BANGOR, Maine — More than a dozen bands have signed on for this year’s edition of Skate Against Drugs, a daylong outdoor concert set for Saturday, May 7, at Bangor Skate Park at Bass Park.
Now in its third year, the 2011 edition of Skate Against Drugs begins at 11 a.m. and will feature two stages, according to Robert Desimone, a student at the Carlton Project in Bangor who is helping organize the event as part of an internship with Tim Shaw, youth liaison and overdose prevention specialist for Bangor Region Public Health and Wellness.
Desimone said the event, which is free, continues to get bigger every year.
“The first year we had about 350. Last year, we stopped counting at 1,500,” he said.
Performers will include Hit The Lights of Lima, Ohio; You Me And Everyone We Know from Baltimore, Md.; A Loss For Words, Follow Your Hero and The Death of Paris of Boston, Mass.; Bangor’s own Legend Has It and Sufferer; Too Late The Hero from Berwick; The Tired and True from Danbury, Conn.; The Life I Lead of New York City; The Sophomore Beat from Portland; Beyond Goodbye from Hampden; State Champs from upstate New York; and Kid Liberty of Sherman, Texas.
Skating competitions also will take place throughout the day, Desimone said. He said a rock climbing wall and a tent housing video games also are planned.
Desimone said, however, that the event is about much more than music and skating.
“We’re holding it to promote healthy lifestyles,” Desimone said. In addition to the anti-drug message its name reflects, the concert also will offer information from representatives of a variety of service agencies.
“Basically, the main point is to get the message out there,” he said.
Organizations that have taken part in past Skate Against Drugs events included Penobscot Job Corps, Shaw House, Eastern Maine AIDS Networks, Bangor STD Clinic and Rape Response Services.
According to event fliers now being circulated, this year’s sponsors include Bangor Region Public Health and Wellness, the city of Bangor, Healthy Maine Partnership, Lafayette Hotels, WHSN 89.3 FM, What You Do Matters and Snowman Printing.
For information, visit the event’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/skatemaine.