What is most exciting about the first “Arts on the Green,” which begins at 9:30 a.m. and continues throughout the evening Saturday, May 31, in downtown Bangor “is that it’s an arts organization putting this on,” said Susan Potters.

This is the first outdoor arts festival sponsored by the Bangor Region Arts and Cultural Council, in collaboration with Bangor Center Corp., “and it’s all local talent,” Potters explained.

“It’s about art in the making, and not about buying art at all,” she said.

“We want people to get out there and roll up their sleeves” and participate in all the activities available to them during the festival.

The event will be held on both Norumbega Parkway and Hannibal Hamlin Mall, which are located between State and Franklin streets in downtown Bangor.

White tents on the greens will be used to cover the performing musicians and for the all-day art and craft workshops and demonstrations.

“Jan Owen will be there discussing bookmaking and calligraphy,” Potters said. Other workshops will feature beading, jewelry, fabric painting, drawing, hat making and embroidery.

“People can just drop in [on] the workshops anytime and stay as long as they like,” Potters said.

There is no fee to attend the festival, and vendors from Thai Siam, Taste of India and Intown Internet Cafe will be there to keep you from getting hungry.

Potters is pleased the local arts group is taking advantage of the opportunity to “make good use of these two beautiful assets in downtown Bangor,” she said.

Bagpiper Ernie Smith will open “Arts on the Green” at 9:30 a.m., with other groups performing for an hour each beginning at 10 a.m.

The Queen City Big Band, Planet Pan Steel Drums, Dr. Banjo and Friends, Appalachian Roots Music, the Hampden Academy Jazz Ensemble, Mainely Music Barbershop Chorus and a bluegrass fiddle-mandolin group have agreed to participate.

Weather permitting, Potters said, “we will have dancing on the parking lot of Norumbega Hall. If that place is very wet, that would be the only part of the festival that would be canceled.”

The plan is for a dance for families and children from 4 to 6 p.m. with Greg Boardman and the young Arcady-Bangor fiddlers.

“Greg will be calling out the steps, and they won’t be too hard,” Potters added.

Social dancing, featuring Sentimental Journey, begins at 6 p. m. at that site.

Sponsors of the first BRACC arts festival are Bangor Raceway and WVII-TV 7, with funding from the Maine Community Foundation and Unity Foundation.

I hope you have your ducks in a row for the sixth annual Great Bangor Rubber Duck Race, which begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 31, on Central Street Bridge in downtown Bangor.

Organized by the Good Samaritan Agency, about 2,000 rubber ducks will float to the finish line, with all proceeds benefiting Good Sam programs and services.

WLBZ 2 anchorman Ric Tyler is honorary chairman of the race and will be on hand to get the ducks in the water for the start of the race.

Duck sponsors may obtain tickets at Good Samaritan Agency, 100 Ridgewood Drive, Bangor, or at stores and businesses in the Bangor area. Tickets are one duck for $5 or six ducks for $25.

Activities preceding the race, including games for small children and face painting, begin at noon in Pickering Square. If you don’t have your ducks by then, you can purchase them up to the start of the race.

Good Samaritan Agency, founded in 1902, offers services to single parents, including an alternative education and daycare program in addition to adoption services.

For more information about the agency, or the event, call Good Sam at 942-7211.

On behalf of members of Elm Street Congregational Church, bicentennial committee chairwoman Joyce Sanborn invites the public to attend a bicentennial open house, starting with the church service at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 1, at the Bucksport church.

Guests will include past ministers, former and present members and friends of the church, high school seniors and the Sweet Adeline Chorus, which will sing during the service, Sanborn said.

A bicentennial open house barbecue follows the service, featuring games and balloons for children as well as another Sweet Adelines performance.

“Also, we are having a groundbreaking for our memorial garden that we’re going to be making this summer,” Sanborn said.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.