Cherryfield’s bandstand turns 10

CHERRYFIELD – Never mind the 99-year lease that the Cherryfield Community Band arranged with the town about eight years ago for the use of the bandstand that members built along Main Street.

While the band has all intentions of remaining a part of the Cherryfield culture for the next 90 years or more, the insurance premium was getting so high that band leaders asked selectmen at their last meeting to put the bandstand back under the town’s umbrella insurance policy. That was done.

The band organization will continue to mow the lawn and maintain the white, octagonal bandstand on the green between the First Baptist Church and the American Legion Hall, facing the Narraguagus River.

The centerpiece of the town in summer, the bandstand is a symbol of everything good in a small community. Three or four times a summer it’s used for weddings. Tuesday evenings, the band’s regular rehearsals turn into cherished concerts for anyone who wants to sit and listen.

On Monday, the town will celebrate the bandstand’s 10th anniversary with a concert at 7 p.m., which is a combined effort between the Cherryfield Community Band and the Machias Community Band.

“Here we are at 2004,” said Cindy Curtis, who is credited for reviving the town’s band back in 1986. “We are still going strong, and the demand for the band has never let up.”

The Cherryfield band has nostalgic roots. Ten years ago the members made up T-shirts in honor of the band’s 125 years, although – as everyone is quick to point out – that wasn’t continuous.

This year, the band marks 135 years, albeit with about 30 years of inactivity.

The band started in 1869. Charles Wakefield, a popular local musician, was its last leader in the 1950s. When Wakefield died, so did the band.

Thirty years went by before some Cherryfield residents brought it back to life in 1986.

Cindy Curtis was one of those who helped. Her mother-in-law, married to the town’s fire chief, arranged for her to use $50 from the fire department to buy sheet music if she could pull together enough musicians to make a new band. Eight or 10 members gathered to play in Cherryfield’s parade that summer, and the band has grown every summer since.

Coming from towns well beyond Cherryfield, band members start practicing inside in March. They move to the bandstand for rehearsals as soon as it’s warm enough.

“The nice thing about the Cherryfield band is that it has such a long history,” said John Cicci, the band’s director from Milbridge. “And we do have a nice bandstand. The folks in the Lincoln Band came up a few years ago to look at ours, to get some ideas when they want to build one there.”

The town supported the revived band so much that a vote at the town meeting in 1992 gave way to the building of a bandstand on the town-owned green the next year. That happened through donated material and hours of volunteer labor. At 30 feet across, it can accommodate more than 60 musicians.

Though the bandstand is home, the 15 or 20 band members are popular well beyond Cherryfield. A schedule of dates this summer calls for a mix of parades and performances in Cherryfield, Jonesport, Winter Harbor (twice), Milbridge (twice) and Machias (also twice).

Being able to play in a band beyond high school has been wonderful for percussionist Kathy Upton.

“I thought I’d never play again after high school, and then Cindy brought the band back,” said Upton, who was one of the original members of the revived band in 1986. “But now we can play forever.”

Ernest Cotton nearly did. He had played with Wakefield’s old band in the 1950s, then rejoined the revived band. He played until the day he died last year.

Lucille Willey, who made the presentation to selectmen about the bandstand’s insurance last month alongside Curtis and Paul Merritt, also has been a longtime member.

“It’s fun to be together as a group,” Willey said. “People in the band have become good friends. But we’re always looking for new members, too.”