Ashley L. Conti | BDN
On Friday in Bangor, comedian Ron White plays an opening night show for the Bangor State Fair at 8 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center. Speaking of which: the Bangor State Fair! It’s happening all week! Meanwhile, over in the downtown area, songwriter Colin Fowlie plays at Black Bear Brewing, Analog Salad plays at Paddy Murphy’s, and it’s vinyl night with Queen City Cinema Club at Nocturnem Drafthaus. On Saturday, the first night of two nights of the Impact Festival is set for the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion, featuring a wide array of metal and modern rock bands, headlined on Saturday night by Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment and Skillet. Elsewhere on Saturday night, the Tune Squad plays at Paddy’s, and OneSixtyOne plays at Nocturnem. On Sunday, day two of Impact Fest features headliners Godsmack, Evanescence and Killswitch Engage.
In Portland on Friday, there’s a sold-out concert from Maggie Rogers at Thompson’s Point; Lettuce and Jaw Gems play at the State Theatre; QUAD, Sea Level and Myles Bullen play at Empire, and One Longfellow Square hosts a night of local comics as part of the Portland Comedy Festival. On Saturday, comedy legend Dave Attell headlines the Portland Comedy Festival with a show at the State Theatre, pop ensemble Juice is at Port City Music Hall, local rockers Platinum After Death, Xander Nelson, Boat Dares and Don’t Panic are at Portland House of Music, songwriter Slaid Cleaves is at One Longfellow, there’s some local punk and emo from Adulting, Pregame Rituals, NoGood and Uncle Spudd at Geno’s, and there’s an array of songwriters at the Apohadion, with headliner Kath Bloom. On Sunday, the annual Wazo Fest features a huge array of Portland-area musicians and artists, all afternoon at the Space Gallery, and Friendship Committee, Thems That Wait and Vice Reversa are at the Apohadion.
Along the coast, there are several great concerts this weekend in beautiful theaters, including Natalie Merchant on Friday night at the Strand Theatre in Rockland, and Judy Collins, also on Friday night, at the Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor. The Criterion also hosts the first-ever Acadia Dance Festival, featuring dance performances all evening Saturday culminating in headliner Nimbus Dance at 8 p.m. A bit further afield, the Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival celebrates its 25th year in the gorgeous Washington County village of Grand Lake Stream, with more than 60 folk artists and artisans — from canoe and snowshoe makers to potters, painters and jewelers — set up on both Saturday and Sunday.
All across the state on Sunday it’s Open Farm Day, a yearly celebration of Maine’s vast and vibrant agricultural landscape. Farms from Woodland to Wells will throw open their gates for demonstrations, tours, delicious food, animal petting, music and much, much more. A full list of all participating farms can be found online at the Maine Department of Agriculture website.
Opening this weekend in movie theaters everywhere in Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated new film, “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood,” featuring the on-screen pairing of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio which, let’s be honest, is basically the dream of every straight girl and gay boy that grew up in the late 90s. On TV, the seventh and final season of “Orange Is The New Black” starts on Netflix, and on Amazon, there’s “The Boys,” a new superhero series.