NEW GLOUCESTER – Approval granted Tuesday by New Gloucester’s Planning Board sets the stage for the Thompsons’ Family Bluegrass Music Festival in late June.

This marks a first for the family run apple orchard on Gloucester Hill Road that customarily opens its orchards to the public for apple picking, food and hayrides each fall. The event will bring together nine bluegrass bands hailing from Maine to Tennessee, Missouri, Connecticut and New Hampshire, said brothers Mike and Brian Thompson.

A public hearing on the festival drew no comments from abutters and others.

The three-day event will begin June 25 in a six-acre former pumpkin patch. A limited number of rough campsites will be available on a first come, first served basis. No alcohol will be permitted. An extra-large tent area will be provided for coverage in case of rain or heat.

The board’s approval included a requirement that a town ordinance decibel level of 55 be maintained at the boundaries of the property before 8 p.m. and 45 decibels after that.

Parking will be available at off-site locations as well as on the property. Mike Thompson said he expects up to 3,000 people to attend the three-day festival from June 25 to 27.

In other business, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance to the U.S. Postal Service’s Hatch Road facility to increase its impervious surface from 30 percent to 31.39 percent on the 1.5 acre site.

This paved the way for approval by the Planning Board to allow the site’s owner, M.H. Parsons and Sons Lumber Co. of York, to widen the paving of the entrance and exit drives as well as an area near the loading docks.

The Planning Board approved the site plan for the post office in October 1997, which included an impervious surface maxed out at 30 percent. The driveway lanes are very narrow (10 feet wide) and the edges of the grass have been worn away with vehicles traveling on them. Ruts are beginning to form along the edges of the pavement because cars drive off the edges.