Summer Preview
Here's a sneak peek at the festivities scheduled throughout the summer in Maine.
MuseumsPortland Museum of Art
Between Plan and Elevation: The Work of George Lloyd. Architectural spaces filled with light and energy are the focus of a new exhibition of work by Portland artist George Lloyd. Through May 7. ? The Maine Perspective: Architectural Drawings, Part III -- Toward Modernism, 1925-1985. The final installment of this series of exhibitions devoted to Maine architectural drawings, this show demonstrates both the continued importance of history on architectural styles Down East and the rise of Modernism. Through May 21. ? In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers celebrates fifty years of Magnum Photos, Inc., one of the world's most renowned photographic agencies. This exhibition looks at the work of revered documentary photographers: Magnum founders Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, Robert Capa, and David Seymour, as well as noted contemporary photographers such as Sebasti?o Salgado, James Nachtwey, and Susan Meiselas. April 6 through June 4. ? Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church. Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), one of America's most popular nineteenth-century Hudson River School landscape painters, made important contributions to the history of art in this country. This exhibition of eighteen of the most exquisite oils, watercolors, and drawings from Church's own collection highlights his accomplishments in a variety of media. May 20 through September 10. ? The Quiet Landscapes of William B. Post: Pictorial Photography in Maine. William B. Post (1857-1921) helped make the case for photography as a fine art at the turn of the twentieth century. He excelled at photographing the rural landscape of Maine near his home in Fryeburg -- fields at harvest time, apple trees in blossom, and, most notably, water lilies and snow. As a member of the Photo-Secession, an avant-garde group of photographers, he helped establish the Pictorialist style first championed by Alfred Stieglitz. June 3 through August 27. ? Paris and the Countryside: Modern Life in Late Nineteenth-Century France. It has long been observed that Impressionists and their followers heeded Baudelaire's call to paint "modern life." The exhibition will use purely visual means to explore what the very notion of a modern life, in its many facets, meant in the late nineteenth century and will include approximately seventy paintings and works on paper by such artists as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Eugene Boudin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Theo van Rysselberghe, Emile Bernard, and Maximilien Luce. June 23 through October 15. 7 Congress Square, Portland. 207-775-6148. www.portlandmuseum.org
Farnsworth Art Museum & Wyeth Center
Touch the Sky: Jamien Morehouse's Liberty Banners. For two decades Jamien Morehouse (1951-1999) created and sold her vibrant banners made from fabric collage, quilting, and appliqué through her company Liberty Banners. Through June 18. ? Andrew Wyeth: Selections. This exhibition will feature works drawn from the Wyeth Study Center Collection, including several completed within the past few years, as well as some of Wyeth's best-known works. May 15 through October 15. ? N.C. Wyeth: Artist and Illustrator. This exhibition will include both illustrations and paintings by Newell Convers Wyeth dating from as early as 1911 to the early 1940s. May 15 through October 15. ? James Wyeth: Portrait of an Artist. James Browning Wyeth puts his own unique spin on realism. This mid-career assessment will provide an unparalleled opportunity to examine his work in the larger context of American art. May 15 through October 15. ? Winslow Homer: A Collector's Passion. The little-known but superb collection of American art at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, New York, includes a number of exemplary works by Winslow Homer in both watercolor and oils. June 25 through September 17. ? Charles Hewitt: Odyssey. Hewitt grew up in Auburn and Brunswick. A student of Philip Guston, David Hare, and Elaine DeKooning at the New York Studio School, he has played a significant role in contemporary printmaking in Maine since 1984, when he returned to the state to work at the Vinalhaven Press. Hewitt's exuberant, physical approach to his materials, whether paintings, prints, sculpture, or ceramics, is evident in this first comprehensive museum exhibition of his art. July 2 through October 15. Rockland. 207-596-6457. www.farnsworthmuseum.org
Bates Museum of Art
Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale. Often considered a marginalized science or a farcical adventure, the practice of cryptozoology is the quest for unknown, rumored, or hidden animals. Its most notorious pursuits include the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Abominable Snowman, though it has also revealed animals that are now part of the classified natural world. Under the umbrella of cryptozoology this project, including a symposium, exhibition, book, and film series, aims to explore a pursuit where the disciplines of science and art share a mutual focal point. June through October. 75 Russell Street, Lewiston. 207-786-6158. www.bates. edu/museum.xml
