, and projected film. Featuring vocalists Sarah Tuttle and Aaren Rivard, Ghost Apples is a powerful and emotional journey through changing landscapes in the face of climate change. Set to music and film, Bouwsma's poetry encourages us to reflect on the beauty around us while embracing the uncertainties inherent in our collective future. halcyonstringquartet.org

Live Outside the Library is presented free to the public by the Friends of the Library, the library Board of Trustees, and the Onion Foundation.

One of Yankee Magazine's top five cemetery tours in New England! Walk Portland's Old Burying Ground with a trained guide. Hallowed? Not officially. Historic? Absolutely. Haunted? You decide. Visit the cemetery's unique field of underground tombs, the oldest gravemarker from 1717, the final resting place of the famed Captains of the 1813 battle between the Boxer and the Enterprise, and the interesting carvings of Portland's first stone-cutter, Bartlett Adams. Tours include early gravestone art, important local historic figures, Portland's historic events, and the landscape of this National Historic Landmark, including segregated sections for Black people, Catholics, Quakers, and strangers. Wear comfortable walking shoes, as the ground is uneven once we leave the main pathway. Tours are held unless the weather is stormy.