Back Cove Music & Arts Festival: A Resounding Success! [Photos]

The first-ever Back Cove Music & Arts Festival took place last weekend, August 2nd and 3rd, at Portland, Maine’s Payson Park and drew rave reviews from visitors and locals alike. The two-stage setup (Longfellow and Baxter) featured no overlapping sets, giving attendees a chance to catch everything from local favourites to national headliners like The Roots, Lord Huron, Jack White, and Lucy Dacus. The bill also showcased standout regional acts, including Portland’s own Weakened Friends. Offstage, the festival buzzed with local and regional food trucks — Portland’s Bird & Co taco truck, Falafel Mafia, and Burlington, VT’s Broccoli Bar (a vegan food truck with blaring EDM and at times, featuring a live DJ) — plus local artisan and vendor tents.

Payson Park’s location along Baxter Boulevard, nestled in a residential neighbourhood, posed potential challenges for the festival’s debut, particularly around parking and noise, which were top of mind for many locals. Festival organizer GoodWorks (the team behind Capital Groove and Rhythm & Roots music festivals) responded proactively, arranging 21 shuttle buses from nine parking lots across the city and capping performances at 10 pm. While pre-event chatter included plenty of neighbourhood concerns, the general consensus afterward was that the festival struck a balance: delivering a standout experience for attendees while being mindful of its impact on the surrounding community.

Day 1:

The festival opened under sunny skies with a triple-header of bands made up of Maine Academy of Modern Music (MAMM) students on the Baxter Stage. These young musicians played with confidence well beyond their years, especially The Mediocre Men, an all-female group whose cover of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” drew an early crowd. Over on the Longfellow Stage, Pihcintu, a multicultural refugee choir based in Portland, delivered a heartfelt performance with themes of hope, peace, and understanding — a moving way to start the weekend.

Hometown heroes Weakened Friends kicked off their set with the irresistibly catchy, recent single “Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out),” proving why their star is on the rise. Fresh off an opening slot for Jack White earlier this year and festival appearances at Riot Fest (Chicago, IL) and The Fest (Gainesville, FL), the trio sounded album-perfect live. Their new album, Feels Like Hell (due  October 10th), is one to watch for.

From there, the pace shifted as New Orleans’ Crowe Boys offered a soulful alt-folk/country set that got people dancing despite the heat, followed by alt-pop singer/songwriter Sarah Kinsley, whose whimsical, introspective songs translated beautifully live. Both felt like artists on the cusp of much bigger stages.

Back on Longfellow, Cuban artist Cimafunk brought one of the festival’s most electrifying performances, blending Afro-Caribbean and Cuban music with funk and hip hop. Backed by a brass-heavy band, he had more than a thousand people dancing nonstop.

Local country singer Griffin William Sherry provided a welcome, mellow interlude before the night’s first major headliner — legendary Philadelphia hip hop act The Roots. Added to the lineup in July after André 3000 cancelled August dates, they more than justified the swap. With Black Thought leading the charge, they tore through “Stay Cool,” “You Got Me,” “Here I Come,” and “The Seed (2.0)” to a massive crowd, grinning and dancing through well-rehearsed but joy-filled, choreographed stage moves.

The energy kept flowing with St. Paul & The Broken Bones on the Baxter Stage. Frontman Paul Janeway entered mid-song, launching into “Sushi and Coca Cola” with powerful, soaring vocals. Later, in a sequined robe, he ventured down the center aisle between GA and VIP to the crowd’s delight.At Longfellow, Thee Sacred Souls delivered soulful, groove-heavy R&B, with frontman Josh Lane hopping down to the barricade to serenade fans as the sun set — a gorgeous close to that stage for the day! The final act, Lord Huron, unveiled a stunning multi-level stage set featuring faux rock formations, a giant illuminated jukebox, and a glowing payphone microphone — all framed by a vast desert-themed video backdrop. Opening with “Who Laughs Last,” vocalist Ben Schneider sang into the payphone mic.

After the first song, Schneider addressed the crowd, earning an early laugh as he mused about how far the stage was from the barricade, joking that once the photographers cleared out, they might have to start jousting in the open space! Schneider went on to lead the band through several hits, including “The Ghost on the Shore,” “Wait by the River,” “Ancient Names (Part 1),” and “Meet Me in the Woods.” Their mesmerizing set ended with “The Night We Met” and an encore of “Not Dead Yet,” sending the 12,000-strong crowd into the night — a perfect end to Day 1!

Back Cove Music & Arts Festival Day 1 (ft. Lord Huron, The Roots, and more) @ Payson Park (Portland, ME) on August 2, 2025

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Day 2:

Sunday brought heavier heat and a haze from Canadian wildfire smoke, broken only by occasional seabreezes off the cove. Once again, MAMM students opened the day, Prettiest Girl in the Morgue and prog-leaning Andromeda impressed with original songs and polished musicianship. If these two days were any indication, Portland’s musical future is in good hands.

Early sets from Maine folk-pop duo Oshima Brothers and singer/songwriter Eliza McLamb suited the mellow Sunday mood, as the crowd recovered from Day 1. That changed with The Greeting Committee, whose high-energy set and dynamic frontwoman Addie Sartino turned casual listeners into instant fans.

Madi Diaz followed on Baxter with raw, emotional storytelling, shining brightest on the latest single “Feel Something.” Meanwhile, Chance Peña’s laid-back indie-folk on Longfellow drew the day’s biggest audience so far.

Over at Baxter, funk/alt-pop group Ripe finally got the whole crowd moving with high-energy tracks like “Downward.”

Their exuberance set the stage for Nashville’s Margo Price, making her Maine debut in full fringe and country twang. Between songs, she shared personal moments with young fans up front and humorously rebranded “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” as “Don’t Let the Baskets Get You Down” for younger ears. She closed with a plug for her upcoming album Hard Headed Woman, due at month’s end, urging fans to pre-order it — noting that, in her words, streaming is “killing” musicians’ careers.

Roots/country outfit Turnpike Troubadours kept the country momentum going with “Good Lord Lorrie” and, as the sun dipped lower, brought Margo Price back for a fitting closer, “Long Hot Summer Days,” before the rush to Longfellow for Lucy Dacus.

Dacus drew one of the festival’s largest crowds, opening with “Hot & Heavy” and beaming as she spoke of her love for Portland (home to her drummer Ricardo Lagomasino). Continuing her tour tradition, she married three couples on stage during “Best Guess.” She also brought Madi Diaz back for “Bullseye,” covering Hozier’s parts, before ending with fan-favourite “Night Shift.”

Finally, the weekend closed with Jack White — a no-frills, no-filler rock masterclass. Opening with “Old Scratch Blues” and “That’s How I’m Feeling,” White delivered one of the loudest sets of the weekend, mixing solo hits with tracks from his past projects The Raconteurs (“Broken Boy Soldier, “Steady, as She Goes”), The Dead Weather (“I Cut Like a Buffalo”) and The White Stripes (“Icky Thump,” “Fell in Love With a Girl,” and “Cannon”).

The inevitable “Seven Nation Army” encore had the crowd singing in unison, a raucous end to what will hopefully be just the first of many Back Cove Music & Arts Festivals.

All in all, the festival felt well run, there was free water aplenty, a variety of food options with tolerable lines and a well-thought-out stage layout. The only thing that would improve next year’s would be more shade options in General Admission. Fans can sign up for updates about next year’s event on the festival’s website.

Back Cove Music & Arts Festival Day 2 (ft. Jack White, Lucy Dacus, Margo Price, and more) @ Payson Park (Portland, ME) on August 3, 2025

150 photos