Colby College Museum of Art
Bill Ingham. Seattle-born artist and Colby College alumnus William Ingham is known for his fusion of bicoastal influences and loose Abstract Expressionist painting. Rich in color and sweeping movement and drawing inspiration from the Pacific Northwest, Ingham's paintings are at once both dreamlike and organic. May 28 through July 9. ? The Skowhegan School: Sixty Years. Celebrating the school's sixtieth anniversary this year and the newly formed Skowhegan Lecture Archive, which consists of more than 560 recorded lectures, the exhibition will bring together works of art by thirty Skowhegan faculty. July 26 through October 15. 5600 Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville. 207-872-3228. www.colby. edu/museum
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
Drawings and Sculpture by Kendra Ferguson. Elegant minimalist drawings and sculptures that the artist describes as "very quiet, very white." April 9 through May 27. ? Skowhegan at Sixty. In recognition of the sixtieth anniversary of the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, CMCA will feature nineteen Maine student participants since 1996, including Astrid Bowlby, Danica Phelps, Andrea Sulzer, William Pope.L, and Aaron Stephan. June 3 through July 23. ? Bestiary. A group exhibition of birds and animals depicted in paintings, sculpture, and photographs by Will Barnet, Dahlov Ipcar, "Blackie" Langlais, Jocelyn Lee, Stephen Pace, Nina Scott-Hansen, William Wegman, and Sharon Yates, among others. August 12 through September 30. ? Photography by Jed Devine. Includes forty black-and-white still lifes and diverse subjects ranging from the Maine landscape and the Brooklyn Bridge to a human skull, accomplished over the past three decades by this American master photographer. August 12 through September 30. 162 Russell Avenue, Rockport. 207-236-2875. www.artsmaine.org
The University of Maine Museum of Art
Michael Alpert: Recent Photographs. Maine artist Michael Alpert's [Down East, January 2006] photographs portray the often harsh, unadorned beauty of the state. ? Lauren Fensterstock. Conceptual sculptures by the Portland artist and curator uniquely twist nature with the manmade. ? Five Landscape Paintings brings welcome warmth to winter's cold with this exhibition of large summer landscape paintings by five acclaimed artists: Lois Dodd, Rackstraw Downes, April Gornik, Vaino Kola, and Neil Welliver. All through April 8. Norumbega Hall, 40 Harlow Street, Bangor. 207-561-3350. www.umma.umaine.edu
Owls Head Transportation Museum
Fiddleheads & Antique Aeroplane Show. From 4x4s to sports cars to woody wagons to motorcycles, all pre-1980 vehicles are invited to help bid farewell to mud season with a salute to that unique Maine native, the fiddlehead. May 28. ? Convertible Meet & Antique Aeroplane Show. This event will feature the great classics of the forties, fifties, and sixties, as well as contemporary convertibles. Owners of any year or make convertible are invited to exhibit. June 25. ? Trucks, Tractors & Commercial Vehicles & Antique Aeroplane Show. See the magnificent workhorses of yesteryear in northern New England's largest gathering of commercial vehicles -- more than 250 antique Macks, Kenworths, Sterlings, Internationals, Jimmys, Peterbilts, Whites, Freightliners, and more. July 22 & 23. ? Wings & Wheels Spectacular: Classic Cars & Aerobatic Air Show. One of the museum's most anticipated shows of the year. July 29 & 30. ? New England Auto Auction. Bidders and spectators from around the world will attend one of the great summer events in New England as up to 200 outstanding consigned antique, classic, and special-interest automobiles from every era head to the auction block. August 19. Owls Head. 207-594-4418. www.ohtm.org
Abbe Museum
Made of Thunder, Made of Glass: Native American Beadwork. In the early 1800s, Native women of northeastern North America created a new art form: delicate, intricately beaded hats and purses. In this exhibition the museum explores the principal symbols and images present in the beadwork. Along with hats, purses, pincushions, and frames will be a series of portraits of Native beadwork artists wearing selected pieces from the exhibition. May 25 through November 18. Bar Harbor. 207-288-3519. www.abbemuseum.org
Fairs and Festivals
For a complete list of Maine agricultural fairs, visit www.getrealmaine.com/visit/ maine_fairs.html
Terry Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival
April 7 & 8, 6 to 8 p.m. Poetry readings, panel, open mic, lunch, and music. Katz Library and Student Center, University of Maine at Augusta. 207-621-3114.
