Music Harbor Brings Music, Joy, and A Lot More During Marathon Weekend
And according to science, it's bringing some emotion, too
BAR HARBOR—The posts started showing up on one social media account after another: an image of Mount Desert Island and in the middle? A guitar fretboard.
“Music Harbor” was all it read.
What exactly did the image mean? What was Music Harbor? And why was this image suddenly showing up everywhere?
After a couple of weeks, those who were watching began to find out, and that’s when people really started getting excited.
“It’s going to be fabulous!” one town councilor wrote.
“I can’t wait!” said one local man.
“Going!” wrote one woman under a share of the image.
WHAT THE FUSS IS ABOUT
All that excitement is about the expansion of an event that began last year, organized by Bo Jennings, the current president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Board and director of operations for Side Street Cafe.
On October 19 and 20, six Bar Harbor venues in town will provide over 60 hours of live music in Bar Harbor.
Why?
Because music matters and so does supporting local musicians, bands, and restaurants and inns.
Jennings hopes this is the start of something big, something that brings locals together, and that’s also a renewal of part of Bar Harbor’s character and culture.
“A lot of local people want something fun to do,” Jennings said. “I really wanted to give an experience to people.”
The festival, which features so much live music, is meant to give them that. Themed merchandise at Little Village Gifts and a custom beer from Baxter Brewing: the Music Harbor Lager. A collectable cup, which will give a discount at each business, is also available. However, people cannot carry open containers (or cups) of alcohol from venue to venue.
“This is a prime opportunity for locals to soak in a lot of live music in a short period of time,” Jennings said.
When people come into the Annex, he says, they will stay and listen, and be engrossed in the music, the moment, their comment, each other.
Some will get up and dance. Some will vibe in their seats. Some will record the show to take a piece of the experience with them.
“That’s what I want: people to come in say, ‘Wow, that was great. What’s next?’”
This weekend, there will be a definite what’s next. It’s also the weekend of the award-winning MDI Marathon, Half, and Relay, hosted by Crow Athletics, that has brought over $488,000 to local nonprofits since it began in 2009.
The six venues involved are all locally owned by year-round members of the Bar Harbor community: The Annex, Ivy Manor, Finback Alehouse, Project Social, Sand Bar Cottage, and Beerworks. Together, they’ll provide over sixty hours of live music. Last year’s festival, which was just at The Annex, had ten hours of live music.
“We wanted to think about what we can do to maximize the opportunity and to do it in a way to help other businesses. It’s been fun to get other people and other venues involved,” Jennings said.
He saw the potential and ran with it. Local and regional bands will play at varying times at each venue with minimal repeating acts.
LIVE MUSIC DOES WHAT?
There will be bands to chill to and bands to get funky with. Blue grass beats will mix with blues and funk.
“It’s evident that so many people care about live music,” Jennings said. “And there will be everything and anything.”
There will be teens playing and retirees.
“That to me says a lot,” Jennings said. It’s a musical island and a musical region. Maybe, he thinks, it’s time to celebrate that.
In a post-pandemic Bar Harbor, live music is resurging in part because of the focused efforts of places like the Annex, Finback Alehouse, Bar Harbor Beerworks, Bar Harbor Lobster Pound, the Criterion Theatre, Ivy Manor Inn, Lompoc, Fogtown, Mainely Meat, and Pizzeria 131.
Both the Ivy Manor Inn and the Annex offer live music every day during the summer season. Finback has become a later night staple. Lompoc mixes things up with karaoke, dancing, and fun.
The Sand Bar Cottage Inn (106 West Street) had a new outdoor patio put in last year where they serve drinks every afternoon. It’s open to the public, and on Sunday afternoons (weather permitting), they have live music. It’s local musicians, usually a singer and/or guitar player.
Last year’s festival was ten hours of live music just at The Annex.
“Ten hours of live music was weird, wonderful, AND wild. I honestly didn't know what to expect,” Beverage Director for Side Street Cafe and the Annex Jasmine Burne said. “Was anyone going to show up for early afternoon tunes? Would people get tired of listening after a while? Will it be too much to host the MDI marathon after party AND a music festival?”
It turned out that it wasn’t too much at all.
“At the end of it, I couldn't have been more thrilled with how it all went for our first try at an all-day music experience like this…. The musical groups leapt through the transitions flawlessly, and the staff never missed a beat as people kept pouring in. There was almost no break in the deluge of people tumbling through the door, the orders flying across the bar, the smiles and laughter,” Burne said. “It was such carefully balanced chaos that several times teetered on the brink of overwhelm, but never actually tipped over the edge. It was a great idea and was truly amazing to witness and to be a part of. It makes me even more excited to see what next year will bring.”
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC
Researchers at McGill have, led by Daniel Levitin, scanned people’s brain reactions as they listen to music, looking at the neural networks involved. The amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area all activate when you listen to music that you are into.
Those areas activate for lots of things like when you get a drink of water when you’ve been thirsty. When you drink that water or hear that music, brain chemicals trigger and they make you feel pleasure. Your brain makes opioids and dopamine.
Sometimes, the beat of the music will inspire brain neurons to fire in synch with the music. That happens to people throughout a venue. Their brains will be working in synch.
Jennings often tells a quick but powerful anecdote about what he thinks live music can do.
Everyone, he says, has seen it happen before. Two people in a bar are watching a ball game. One loves the Yankees, hates the Red Sox. The other? The opposite. They maybe jeer each other all night long until there’s a break in the action and “Mr. Brightside” starts playing.
Suddenly, both those stool sitters are belting out the song together, arms around each other’s shoulders as they croon. Together. For a minute, at least, they are on the same side.
