KINGFIELD – An estimated 1,000 people enjoyed the second annual Kingfield POPS performance, featuring the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, on Saturday night at Kennedy Farm in Kingfield.

The large stage arrived Friday on an 18-wheeler and got stuck in soft earth as it descended a short hill to the performance area. David Hart, vice chairman of the POPS committee, said it took two large pick-ups to pull the stage out, but things went fairly smoothly from there.

Saturday’s audience was treated to a variety of music by the Western Mountain Trash Can Band, a steel drum band of about a dozen local musicians, as they arrived. The band played a diverse array of pieces.

An instrument “petting zoo” and No Frowns Clown also entertained young and old alike.

Opening the concert was The Edith Jones Project, a 17-piece all-female big band based in Portland. Only a little more than a year old, the group, in its largest gig to date, was excited to be playing to such a large crowd in such expansive surroundings.

Lead singer Rebecca Wing, a Farmington native now living in Saco, said afterwards that it was “awesome.”

“The great thing about working outside is getting to expand into the big space,” she said gesturing to the large field where the concert took place.

The singer, a piano and voice teacher, also writes and produces her own music and is hoping to release her next CD by Christmas.

Her silky tones accompanied by a band of trombones, trumpets and saxophones, enticed some audience members to dance.

As members of the Bangor Symphony sat backstage listening and waiting to perform, they reminisced about last year’s sudden, frightening thunderstorms.

Violinist Janet Ciano of Bangor remembered the song the ensemble was playing when the thunderclaps sounded. “Plink, Plink, Plunk” by Leroy Anderson.

“It was pretty scary,” she said.

The orchestra had to huddle center stage as lightening struck around them. The audience mostly took to the woods.

She was more hopeful about Saturday’s weather saying, “It looks like the weather will cooperate as better than it did last year.”

And it did.

One roar sounded alarmingly like thunder. But it turned out only to be the light breeze blowing over the microphones. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra opened with the national anthem and Light Cavalry Overture. As the sun made its slow, lazy descent behind Mt. Abraham, the orchestra played the nostalgic “Memories” from the musical “Cats.”

Maestro Xiao-Lu Li asked the audience after a couple of numbers, “Do you like it?”

The audience responded with resounding approval.

“I’m so proud of this orchestra and so proud of this community,” he continued.

Bobby Brown, chairman of the Pops Committee, said the event is great in that it is wonderful to celebrate with people who live in the area, as well as to introduce people from other areas to the region.

About 85 volunteers worked to make the event happen, including Brown’s 8-year-old son, who mowed the 10-acre field during a period of a few days.

“We’re pretty pleased,” he said.

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