Fair to help WERU celebrate its 20th

BLUE HILL – WERU-FM 89.9 and 102.9 has scheduled its Full Circle Fair for Saturday and Sunday at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds in Blue Hill.

The fair will help the Orland-based station celebrate 20 years of community radio.

The Full Circle Fair is a two-day family event with music, speakers and children’s events. Hundreds of vendors, including artists, crafters, a wide variety of foods and nonprofit exhibitors, will be on hand.

Two stages will accommodate musicians and speakers. Among the confirmed acts are Buddy Holly’s Original Crickets, blues guitarist Debbie Davies, folk singer Ellis Paul, Slaid Cleaves, Prince Edward Island’s Vishten, indie rockers Maggi, Pierce and EJ, and folk-protest singers emma’s revolution.

Teri Blanton will be the fair’s keynote speaker. Blanton is survivor of a Superfund toxic waste site near her home in Harlan County, Ky. Her stand against the abuses of coal companies has won her notoriety within her state. An active member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, she has as her personal mission to reach out to her community about the issue of mountaintop removal mining. Blanton also will sit for a portrait with Robert Shetterly for his “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series.

Other speakers at the fair include the Humble Farmer, Margaret Micolichek of the Restorative Justice Project, Ruth Lockhart of Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center in Bangor, and a panel discussing Sears Island and the Federal Wetlands Mitigation Bank.

A children’s area will offer a number of performers for the little ones, including Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers doing its pirate show; Jay Mankita, Tom Neilson and Ellis Paul will do music sets for young and old alike. Sara Yasner will lead a singalong.

Also featured will be an open mike, a second-hand fashion show, a techno dance and special events such as open drum jams.

The Full Circle Fair is planned, organized and run by volunteers.

Part of WERU-FM’s mission is to be a “voice of many voices” and to provide programming to the community that cannot be heard elsewhere.

The fair will be held 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 26, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 27, at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds.

For information, visit fair.weru.org or contact the fair coordinator at fair@weru.org.