It’s finally the weekend, so you know what that means! Our Weekend Guide is live and ready to light up your weekend, *kelping* you find the best events happening in Portland, Maine. (And yes, these puns will make sense shortly).
The city is in high spirits this weekend, with celebrations happening for multiple occasions including an annual food and drink event honoring Maine’s seaweed harvest, Earth Day at the park, and 4/20 afterparties.
Here’s the Weekend Guide for Friday, April 21st – Sunday April 23rd, 2023
Friday the 21st
Seaweed Week 2023 | Multiple Locations | Until April 30th
The 5th annual statewide food and drink festival, Seaweed Week, celebrates Maine’s kelp harvest and feature special events, one-time-only menus and limited-edition items from local bars, restaurants, brewers, bakers and more, including Blyth & Burrows (craft cocktails), Luke’s Lobster Portland Pier, Oxbow Brewing Co., Liquid Riot, and more.
Seaweed Week is presented by Heritage Seaweed, Maine Sea Grant as well as the Maine Aquaculture Association.
Learn more and see participating restaurants, bars, retail and more with, “Making Waves: Dive into Maine’s Seaweed Week for a Unique Culinary Adventure.”
Cookie Making Class | Canopy Hotel | 11: 00 AM – 1:00 PM
Canopy Hotel is very excited for their first Canopy Cookie Making Class with Chef Mike! Appropriate for ages 6+ (accompanied by an adult), the ticket includes a Canopy cookie making class for a child, chef apron + hat, complimentary soft drinks, baked cookies to take home and a pastry from the Salt Yard Bar + Cafe. Tickets.
Portland Plog Pluck 2023 | Austin Street Brewery | 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
The 6th Annual Plog Pluck – a city wide street clean up project! If you’ve never heard of plogging, it’s “plucking” trash while “jogging” = plogging! It’s a great way to get out into the community and make a visible difference. Runaways Club and Northeast Runners Alliance have collected over 1,500 pounds of trash to date in partnership with the City of Portland, and local businesses! They will provide the trash bags, gloves and handheld trash pickers, you provide the positive vibes and the legs! Start at 11am and end around 2pm with drinks afterwards at Austin Street Brewery.
420 AFTERPARTY with Fire on Fore | Citrus | 5:00 PM – 11:45 PM
The night of your life with your buds, Fire on Fore and Citrus at their thrilling 4/20 afterparty. This highly anticipated event promises to be an absolute blast, featuring a fantastic lineup of music by the incredibly talented WessUp and Dionamic. Citrus opens for Happy Hour at 5PM with specialty cocktails including the “Smoke Show,” a riff on a Mezcal Paloma, made for the Fore Twenty Afterparty by Fire on Fore! Party starts at 9PM DJs take the stage at 10PM to keep the energy soaring until the early hours of the morning.
Cirque Alfonse | Animal, a Farm Story | Merrill Auditorium | 7:00 PM
Cirque Alfonse returns to Merrill Auditorium with Animal, a series of surreal and slightly irreverent fables for the young and the young at heart. Journey through a reinvented land where a gentleman-farmer surrounds himself with familiar, yet crazy creatures: the chickens have teeth, the ducks are very naughty, the cows run amok and the barn is upside down! In this wacky world, the imagination flirts with childhood tales, clichés are wildly twisted, fables are surreal and irreverent, and rurality is as energetic as it is poetic. Awesome in their virtuosity and irresistible in their comedy, Cirque Alfonse expounds once again on its acclaimed approach where circus, song, dance, theater and, of course, live music come together in delightful and unexpected ways. Animal is the farm gone haywire! Tickets.
Saturday the 22nd
Earth Day Celebration | Payson Park | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Celebrate Earth Day and come to Payson Park for a free, family-friendly celebration with music, local food trucks, and fun for the whole family. Join Portland Sustainability and Portland Parks & Rec for fun outdoor activities, try out e-bikes from Portland’s local bike shops, learn about composting with friends at Garbage to Garden, connect with nature, celebrate with neighbors, and so much more!
Flowers & Floral Workshop | The Maker’s Galley | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Join Petalage Floral Studio and learn how to make your own garden-inspired centerpiece. Your floral class will be paired with The Maker’s Galley’s favorite Floral Alvarinho wine – a refreshing and bright white wine that pairs perfectly with springtime, sunshine and flowers! In this class you’ll get to create a garden-inspired, petite, centerpiece with locally sourced blooms in a blush ceramic compote. Learn how to make a chicken wire nest, get educated on the different floral varieties, and understand the tips and tricks and general composition that goes into flower arranging. Most importantly, you’ll have the opportunity to play with beautiful whimsical blooms, create a lovely accent arrangement for your home, and make flowery memories with your friends and family. Tickets.
