Ogunquit Performing Arts continues its 31st Annual Capriccio Festival with everyone’s favorite event, the Capriccio Festival of Kites at Ogunquit Beach, with activities occurring from 9 am to 2 pm. This delightful, annual Festival features professional kite flying demonstrations, with multiples, and oversized kites filling the sky. Children are provided with free, white kites, along with colorful markers and crayons. They can decorate their own kites, which are then entered into a contest with a multitude of categories in order for many prizes to be awarded. Kites are also available for sale at the beach, so that no one is left out of the fun. Scheduled at 12 noon is the “Grand Ascension” where the sky is filled with all of the day’s kites. Bring your cameras! It’s a spectacular sight!
Returning to provide high-flying music for this event is Portland fiddler/singer Andy Happel and Friends, performing 2 concerts during the day, at 10:00 am and again at 2 pm, serenading beach-goers, spectators, music lovers, and over 100 kite flyers. Andy plans to bring a musician friend or two to join in the joyous fun, playing selections from his repertoire of exotic tunes and lilting rhythms.
A well-known favorite accompaniment to multiple kite festivals, Andy is becoming a perennial favorite, and continues to dish up both familiar and provocative new sounds in an original music repertoire from across the continents, representing a wide range of musical styles, such as Tex-Mex Folk, Appalachian String Music, Canadian Maritime fiddle tunes, and classical, country, folk/rock and R&B.
Andy Happel’s music is accessible to and enjoyed by audiences across a wide range of musical tastes and is guaranteed to inspire and delight all.
A concert violinist and fiddler, Happel has shared the stage with symphony orchestras, pop stars, and country music artists. As bandleader for the 1990’s rock group “Thanks to Gravity,” Andy was signed to Capitol Records and toured extensively with several well-known groups including Guster, Train and The Dave Matthews Band.
A successful run with country singer Don Campbell followed, where he opened for such country legends as Willie Nelson, Randy Travis and George Daniels.
In addition to performing, Andy has served as Director of Strings at the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, and has worked and performed with such far reaching regional and international musical entities as the Moravian Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, the Metropolitan Children’s Chorus in NYC, the New England String Quartet, and the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra.
Admission to the Festival and the Andy Happel concerts is free. The Capriccio Festival of Kites is presented by Cricket’s Corner Beach and Toy, Ogunquit Performing Arts, Ogunquit Rotary Club, Kennebunk Savings Bank, That Place in Ogunquit, and the Town of Ogunquit.