Earth Day Environmental Fair
April 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This spring fair focuses on plants and gardening and dedicates the new Forest Learning Shelter, an outdoor classroom. Live music and family activities are also on the agenda. Laudholm Farm, Wells. 207-646-1555. www.wellsreserve.org
Fisherman's Festival
April 28 to 30. Trap hauling, a codfish relay, an old-fashioned fish fry, and the Miss Shrimp Princess pageant -- something's fishy in Boothbay Harbor. 207-633-2353. www.boothbayharbor.com
Old Port Festival
June 4 from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Maine's biggest one-day festival takes over downtown Portland. 207-772-6828. www.portlandmaine.com
American Birding Association
June 19 to 25. Birdwatchers from around the nation migrate to the Bangor Civic Center for the ABA's national conference. 800-850-2473. www.americanbirding.org
La Kermesse
June 22 to 25. La Kermesse (translation: "village fair") is a carnival-like weekend celebrating Franco-American entertainment, food, and heritage in Biddeford. 207-283-1889.
Windjammer Days Festival
June 27 & 28. Two days of tall ships, harborside concerts, fireworks, and a street parade. Boothbay Harbor. 207-633-2353. www.boothbayharbor.com
Acadian Festival
June 29 through July 2. Head to the heart of the St. John River Valley for this fair celebrating the proud culture of Maine's own Cajuns. Madawaska. 207-728-7000. www.townofmadawaska.com
Moxie Festival
July 7 to 9. A festival in honor of Maine's official -- and, you've got to admit, odd-tasting -- soft drink. Lisbon Falls. 207-353-5354. www.moxiefestival.com
Maine Potato Blossom Festival
July 7 to 16. Aroostook County celebrates the spud in Fort Fairfield with a parade, music, fireworks, and lots of starchy eats. 207-472-3802.
Maine International Film Festival
July 14 to 23. Cannes, Sundance -- and Waterville. Movie buffs descend on the Railroad Square Cinema to watch more than eighty films from around the world, representing the best of independent American and international cinema. 207-861-8138. www.miff.org
Yarmouth Clam Festival
July 21 to 23. This celebration of the delectable mollusk includes a parade, amusement rides, entertainment, games, craft booths, and of course lots of clams, steamed, fried, and chowdered. 207-846-3984. www.clamfestival.com
Full Circle Fair
July 22 & 23. Sponsored by community radio station WERU, this alternative fair features open drum jams and workshops, contra dancing, artists, crafters, and a wide variety of foods and nonprofit exhibitors. Blue Hill Fairgrounds. 207-469-6600. www.weru.org
Bangor State Fair
July 28 through August 6. An old-fashioned summer fair with spectacular entertainment, livestock, and sinful food in Bangor. 207-947-5555. www.bangorstatefair.com
Festival of Nations
July 29. This festival promotes the understanding and appreciation of all cultures and features nearly sixty booths showcasing ethnic food, crafts, and performances. Deering Oaks Park, Portland. 207-761-9464. www.wini.us
Maine Lobster Festival
August 2 to 6. Rockland, the Lobster Capital of the World, celebrates its clawed claim to fame. 207-596-0376 or 800-LOB-CLAW. www.mainelobsterfestival.com
WLBZ 2 Sidewalk Art Festival
August 5. The TV station-sponsored sidewalk art festival has become a nationwide tradition. The Bangor version is the city's largest and most celebrated one-day art festival, showcasing more than a hundred artists from Maine, New England, and beyond. 207-942-4821.
Topsham Fair
August 6 to 12. Agricultural exhibits, carnival rides, harness racing, animal pulling events, 4-H crafts, and a fireworks display -- what more do you want in a country fair? 207-729-1943.
