Life in Maine

Once you venture north of Portland, Maine, you pretty much enter a kingdom of "home grown" entertainment. With a population base that is relatively minute and widely scattered, it is difficult to financially justify bringing in "big name" cultural events, be it concerts, plays, comedy, or the like. More likely, you will find local bands playing at events and pubs, community theater groups, and variety shows put on by schools or towns. If you want to see the singers or groups that you hear on the radio or read about in magazines, you typically have to venture down to Boston or beyond.

Thankfully, there are a few exceptions to this situtation. One of these exceptions is the North Atlantic Blues Festival, an annual event held in Rockland in the middle of July. And while I certainly don't claim to be a Blues aficionado, the fact that I can take in nationally recognized talent by taking a 30 minute drive down the coast rather than a 4 1/2 drive to Boston is reason enough for me to check out the festival. That, and the fact that I can get into the 2-day event for free just by volunteering to work the gate for 4 hours during the weekend.

This was the 12th year for the North Atlantic Blues Festival, and it has grown in proportion and importance steadily during that time. Running from 11 a.m. until about 7 p.m., the festival features about a dozen bands, each of which play a 50 minute set. The bands come from all over the country - and even from beyond the US - to the cozy confines of Harbor Park in Rockland.

So how does the North Atlantic Blues Festival attract these acts to a small town in Maine? A big part of the draw is the reputation of the festival. Rather than playing in a dark, smoky bar or non-de script performance center, the performers at the festival enjoy a spectacular view Rockland harbor as they play their sets. And while they're here, the musicians get to experience small-town Maine hospitality. The festival usually stretches the available hotel and motel space to the limits, so a lot of the musicians are put up in the houses of the festival organizers and their friends. And the locals, grateful that the musicians have chosen to come to their little city, bend over backwards to make them feel at home. In short, the performers like coming to Rockland, and so an invitation to play at the festival has become a coveted "prize" among Blues bands.

Choosing to get our volunteer duties over with early, Denise and I signed up to work the first shift, 10-2, on Saturday. When we arrived, people were already streaming into the grounds. We were directed to work the "side" gate rather than the main gate, which turned out to be a very good thing since the side gate is a lot less crowded. Our duties were fairly simple to learn - we took tickets from those who had purchased them in advance and placed a wristband on their arms to indicate that they had paid, thus allowing them to come and go as they pleased. The only mental exercise involved was determining if they had a ticket for one day or both days of the festival - the yellow wristbands were for 2-day patrons, and the orange were for single day. Our superior intellects proved to be up to this task, and, as far as we know, we didn't make any mistakes.

Over the years, the North Atlantic Blues Festival has become synonymous with rain, and this year was no exception. Saturday was a bizarre weather day, with fluctuations from bright sunshine, to clouds, to thunderstorms, and back again. We brought raincoats, but, of course, left them in the car when we saw it was bright and sunny out. After getting soaked by the first shower, Denise "suggested" that I go to the car and retrieve the coats when the second set of threatening clouds appeared over the horizon. It proved to be a good move - it did rain again, and again, throughout the day.

The music is not the only entertainment at the blues festival. Perhaps as equally entertaining is the people watching (especially when you are working at the gate and can't see the performance stage). It is a somewhat eclectic mix of people that attend such an event, and although it would be unfair to stereotypically categorize the crowd, it is safe to say that the majority of those in attendance could be identified as "free spirits." Some, in fact, were a bit too "free" - on more than one occasion Denise could be heard to comment that "that person really should be wearing more clothes." A word to the wise for those in the younger crowd out there that are considering getting a tattoo - they really do look "less than attractive" on old, wrinkly, saggy skin.

Organizers estimated that there were between 4000 and 5000 spectators at Saturday's performances. With ticket prices of $35 for both days, or $25 for a single day, they should be happy with those numbers.

An extra added attraction of the weekend festival is the "Pub Crawl" on Saturday night. A number of area bars participate in the Pub Crawl, each of which host a live blues band (some of which participate in the festival, others which only play during the Crawl). The city also closes off Main Street and a couple of blues bands play at each end of the street. We found that this sounded better on paper than it actually played out in real life. All of the bars were extremely crowded, making it difficult to move around and hot while you were just standing around. Plus, after a full day of listening to music, and another day to come, we were oversaturated.

On Sunday, we had the luxury of not having to "work" at the festival. We arrived at about 12:30 and were shocked by what we saw. The line to get in was wrapped around the block, and the sea of humanity within the grounds was at least twice as large as it was the day before. Once we made our way in, we took up residence against the fence abutting the bay at the back of the park - the only place we could find where we had any type of view of the stage. Directly in front of us was the never-ending line for the port-a-potties. So, once again, we were entertained on two fronts - by the performers on stage and by the line of spectators winding their way past us. Unlike the day before, it was sunny and relatively warm, so even more skin was being exposed and even more fashion violations were in evidence.

We didn't end up making it to the end of the day this time, leaving after Shamika Copeland gave another blistering performance (she's become somewhat of a regular at the festival and clearly a crowd favorite). As we were leaving, we ran into one of the organizers of the event and she told us that we were extremely lucky to not have had to deal with the craziness that Sunday brought. They ran out of wristbands and nearly ran out of room to put people. But regardless, we, like a lot of the rest of the people there, will be back next year.

Singing the Blues