Maine Pops Tackles Summer Heat in Bath Gazebo Performance

With temperatures reaching the lower 90s, the Maine Pops Concert Band tackled the heat to perform its next-to-last summer concert of 2026 at the Library Park Gazebo in Bath, ME on August 7.

A nice turnout of local Bath residents and band followers took to the shaded areas of the park to listen to band perform a variety of compositions from its 2026 spring concert, its 2025 fall concert and patriotic music celebrating the country's 250th anniversary.

The band was smaller in size during the evening performance - about 50 musicians filled the stage in Bath. Yet band director David Watts said he was proud of how the band adjusted to absences, a slight change of music and the summer heat. The compositions performed on August 7 were:

The Star-Spangled Banner

National Emblem

Selections from Les Miserables

American the Beautiful

Original Dixieland Concerto

Soaring with John Williams

Shenandoah

Armed Forces Salute

Groovitude

Semper Fidelis

The Maine Pops Concert Band's final summer concert will be held Friday, August 21 at the annual Scarborough Summerfest in Scarborough, ME. The band will perform from inside a tent adjacent to the high school tennis courts, beginning a 6 p.m.

All photographs are by Arthur McClanahan.