Skowhegan State Fair
August 10 to 19. It's all here -- livestock pulling, stage shows, arts and crafts, a demolition derby, carnival rides, and harness racing. 207-474-2947. www.skowheganstatefair.com
Great Falls Balloon Festival
August 18 to 20. Up, up, and away. Lewiston-Auburn. 207-782-2637. www.greatfallsballoonfestival.org
Machias Wild Blueberry Festival
August 18 to 20. A Down East smorgasbord of blueberry pies, muffins, pancakes, and jams, along with family entertainment, a grand parade, crafts, and games in Machias. 207-255-6665. www.machiasblueberry.com
Union Fair
August 20 to 26. Celebrating agriculture in general and the blueberry in particular, the Union Fair has all the favorite attractions, plus a he-man competition. 207-785-3281. www.unionfair.org
WCSH 6 Sidewalk Art Festival
August 26. The oldest and largest one-day art show in northern New England puts a museum's worth of art on the streets of Portland. 207-828-6666.
Windsor Fair
August 27 through September 4. Just a stone's throw from the state capital, Windsor hosts a country fair famed for its large midway, animal pulling events, and harness racing. 207-549-5249. www.windsorfair.com
Music and Dance
Swan Lake
April 6 at 7:30 p.m. Oh, for the fidelity of a young lover! Legendary Bolshoi principal dancer Sergei Radchenko brought his Russian National Ballet to North America in 1999 to critical acclaim and now returns with Swan Lake. Merrill Auditorium, Portland. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperformances.org
Ying Quartet
April 9 at 2:30 p.m. This family of musicians will perform the music of Haydn and Debussy as well as a newly commissioned work by celebrated American composer and Camden resident John Duffy. Bay Chamber Concerts. The Strand Theatre, Rockland. 207-236-2823. www.baychamberconcerts.org
Bangor Symphony Orchestra
April 23 at 3 p.m. Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, op. 45 (German requiem). Then on May 21 at 3 p.m., the symphony's season finale: Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride: Overture; Camille Saint-Saens' Le Carnaval des animaux; and Antonin Dvorak's Symphony no. 8, op. 88, G major. Maine Center for the Arts, Orono. 800-639-3221. www.bangorsymphony.com
Belated Bach Birthday Bash
April 25, at noon and 7:30 p.m. Ray Cornils, municipal organist, and the Bowdoin College Chamber Choir celebrate the music of J. S. Bach. The Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ. Portland's Merrill Auditorium. 207-883-9525. www.foko.org
Sweet Honey in the Rock
April 27 at 7:30 p.m. Founded in 1973 by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock is a Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble with deep musical roots in the sacred music of the black church -- spirituals, hymns, gospel -- as well as jazz and blues. Merrill Auditorium, Portland. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperformances.org
Oklahoma!
April 28 to May 6. Brokeback Mountain it is not. Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out Rodgers & Hammerstein's love story. Waterville Opera House. 207-873-7000. www.operahouse.com
Portland Symphony Orchestra
May 2 at 7:30 p.m. Drawing to a close more than twenty years with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Toshi Shimada offers as his final work the most enduring and inspiring of nineteenth-century choral masterpieces, Verdi's Requiem. Portland's Merrill Auditorium. 207-842-0800. www.portlandsymphony.com
Thoroughly Modern Millie
May 5 at 8 p.m. & May 6 at 2 p.m. This singing, dancing, romancing musical takes place in Manhattan during the roaring twenties with all the jazz-age razzmatazz you want in a big, bright, Broadway blockbuster. Merrill Auditorium, Portland. 207-842-0800. www.pcagreatperformances.org
Gypsy
May 12 to 28. This Tony Award-winning show set at the end of the vaudeville era features such well-known songs as "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The Portland Players, 420 Cottage Road, South Portland. 207-799-7337. www.portlandplayers.org
Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band
May 20 at 7:30 p.m. Seven-time Grammy-Award-winning Palmieri is one of the foremost Latin pianists of the last half-century. His fifty-year career revolutionized the sounds of Latin jazz, infusing the rhythms of his Hispanic and Puerto Rican heritage with the influences of jazz legends like Thelonius Monk. Bay Chamber Concerts. Strom Auditorium, Camden Hills High School. 207-236-2823. www.baychamberconcerts.org
Brubeck Choral Festival / Brubeck Brothers Quartet
