For full listings of what’s going on all week in the Old Port, be sure to visit our Events page.
Friday, January 22: Tonight one of our favorite Portland watering holes, The Thirsty Pig, is celebrating a half decade of pouring local beers and serving up delicious savory sausages with their 5 Year Anniversary Party. They have quickly become an Old Port institution, so it’s hard to believe it’s only been five short years since the Pig opened their doors on Exchange Street. Tonight’s beer line up will include: Allagash Brewing Company, Bissell Brothers, Foundation Brewing Company, Maine Beer Company and Marsh Island Brewing. Mosart212 and Dj Babyjay will provide the beats. The Pig is getting this party started at 5 p.m. Free to attend, pay as you go for food/beer. The Thirsty Pig, 37 Exchange Street.
Saturday, January 23: In case you didn’t hear, the Portland Museum of Art reopened on Thursday after taking a few days off to spruce up the place as part of the first phase of their Your Museum, Reimagined project. To celebrate and show off their facelift, the museum will be free to the public all day long today for a Community Open House. Visitors will be able to check out two current exhibits – Masterworks on Paper: Highlights from the Portland Museum of Art, and Duncan Hewitt: Turning Strange – along with brand new spaces, including The Workshop, the PMA’s new participatory space. There will also be several family activities throughout the day. Free, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square.
Still mourning the loss of music legend David Bowie? Join your friends and neighbors at the State Theatre for We Can Be Heroes: A celebration of the life and music of David Bowie. Several local musicians will perform Bowie classics, including Spencer Albee, Dave Gutter, Five of the Eyes, Weakened Friends and John Hughes Radio. This show is all ages, and tickets are just $10 in advance and $15 at the door, with proceeds benefiting the Maine Cancer Foundation. This show was originally scheduled for Port City Music Hall, so if you already bought a ticket, don’t worry, it will still be honored. Doors are at 7:00 p.m. and the show starts at 8:00 p.m. State Theatre, 609 Congress Street.
Sunday, January 24: The Continuing Studies at Maine College of Art is hosting “The Great Play Reading Series,” which will feature five plays read by five professional local theater companies over the next few weeks. The impetus behind the project is to provide theater companies with a chance to highlight themselves and offer a professional reading of a great play that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to produce fully. Up first is “Desire Under the Elms,” by Eugene O’Neill, read by Bare Portland. Free, 4 p.m., Osher Auditorium, MECA, 522 Congress Street.