And Absolutely Free

The Lincoln Arts Festival will kick off summer 2003 with not one but two free concerts! As a gift from a supportive angel, The Atlantic Clarion Steel Band will play on Saturday, June 28, starting at 5 p.m. with a picnic (yummies sold by the Center Cafe, or bring your own). This is an outdoor event, with the YMCA as a back-up in case of rain. Bring blankets or lawn chairs for comfortable seating! Carl Chase, the director of the band, promises "an electic sampling of everyone's favorite tunes with a calypso beat." The group of six young players plays tenor, guitar, cello and bass pans and more and offers magic music that "works even on naturally reserved New Englanders." Chaired by Captain Marion Dash, one of the "mothers" of the Lincoln Arts Festival, the band performs regularly throughout the northeast.

On its heels on Wednesday, July 2, the bells will be ringing at the Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church with The Ringers On The Green, a bell choir of 16 high school students from Morristown, New Jersey. This delightful, and free, concert is a part of the choir's tour 2003 of New England, and the performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. There will be a variety of sacred and secular selections from the contemporary bell repertoire, with an emphasis of folk idiom from cultures as diverse as Ireland, Zaire and South Africa.

Stay tuned for more information on both of these great events! No tickets are necessary, but contributions will be cheerfully accepted. Call the LAF office, 633-3913 for further information.