June 3 at 7:30 p.m. Bay Chamber Concerts' first annual choral festival will present Dave Brubeck's moving choral tribute, "Earth is Our Mother," a work for choir and jazz ensemble with narration provided by Native American storyteller Allen Sockabasin. Camden Opera House. 207-236-2823. www.baychamberconcerts.org
South Pacific
June 7 to 24. Ensign Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque once more experience tropical love. The Maine State Music Theatre, Brunswick. 207-725-8769. www.msmt.org
Blistered Fingers Family Bluegrass Music Festival
June 15 to 18. Blistered Fingers, White Mountain Bluegrass, Smokey Greene, and the Carolina Rebels are just a few of the acts whose fingers will burn up the grass. Plus, from August 24 to 27, a whole new slew of acts get their fingers blistered -- Goldwing Express, the Moron Brothers, Midnight Flyer, and lots more. Silver Spur Riding Club, Sidney. 207-873-6539. www.blisteredfingers.com
Beehive, The 60s Musical
June 19 through July 8. A high-energy musical that looks back at the decade of change that was the sixties: from girl bands to talented female performers including Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, The Chiffons, Connie Francis, Lesley Gore, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, and Janis Joplin, just to name a few. Ogunquit Playhouse. 207-646-5511. www.ogunquitplayhouse.org
Kneisel Hall Festival Concerts
June 23 though August 20. On Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, classical music students and faculty from some of the finest musical institutions in the world delight Blue Hill audiences with Kneisel Hall's summertime concert series. 207-374-2203. www.kneisel.org
Bowdoin International Music Festival
June 24 through August 5. The Friday evening MusicFest series features the Aeolian Chamber Players, the Ying and Cassatt string quartets, distinguished guest artists, and members of the festival faculty in performances held each week during the festival at 8 p.m. at Crooker Theatre Brunswick High School. The Wednesday evening Upbeat!, at 7:30 p.m. at Crooker Theatre, is a faculty concert series that presents a mixture of contemporary and traditional works in a casual setting. And the Gamper Festival, July 27 to 30, features the works of twentieth century and contemporary American composers including the festival's guest composers, composers-in-residence, and students each night at 7 p.m. at Kresge Auditorium, Bowdoin College. 207-373-1400. www.summermusic. org/concerts.htm
Kingfield Pops
July 1. Great, live music at Kennedy Farm in the historic town of Kingfield, nestled in the foothills of the Longfellow and Bigelow mountain ranges along the Carrabassett River in western Maine. Bangor Symphony Orchestra. 800-639-3221. www.bangorsymphony.com
Bar Harbor Music Festival
July 2 to 30. Everything from classical to jazz in Bar Harbor. 212-222-1026. www.barharbormusicfestival.org
Hello Dolly!
July 10 to 22. Matchmaker Dolly Levi takes a trip to Yonkers, New York, to see Horace Vandergelder, and the wooing begins. Ogunquit Playhouse. 207-646-5511. www.ogunquitplayhouse.org
North Atlantic Blues Festival
July 15 & 16. Kenny Neal, Tab Benoit, and Robert Cray play the blues -- it's enough to make any grown man or woman cry (with joy). Harbor Park, Rockland. 207-593-1189. www.northatlanticbluesfestival.com
Bates Dance Festival
July 15 through August 12. The Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of choreographers, performers, educators, and students in a cooperative community to study, perform, and create new work. Bates College, 163 Wood Street, Lewiston. 207-786-6381. www.bates.edu/x61422. xml
The County Bluegrass Festival
July 21 to 23. Aroostook County turns Kentucky with the Lewis Family, the Bluegrass Diamonds, Mike and Mary Robinson, the Union River Band, and many more acts. Fort Fairfield. 207-472-3802. www.countybluegrass.com
The Full Monty
August 9 to 26. Bunch of unemployed blokes need cash. What can they possibly do? The Maine State Music Theatre, Brunswick. 207-725-8769. www.msmt.org
Portland Chamber Music Festival
August 17 to 26. Celebrating its thirteenth season of summer concerts, this popular performance series is dedicated to bringing classical classics -- from Beethoven to Tchaikovsky to David Horne -- to wider audiences. Ludke Auditorium, Westbrook College Campus, University of New England, Stevens Avenue, Portland. 800-320-0257. www.pcmf.org
American Folk Festival
August 25 to 27. A celebration of multi-cultural traditional arts -- music, dance, crafts, food, and storytelling -- on the Bangor waterfront. 207-992-2630. www.americanfolkfestival.com
Theater
The Price