Music is almost a superpower when it comes to bringing people together, to showing emotions, to inspire to dance or sing or to action.
Live music? That’s another level of magic. And it’s a magic that a community like Bar Harbor can cultivate, Jennings said.
Science agrees. Live music creates more activity in the part of the brain that processes emotion—more so even than recorded music.
The University of Zurich’s Sascha Frühholz composed multiple 30-second pieces of music. Half were meant to convey sadness or anger. The other half were meant to convey happiness.
A group of people who were not musicians listened to the pieces twice, in random order, as an MRI scanned their brains for activity.
Often, the live musician would adapt speed and volume to the subject’s response.
“The researchers found that live performances of both the negative and positive pieces consistently led to increased brain activity in the left amygdala – the region of the brain that is strongly linked to assigning sensory stimuli, such as sounds, to certain emotions.
“Meanwhile, the recorded tunes sparked much less, and much more inconsistent, activity in the left amygdala. This matched up with how emotive the participants rated each piece of music after the experiment.
“The findings show that live music intensifies our emotional response, probably due to its free-flowing, dynamic nature,” Chen Ly writes for NewScientist.
THE ECONOMICS OF LIVE MUSIC
It’s also an economic generator.
According to a report by Music Canada, “a music city, by its simplest definition is a place with a vibrant music economy. There is a growing recognition among governments and other stake holders that music cities can deliver significant economic, employment, cultural, and social benefits.”
What’s a music city? It has artists and musicians, a music scene that thrives with audiences that are engaged and receptive. It has record labels maybe. Music related businesses, possibly.
According to the report, “Music can be a significant driver of economic activity, employment, exports, and tax revenue. These impacts derive mainly from direct spending on the production of live music and ticket purchases by local residents and tourists, as well as music-related spending on such things as food, drink, accommodation, and transport. Significant economic activity is also created in recorded music, publishing, music management and other related activities. Beyond these, music generates indirect economic benefits.”
The arts economy employs 4.9 million across the United States for earnings of $370 billion. Some of that is linked with the service industry and tourism. In Maine, the arts accounts for 2.5% of the state’s GDP and over 16,500 jobs.
If all goes well, Jennings hopes that Music Harbor might expand to other towns next year. Places like the Nor’Easter in Northeast Harbor already have reputations for bringing live music to locals and visitors.
“I’m just trying to provide more people with an experience,” Jennings said, not bring in more people to Mount Desert Island, but give the ones who are here something to remember. “I love our locals who come in for live music and the people who stumble into it.”
Why not share it and create a safe harbor for music lovers, too?
THE CURRENT HARBORFEST SCHEDULE
The Annex at Side Street Cafe
51 Rodick St
Drink Special - $6 Margaritas (Classic & Margarita of the Moment)
Noon to 10 pm
Saturday
Noon - Stillwater
2 pm - On The Rocks
4 pm - Budd Williams
6 pm - Cryin’ Out Loud
8 pm - River Bottom Funk
Sunday
Noon - Midnight Rose
2 pm - Annie & the Rainmakers
4 pm - Banned from Eden
6 pm - Dan Lorey Band
8 pm - Nathan Grant
Finback
30 Cottage St
Drink Special - Happy Hour Prices
3 pm - 5pm, 10pm - Midnight
Saturday
3 pm - Rob Reid
10 pm - Em & Co
Sunday
3 pm - Rob Reid
10 pm - That Maine Band
Ivy Manor
194 Main St
Drink Special - TBA
Noon - 5pm
Saturday
Noon - Griffin Graves
230 - Cory Fong
Sunday
Noon - Hannah Risley
230 - Takoda Dionne
Project Social
278 Main St
Drink Special - $2 off specialty cocktails
5 pm - 8 pm
Saturday
5 pm - On The Rocks
Sunday
5 pm - Em & Co
Sand Bar
106 West St
Drink Special - Blueberry Sangria - $9 each or 2 for $14
5 pm - 8 pm
Saturday
5 pm - Sara Jones
Sunday
5 pm - Quiet For Sue
Beer Works
119 Main St
Drink Special - Blueberry Moscow Mules for $6
Noon - 6 pm
Saturday
Noon - Tourist
3 pm - Mike Billing
Sunday
Noon - Merther
PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE OR RECENT MUSIC-RELATED ARTICLES
Little Village Gifts — Cottage Street and Main Street
Baxter Brewing — Lewiston, Maine
Lompoc – Rodick Street
The Annex – Rodick Street
Finback Alehouse – Cottage Street
Fogtown Bar Harbor – Cottage Street
Pizzeria 131 – Cottage Street (far end)
Criterion Theatre – Cottage Street
Ivy Manor Inn — Main Street
Bar Harbor Beer Works - Main Street
Bar Harbor Lobster Pound - Route 3
Mainely Meat Barbeque - 15 Knox Road, Town Hill
The Sand Bar Cottage Inn - 106 West Street
The Nor’Easter — 10 Huntington Road, Northeast Harbor
SOME ACTS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bar Harbor Music Festival (almost an act, but not quite)
Quiet for Sue (in short clip above at Ivy Manor in June)
Takoda Dionne (in clip below at the Ivy Manor Inn)
LINKS AND PAST STORIES ABOUT BAR HARBOR’S MUSIC SCENE
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nea-arts-economic-study-1484587
CORRECTION! The merchandise is being sold at LITTLE VILLAGE GIFTS, not MY DARLING MAINE. We are so sorry and I regret the error, which was immediately corrected. Substack, the platform we write on, also inadvertently cut off Merther from the list of acts. We’ve added them back in and included a video.
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