Music and arts have been coming alive each August on the Bangor Waterfront for nearly a decade now, thanks to the National Folk Festival and the American Folk Festival.

For years, it's been the only game in town, but not anymore. There's a new batch of festivals now, and the organizers of those events are thankful for all the folk festival has done to pave their way.
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It used to be, if you wanted to see live music and arts outdoors in Bangor, you'd have to wait for the American Folk Festival. Not anymore. Now the KahBango Music, Art and Film Festival and the Waterfront Concert Series are keeping fans entertained all summer long.

"It's an attempt to bring a lot of entertainment to the Bangor waterfront."

Alex Gray is President of Waterfront Concerts.

The concert series has brought thousands of folks to Bangor this summer to see such acts as Celtic Woman, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Charlie Daniels Band.
Hopefully it will flourish over the next two or three years into something along the lines of twenty to thirty shows annually."

Timothy Lo is the Executive Director of the KahBang Music, Art, and Film Festival. It's a nine day event filled with local and national music, acts and film screenings.

"The festival is really about independent artists and up-and-coming talent. So it's a big show feeling in a small town."

Both Lo and Gray say they're thankful the folk festival took the chance and set up the foundation at the waterfront.

"They were the pioneers, they set up this place. If you recall when the National Folk Festival came to Bangor, the waterfront was not nearly as developed as it was, and if it wasn't for that trail blazing that they laid out, the infrastructure wouldn't be as nice."

"People in this area support live music. They support the arts, they support entertainment."

While the folk festival could be called an inspiration to the new kinds in town, the most recent festivals are taking a separate path.

"What the Folk Festival does is predominantly one genre of music, the folk side of things, but also they're very much into the arts and the dance side of things, but that tends to attract one level of clientele whereas our company is much more broad."

"The Folk Festival has been a fantastic inspiration. We service a different demographic. We're more of a rock show and a concert feeling but certainly we wouldn't have had the inspiration to be here on the waterfront if they hadn't tried to place a similar large scale event here."
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The KahBang Festival has wrapped up for the year and it was very successful. Organizers say It'll be back next year.

As for the Waterfront Concert Series, it's still going strong. Tim McGraw will be performing on September 4th, Alan Jackson is on the 10th, and Jason Mraz will be in town September 11th.
For a full list of concerts coming to the waterfront, log on to: waterfrontconcerts.com

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