April 4 to 23. Two estranged brothers come together to dispose of their father's estate in Arthur Miller's highly charged examination of the wounds inflicted by their rivalry and the struggle to forgive. Portland Stage Company. 207-774-0465. www.portlandstage.com
Almost, Maine
April 26 through May 7. Tony Award-nominated actor and Maine native John Cariani's love letter to Aroostook County. Penobscot Theatre Company, Bangor Opera House. 207-942-3333. http://ptc.maineguide.com
A Month of Sundays
May 5 to 14. Two irascible curmudgeons flirt with women (and senility) as they plot a way out of their retirement home. The Public Theatre, Lewiston-Auburn. 207-782-3200. www.thepublictheatre.org
Rounding Third
May 26 through June 4. Two mismatched men end up coaching the same Little League team. Waterville Opera House. 207-873-7000. www.operahouse.com
Mame
August 11 to 20. An unconventional socialite from the roaring twenties with some attitude. Lewiston Middle School. Lewiston-Auburn's Community Little Theatre. 207-783-0958. www.laclt.com
Special Events
African-American Hamlets of the Kentucky Bluegrass Region
Through May 6. A collection of photos by Sarah Hoskins from hamlets that have been home to fourth- and fifth-generation freed men and women. Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Portland. 207-761-0660. www.salt.edu
Bangor Garden Show
April 7 to 9. The Queen City blooms with seventeen life-size garden creations, more than eighty-five vendors, a preview night gala, and a Saturday night auction. Bangor Civic Center & Auditorium. 207-990-1201. www.bangorgardenshow.com
Smucker's Stars on Ice
April 13 at 7 p.m. If they skate as well as Smucker's peanut butter spreads, well then, this show should be a treat. Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland. 207-775-3331. www.theciviccenter.com
The Belfast Garden Club
May 20 from 9 a.m. to noon. Green thumb plant sale at the Pitcher House Barn, 3 Northport Avenue, Belfast. 207-338-6017.
Moose Mainea
May 20 through June 17. Greenville makes the most of its moose with a month of family-oriented activities including the Tour de Moose Bike Races, the Moosehead Fly-Casting Championship, and the Moosehead Rowing Regatta, plus moose safaris, craft fairs, a parade, and educational exhibits. 207-695-2702. www.mooseheadlake.org
Maine Canoe Symposium
June 9 to 11. Moose Pond becomes a paddler's paradise. Enjoy lessons, demonstrations, slide presentations, and on-the-water fun. All ages and levels welcome. Camp Winona, Moose Pond, Bridgton. 207-892-3121. www.mainecanoesymposium.org
Maine Fiber Frolic
June 10 & 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The frolic is a celebration of fiber animals and the fiber arts: spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting, and rug hooking. Windsor Fairgrounds, Route 32. 207-935-4075. www.fiberfrolic.com
Eastport's Old Home Week
July 1 to 4. The nation's easternmost mini-metropolis fetes the Fourth with contests, races, fireworks, and food. 207-853-2930. www.eastport4th.com
Maine Bike Rally
July 7 to 9. With nearly thirty rides -- both off-road and on-road; from ten miles to over a hundred -- to choose from, cyclists from across the United States and Canada gather each summer for the Maine Bike Rally. Yarmouth. 207-623-4511. www.bikemaine.org
Gardens in the Watershed Garden Tour
July 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. Sponsored by and to benefit the Georges River Land Trust, this self-guided tour will feature eight exceptional country gardens in Cushing and Thomaston. 328 Main Street, Studio 305, Rockland. 207-594-5166. www.grlt.org
Camden Garden Club Tour
July 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This annual tour of fine homes and fabulous gardens in the Camden-Rockport area is sponsored by the oldest garden club in the state. 207-236-7045. www.mainegardenclubs.com
Maine Quilts Show
July 27 to 30. The Augusta Civic Center will be filled with more than 400 quilts, forty-five vendor booths, free demonstrations, a mini-quilt silent auction to benefit research on heart disease in women, and lectures. 207-577-0648. www.mainequilts.org
TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race
August 5 at 8 a.m. Some of the world's fastest runners tear around Cape Elizabeth. 888-480-6940. www.beach2beacon.org
Maine Antique Festival
August 12 & 13. Maine's antique show of shows gathers a wide variety of reputable dealers with all sorts of specialties -- everything from seventeenth-century European furniture to Asian antiques to 1950s Americana collectibles. Union Fairgrounds. 207-563-1013. www.maineantiquefest.com
