The Kingfield POPS’ fifth annual outdoor concert will be held at the Kennedy Farm in Kingfield on Saturday.

Bangor Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Xiao-Lu Li will lead the 65-member orchestra through a program that includes popular songs, such as “Blue Moon,” the “Pink Panther” theme and “The Sound of Music,” as well as familiar patriotic and light classical tunes.

The concert will conclude with a fireworks display.

Beyond the BSO, a slate of regional performers playing bluegrass, folk and country tunes will also be featured.

Live music starts the moment the gates open at 5 p.m.

Featured artists include the Western Mountain Trash Can Band on steel drums; the Smith Brothers, a dynamic teenage duo playing bluegrass, old-time, Down-East, Celtic, and modern tunes on fiddle and guitar; and the Pineland Fiddlers, a group of 20 fiddlers age six to 16 who play Celtic, Quebecois and traditional New England fiddle tunes.

Also on Saturday, the Festival of the Arts will take place in the village of Kingfield from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission to that event is free.

Tickets for the Kingfield POPS concert are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. Children 17 and under are admitted free when accompanied by a paying an adult. For tickets or more information online go to bangorsymphony.com or call 800-639-3221.

‘Extreme percussionists’ added to Kingfield POPS

KINGFIELD – It’s not often you can bring your shotgun to the show but Saturday that’s what five Franklin County men better known for their hunting prowess than their musical ability will do.

Clay Pidgeon, Clay Tranten, Nick Tranten, Curt Johnson, and Jay Lander have all been officially designated as Bangor Symphony Orchestra, “extreme percussionists” or “cannon simulators.”

Using 12-gauge blanks and 55-gallon drums, the five will perform in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture finale during the 5th annual Kingfield POPS concert Saturday.

When the orchestra decided to play the piece musicians knew they would need some special help since the piece was composed to include functioning cannons, which are hard to come by in Franklin County, according to Susan Jonason, the BSO’s executive director.

Wanting to produce a more authentic sound than the kettle drums or recordings that many modern orchestras use to replicate the sound of cannon shots in the 1812, the BSO invited the Trantens, Pidgeon, Johnson and Lander to participate in the performance.

The five and their shotguns will be staged in a safe areas well behind the stage and audience.

A BSO staff member reads the score and cues the shooters via walkie-talkies and arm signals. The result? A series of big bangs that sound pretty much like cannon, Jonason said.

“Though we no longer play the 1812 Overture to celebrate Russia’s victory over Napoleon, the piece has been a 4th of July tradition since 1974, when the ‘other BSO’ (the one in Boston) thrilled audiences with the sounds of cannons blasting, bells ringing and the singing of patriotic songs to revitalize the Boston Pops,” Jonason said. “It’s a real thrill to bring this wonderful tradition to our celebration in Kingfield and to do it up in our own style, with local ‘extreme percussionists’ creating the booming sound of cannons with Kingfield’s version of heavy artillery – good old 12-gauge shotguns.”

At least one of the shooters said Wednesday he had tried out the technique by blasting a blank round into a barrel on his own.

“I stuck one in an empty barrel and let it off,” Clay Tranten said. “I figured if I was going to make a fool of myself I wanted to know what kind of fool.”

Clay Tranten said the desired effect was produced.

“It echoes, I can tell you that,” he said. “It goes boom, boom, boom. She’s going to be loud.”

Regional Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.