Live Music Sessions | Batson River Brewing & Distilling | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Join Batson River Brewing & Distilling at their Portland location every Saturday afternoon for Happy Hour plus live music! Celebrate the local talent of Southern Maine, featuring a fresh act each week. Enjoy happy hour with $5 wine and cider and $3 off house beers while you unwind in the back bar, every weekend! Taking the stage this weekend is Tucker DeCosta a Rock and Pop performer from Portland.
The Original Mother: Celebrate Earth Day with Conservation and Outdoor Film | Maine Studio Works | 4:00 PM – 8:30 PM
In celebration of the unique New England coastline, this Earth Day Maine Outdoor Film Festival is teaming up for Seaweed Week with Maine Aquaculture and Atlantic Sea Farms for a select program of conservation, conversation, and aquaculture films! This special one-night celebration is hosted by their friends at Maine Studio Works in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood and features some of Maine’s most excellent food and beverage collaborators – Lady Shuckers, Meet On The Street, Baxter Brewing, Apres – a series of ocean-themed short films, AND the world premiere of A SEA CHANGE, a film highlighting the work of women propelling forward Maine’s seaweed farming culture. This special screening will be followed by a discussion panel headed by prominent members of the aquaculture community, with a portion of the proceeds benefit Island Institute’s Women on the Water Program! Tickets.
Live Music with Doubting Gravity | The Porthole | 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Live music at The Porthole! Taking the stage this weekend is Pop/Rock group from Portland, Maine, Doubting Gravity. Melting faces since ’07!
Upstate – “You Only Get a Few” Tour w/ Midnight Breakfast | One Longfellow Square | 8:00 PM
Upstate—a band nearly ten years in the making—is finding its essence. Founding members Mary Webster, Melanie Glenn, Harry D’Agostino, and Dean Mahoney have grown older and wiser over these years, motley in their pasts, yet ever-evolving in their presents. Having cut their teeth together as artists and musicians over hundreds of shows and two studio albums, including 2019’s acclaimed collection ‘healing,’ their four individual artistic visions and distinct musical voices have grown into a whole more significant than the sum of its parts. Audiences can count on what the group has always been known for: musicianship, harmony, and a “leave-it-all-up-there” show. Tickets.
Sunday the 23rd
Maine Seaweed Week: Cyanotype Workshop | Urban Farm Fermentory | 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Join Oriana Poindexter during Maine Seaweed Week for an interactive cyanotype workshop. Learn this early photographic process and use fresh Maine seaweed to create your own cyanotype prints using photo chemistry techniques first developed in the 1840s. This workshop will teach you the fundamentals of the cyanotype process, its history, and seaweed identification. It will culminate with each participant creating three original cyanotype prints – usually something frame worthy. The first portion of the workshop will involve an introduction, demonstration, and seaweed identification. The second portion will be a printing session. All ages are welcome. Children below the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Tickets.
Sunday Strings | Maine Craft Distilling| 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
An afternoon of Folk music and string at Maine Craft Distilling’s Public House! Taking the stage this Sunday is Old Hat Stringband. Based out of Eliot, Maine, Old Hat Stringband fuses tight vocal harmonies with a propulsive acoustic rhythm section, creating a sound that draws from bluegrass, old time, folk, and country traditions. The band is comprised of Whitney Roy (Guitar, Vocals), Steve Roy (Mandolin, Fiddle, Vocals), Amanda Kowalski (Bass), and Carolyn Kendrick (Fiddle, Vocals).
Sidebar Happy Hour | Inkwell Lounge | 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Also Saturday)
Dip into Inkwell Lounge’s Sidebar Happy Hour Sunday to Thursday 4pm-6pm. Enjoy $2 Maine Oysters, $7 House “‘Tini’s”, $6 Local Drafts and 1/2 off select bottles of wine. Located inside The Press Hotel, first and only lifestyle boutique hotel.
Della Mae | Portland House of Music | 7:00 PM
Della Mae is a GRAMMY-nominated all-woman string band founded by lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith and 2-time Grand National champion fiddle player Kimber Ludiker. Rounding out the lineup are guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn and mandolinist Maddie Witler.Hailing from across North America, and reared in diverse musical styles, Della Mae is one of the most charismatic and engaging roots bands touring today. They have traveled to over 30 countries spreading peace and understanding through music. Their mission as a band is to showcase top female musicians, and to improve opportunities for women and girls through advocacy, mentorship, programming, and performance. Tickets.
For more events head to our Events Calendar here.
