August 2023 Issue

What a wonderful summer it’s been so far…and there is still plenty of fun to be had. August is the start of Festival season and we have some great ones coming up including the popular Friendsville Days, scheduled for August 18 – 20. They have a full slate of family activies including a parade and fireworks, plus a great line up of live music. Read more in our Feature Story beginning on Page 6. Garrett County’s first ever Blues Festival happens on August 12th and promises a full day of great music, food, and fun. The Garrett County Fair, always a highlight of summer, runs through August 5th. This is a true agricultural fair with plenty of animal exhibitions, live music, food, and carnival rides.

We are blessed with an abundance of live theater this summer including Gilligan’s Island: The Musical, being presented weekends through August 20th atop Wisp Mountain with the beautiful circulating whitewater course as a backdrop. Our friends at the Embassy Theater in Cumberland are staging a fun production this month, an original play about Henry V called “Courting”. Read more about these and other happenings in our Calendar of Events, starting on Page 21.

No matter your favorite genre of music, you’ll find it on the mountaintop. Garrett Lakes Arts Festival has three dynamite performances scheduled this month at our very own state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Classical music fans have three events to choose from in Grantsville (Music at Penn Alps), and you can hear live music at various venues throughout the county including the free concerts at Wisp (Wednesdays) and downtown Oakland (Fridays). See our live music guide on Page 105.

Thanks for reading and enjoy every moment of your summer!
Linda Carr, Editor