20 Best Performing Arts in Maine, USA

Every August, Bay Chamber Concerts mounts a three-week series of mostly classical concerts in the Rockport Opera House and in a variety of other venues, both indoors and out. Some events are free; others are ticketed, with discounted admission for young audience members. There's also a Bach for Breakfast series held in the Camden Amphitheatre.

Throughout the year, Camden's historic opera house presents a full calendar of concerts, plays, and dance performances, as well as an annual film festival.

One of the biggest and most colorful events of the year is the Camden Windjammer Festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend. The harbor is packed with historic vessels, there are lots of good eats, and visitors can tour the magnificent ships.

Castine's hub for visual and performing arts hosts exhibitions, literary events, workshops, panel discussions, and film screenings.

What started out as a lending library for printed sheet music has evolved into a nonprofit organization focused on music education and performances. Its online calendar lists all upcoming performance events.

Every year, a professional troupe of actors presents a midsummer festival of Shakespeare plays beside the harbor. Held in Camden's beautiful amphitheater, the performances strive to engage audiences of all ages, including children. The festival is presented in association with the Camden Public Library.

Opened in 1932 and run as a nonprofit since 2014 with help from a $2 million anonymous donation, this art deco gem with a floating balcony in the heart of downtown shows movies and hosts live performances. Depending on when you're in town, you may catch a drag show or a nationally known musician such as Christopher Cross.

One of the country's largest community steel bands plays in the Blue Hill Town Park every Monday at 7:30 pm in summer.

Kneisel Hall is a well-known venue for chamber music founded over 120 years ago by founder Franz Kneisel, who was also the founder the first fully professional string quartet in America. The organization's summertime festival school hosts promising young musicians and distinguished faculty and their rehearsals, masterclasses, and concerts are open to the public in July and August.  

Throughout the summer, L.L. Bean hosts free activities, including concerts, at the L.L. Bean Discovery Park, part of the company's large campus. It's set back from Main Street, along a side street that runs between the company's flagship and home furnishings stores. Additional offerings include family movie nights and wellness classes.

Rockland's annual Maine Lobster Festival, held in early August, is the region's largest annual event. About 10 tons of lobsters are steamed in a huge lobster cooker—you have to see it to believe it. The festival, held in Harbor Park, includes a parade, live entertainment, food booths, and, of course, the crowning of the Maine Sea Goddess.

An alternative-arts venue for the innovative and up-and-coming, Mayo Street Arts often features intimate concerts, contemporary exhibitions, and offbeat puppet shows in a repurposed church.

This soaring concert hall, built in 1912 and holding just under 2,000 seats, hosts numerous theatrical, comedy, and musical events--including performances by the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre, and many nationally and internationally touring artists. Ask about organ recitals on the auditorium's huge 1912 Kotzschmar Memorial Organ.

About a dozen well-known musicians gather for the North Atlantic Blues Festival, a two-day affair held the first or second full weekend after July 4. The show officially takes place at the public landing on Rockland Harbor Park, but it also includes a "club crawl" through downtown Rockland on Saturday night. Admission to the festival is $45 at the gate, $75 for a weekend pass.

Over its nearly century-long history, this classic summer theater has brought some the country's best talent to its stage. The stately green-and-white building feels like a relic from an old-time summer resort, and with an average of five productions each season, the Playhouse offers a good reason to take a break from the beach and spend an evening indoors.

This company mounts theatrical productions on its two stages September through May. Recent productions have included lots of new plays, mixed in with well-known works and musical shows.

Space Gallery sparkles as a contemporary art gallery and alternative arts venue, opening its doors to everything from poetry readings and art fairs to live music to documentary films.

A local art deco landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, the Grand opened as a movie theater in 1938, then fell into disrepair, sitting vacant for much of the ’50s to the ’70s. The theater reopened in 1975 and since then has staged plays, hosted concerts, and shown films.

Built in 1936 as a movie theater, this white-columned, Greek Revival building at the heart of Waldoboro has had its ups and downs over the decades, but, thanks to a restoration completed in 2021, its lights are glowing brightly again. It's now much more than a movie theater, thanks to a robust, year-round roster of concerts, plays, and dance performances.