Market provides food, fun in Bangor Downtown event offered Thursdays

When you want to shop and your plans are a flop, you can always go – downtown. When you want goat cheese and some earrings if you please, it’s the place, I know – downtown.

Just listen to the music of the bands in Pickering Square. Linger by the streamside and forget your lingering cares.

How can you lose?

Well, at Bangor’s summertime marketplace, you can’t. The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, through Aug. 2, alongside Kenduskeag Stream. And it has grown to include farmers, food vendors and more artisans than ever before, for a total of 40 booths.

“For people who’ve not been to the market before … they can shop for farmers market-type grocery items for the weekend, then they can browse and, hopefully, buy from dozens of fabulous craft vendors,” said Sally Bates, the market’s organizer.

And for people who have been to the market before?

“They should expect more than they’ve ever seen and more variety,” Bates said. “I know there will be musicians dropping in this year.”

In most cases, the market provides shoppers an opportunity to buy products that aren’t for sale in other local venues, including jewelry, soaps and skin-care products, art, stained glass, handpainted silks and wooden cutting boards. From 7 to 8 p.m. each Thursday, a “Cool Sounds” concert is planned, starting with tonight’s performance by Flash in the Pans Steel Band.

In addition, Terrill Libera and Frank Duffy will offer horse-drawn carriage rides to the waterfront, with a sing-along during the trip. Duffy even brings a keyboard.

“He can play whatever you want to sing – ‘The Farmer in the Dell,’ he might even be able to play Aerosmith, I don’t know,” Bates said, laughing.

Christine Alexander of Udder View Farm will be on hand with fresh goat cheeses and drinkable goat’s milk yogurt. This is the farm’s first appearance at the market, and Alexander thought it would be a good way to expand the market for her cheese.

“It seems like a festive kind of an atmosphere,” she said.

Tree Heckler, a market veteran who sews wildly embroidered “monster” bags, would agree. This year, in addition to selling her handiwork, she’ll give free embroidery lessons to anyone who is interested.

“I love the people who come down to visit,” said Heckler, who also has a studio downtown. “I just love being in downtown Bangor. It’s a lot of fun to be outside, and I get to interact with a lot more people than I normally do.”

It’s like Frank Sinatra sang: Thing’s will be great you’ll see. Downtown – everything’s waiting for you.