Arts fair to enliven downtown parks Craft activities, live music, workshops all free at daylong event in Bangor

BANGOR – The grassy parks downtown will come alive again with the hum of music and activity when the Bangor Region Arts & Cultural Council, along with the Bangor Public Library, stages the second annual Arts on the Green Festival this Saturday, June 5.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., people of all ages will be able to enjoy a host of arts activities, workshops and live music in The Lady Liberty and Hannibal Hamlin parks that run alongside the Kenduskeag Stream from Franklin to State streets. And it’s all free.

“Really, it’s just a day to have fun,” Brooke Shubert, the event’s coordinator, said.

Susan Jonason, chair of the Bangor Region Arts & Cultural Council, said the goal is much the same as last year: to give the community a chance to make some art and enjoy live music.

To that end, local artists, artisans and volunteers will be on hand to conduct classes and demonstrations. Teens and adults will have a chance to learn about embroidery, stained glass and jewelry making.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Maine Discovery Museum will show youngsters how to transform an average newspaper page into a hat, and Wendy Libby will lead boys and girls in decorating sun visors.

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra will provide an all-ages Instrument Petting Zoo and everyone will be able to contribute to a graffiti wall that will commemorate the day.

“Anyone who can hold a marker can have with our graffiti wall,” says Jonason.

Tours of the adjacent University of Maine Museum of Art will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with reduced admission for Arts on the Green attendees.

Live music will run in one-hour sessions throughout the day by the Lady Liberty statue. This year’s music lineup includes the Bangor Fiddlers, the Queen City Big Band, area funk favorites The Funkizon, Celtic-tinged hard folksters St. Huckleberry, acoustic vocal duo Kenai Rain, and the West Bay String Band.

Arts on the Green is made possible this year with support from the Maine Arts Commission.

For information about Arts on the Green, contact Brooke Shubert at everettvirgo@hotmail.com.