Maine’s Oshima Brothers will play the All Roads Music Festival in Portland in May. (Photo by Jamie Oshima.)
Portland will get a new music festival this spring, with more than three dozen national and local acts playing at indoor venues throughout the city.
The All Roads Music Festival, which has been held in Belfast for the past decade, will expand to Portland with two days of shows on May 15 and 16. National acts scheduled to play the festival, mostly indie bands, include The Beaches, Monrovia, Momma, Bahamas, Touching Ice and Lily Fitts. Some of the Maine-based artists include Genevieve Stokes, Louisa Stancioff, Angelikah Fahray, Ada Bonnevie, Becca Biggs and Oshima Brothers.
The Portland venues include the 1,900-seat State Theatre, One Longfellow Square, Oxbow Blending & Bottling, Space Gallery, Geno’s Rock Club, Blue Portland Maine, Portland House of Music, Mechanics’ Hall and Flask Lounge.
Meg Shorette, the festival’s co-founder and talent buyer, said the Belfast version will continue, but will move from May to Oct. 16 and 17. Shorette said the All Roads Music Festival began in 2015 in Belfast, focusing on local Maine artists, and was paused for a couple years during the pandemic.
When the festival resumed, there was a renewed energy in the state’s music scene and Shorette and others began thinking about expanding the festival. Shorette, who had worked as a talent buyer at Port City Music Hall in Portland, began talking to venues in Portland and found many said an event in May might help them through a traditionally slow time in the concert business.
Shorette said the festival’s partners in Belfast felt that moving the event to October could likely help businesses in that Midcoast city through a slower time for entertainment, as well. Both versions of the festival will present plenty of opportunities for local musicians.
“The Belfast festival will continue to be hyper-local, but in Portland we’re having local bands share the stage with some of these bigger bands,” Shorette said.
Bonnevie, a multi-instrumentalist whose music includes rock and folk vibes, said the All Roads Music Festival will fill a void for artists and fans, since the city doesn’t have a festival with such a large focus on local music. About a decade ago there was a festival called Waking Windows, with dozens of bands playing all around downtown. The Back Cove Music and Arts Festival was held for the first time last August in Payson Park in Portland, organized by Connecticut-based promoters, but with a focus on nationally-known acts like Jack White and Lucy Dacus.
“I don’t think Portland has had a true music festival on the peninsula that featured mostly local artists since Waking Windows, so I think there is a need being filled,” said Bonnevie, who had played the All Roads festival in Belfast and was impressed with the energy and crowds. “I think having one in Portland and one in Belfast is great for both communities.”
The full schedule of performances for the Portland festival, including times and venues, will be released by the end of January. Shorette said tickets that allow access to all venues are on sale now on the festival website for about $150.
