Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes, and one of the most hopeful places to be this weekend is the HOPE Festival.

But before you automatically head for the Brewer Auditorium, Ilze Petersons of founding sponsor the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine wants you to know that this event, which continues to grow in popularity since the first Help Organize Peace Earthwide Festival 10 years ago, has a new home.

The HOPE Festival is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at the University of Maine Field House on the Orono campus. Admission is free.

Sponsors gratefully thank “the folks at Brewer Auditorium, who hosted us for the past 10 years,” Petersons wrote in explaining that new space was needed “to accommodate more than 70 organizations working for peace, justice and a sustainable environment.”

Among those 70 booths at the UM Field House will be organizations “sharing information, selling buttons, T-shirts, crafts and delicious food,” she added.

Petersons also extends her thanks to Scott Wilkerson and the Department of Facilities Management and Sustainability at the university, and the Student Environmental Action Coalition, “for helping to co-sponsor this year’s festival.”

The new venue, she wrote, “will bring together all the entertainment on one stage so that adults and children, of all ages, can enjoy storytelling, music, puppetry and juggling together.

“The efforts of many volunteers and sponsors, coordinated by Sandy Tardiff, help make this special event free and open to the public.”

The 10 a.m. opening ceremony features Penobscot Elder Arnold Neptune.

Stage entertainment begins at 10:15 a.m. and Peter Millard is set to get the 5K Fun Run off at 11 a.m.

“Children’s program organizers Katie Greenman and Anne Hayes Grillo have, once again, planned fun and educational activities for children,” Petersons wrote.

All day long you will find craft and activity tables “with an environmental theme coordinated by the Maine Discovery Museum, Hudson Museum, Windover Arts Center and Care Development.”

Connie Bellett will have face painting, and Tammy Olsen, Maria Girouard and Penobscot Job Corps Center students are cooking up everything from wraps to chili.

Singer-storyteller Jennifer Armstrong performs at 10:15 a.m.; the Bangor Fiddlers of Bangor High school at 11:15 a.m.; Native American songwriter-storyteller Phil Whitehawk at 12:15 p.m.; and the duo Emma’s Revolution at 1:15 p.m.

Juggler Zachary Field takes the stage at 2:30 p.m., followed by the Frog Mountain Puppeteers at 3 p.m.

The newly formed Voices for Peace and singer Doug Crate close out the program at 3:45 p.m.

After its performance at the HOPE Festival, the award-winning Emma’s Revolution will perform at a light dinner and concert.

That event, which benefits nonprofit community radio station WERU-FM 89.9 FM in Blue Hill and 102.9 FM in Bangor, opens with the guitar-fiddle duo of Chuck Donnelly with Kate Wegner at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at Alamoosook Lodge Bed and Breakfast in Orland.

Tickets are $18 in advance, or $20 at the door.

Hot and cold appetizers will be served at 7 p.m., and special guest folk singer Sorcha Merrill will perform at 8 p.m., with Emma’s Revolution closing the program.

Pat Humphries and Sandy O, Emma’s Revolution, are award-winning, activist songwriters featured on National Public Radio and Democracy Now! and winners of the John Lennon Songwriting Grand Prize.

For more information, visit http://www.emmasrevolution.com.

Tickets can be reserved by e-mailing denis@weru.org or by calling 469-6600.

Disc jockey Tommy Dean reports an all-star lineup will entertain you during the third annual Brain Injury Association of Maine Country Music Show.

That event, with LUCKY 99.1 and 104.7 The BEAR disc jockey Billy Charles as master of ceremonies, is 1 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at American Legion Post No. 207 in Trenton.

Admission is a cash donation at the door, and checks will be accepted.

Dean reports the event stars Fred “Tommy” Thompson, “Doc” Morrill, Yodelin’ Wade Dow, Fiddling Katie Wegner, Lisa Higgins and Pard Higgins.

Alyssa Lewis will make a guest appearance, and Dave Taylor and Miriam Black will perform as well.

Dean urges you to “come on out for some great country music, and help this worthwhile cause.”

The event also features raffles, an auction and a teddy bear sale with Linda Griffin.

Refreshments will be on sale, and more information can be obtained by calling Dean at 667-0525, e-mailing baker1@midmaine.com or calling the American Legion Post at 667-9918.

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