SANDY RIVER PLANTATION — Fans from around New England and beyond stretched up the slope in front of the Saddleback Ski Area’s base lodge Friday as a lineup of Maine-grown bluegrass musicians opened the resort’s 2nd Annual Bluegrass Festival.
“We wanted to have a good representation of Maine musicians,” Nick Bloom, the Portland-based talent coordinator for the festival, said as he ushered performers from backstage.
Bloom said all four of the bands on the main stage Friday were Maine-based, including teen performers playing fiddles, guitars, banjos and drums. Groups from Farmington, North Yarmouth and Vinalhaven had people tapping and swaying in their camp chairs.
Friday’s bands included the 317 Main Street Student Ensemble, the Pineland Fiddlers, the Toughcats and Erica Brown & the Bluegrass Connection.
Those not sitting moved to the stage-side dance area, including the wedding party of Ben Frieden and Hannah Sukabian of Jeffersonville, Vt.
The couple said they had attended the festival last year and had such a good time they decided to get married at the festival this year.
Both big bluegrass fans, the couple said they loved the setting and the easygoing style of the crowd.
“We love camping and all that, so it just made sense,” Sukabian said as she greeted well-wishing friends and family. The couple were set to marry Saturday.
Behind the crowd and slightly higher up the hill, a multi-colored tent village had sprung up over the course of the afternoon. Many of the estimated 700 festival-goers would sleep on the mountain Friday as they awaited Saturday’s lineup of seven bands, including the headliner, country and bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.
Mark Robie, the festival organizer for the resort said that so far, the weather was cooperating despite threatening rain clouds. Robie said he was impressed with the ever-growing crowd of fans.
“They just keep piling in,” Robie said. “When we started at 3 p.m., there were still a lot of spaces for chairs, but they just keep coming and coming.”
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