Mumford & Sons, other bands to get gift bags of Maine-made products in Portland

 By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff - Bangor Daily News, August 2, 2012

PORTLAND, Maine — Performers at Saturday’s highly anticipated Eastern Promenade concert headlined by British folk rock band Mumford & Sons will get a look close-up look at some Maine-made products.

Musicians from bands such as St. Vincent, The Maccabees, Apache Relay and punk legends the Dropkick Murphys will be given gift bags filled with products made locally.

“St. Vincent’s music has been on my iPhone for years,” Wells Lyons, co-founder of Portland-based Rogue Industries, said in a media statement on Thursday. “How great would it be if Annie Clark [of St. Vincent] kept her iPhone in a case we made for her?”

Rogue Industries was one of a number of local businesses that responded to a call for gift bag donations by the organization Portland Buy Local, Lyons said. His company is adding more than 40 gifts — an array of products, including wallets and travel journals — to the gift bags, he said.

“We thought it was important to thank the artists for choosing Portland as a venue,” Lyons said. “ Portland’s music scene is still developing, and we want to show our appreciation to the musicians for coming to Maine.”

Mumford & Sons’ Gentlemen of the Road Festival stopover in Portland is estimated to attract more than 15,000 people to the city, largely closing Munjoy Hill to traffic. Gates open to the festival area at noon, Saturday, Aug. 4, with music to begin at 2 p.m. and finish at about 9 p.m.

Many of the bands participating in the event are slated to head out into the city afterward for late-night performances — the Dropkick Murphys, for instance, are scheduled to take the stage at The State Theatre at 11:30 p.m.