A bonafide DO NOT MISS AT ANY COST event is the annual Blackfly Ball hosted by the Beehive Design Collective. This is a foot stomping, good ol' small town summer party with iron bridges and dance floors festooned with twinkling fairy lights that create an awesome sight on the mini-island betwixt and between the two confluent flows of the Machias river as it heads over the Bad Little Falls. A sight not seen anywhere else.
There is nothing but crazy fun music from locals to our International neighbors. Something for anyone.
The Beehive Design Collective invites folks from near and far to join in celebrating the Annual Blackfly Ball, a dress-up dance party for all! Come twirl the night away under the enchanting spell of soothing brass, wacky ukuleles, flocks of fiddles, and all sorts of musical talent from here and away! It’s always a night to remember, full of magical torch-lit booty-shakin’ by raging waterfalls!
Held every year during the height of the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, the Blackfly Ball has become a much-anticipated event for both Downeast Maine and folks throughout the Northeast. The Ball is an annual celebration of the restoration and reopening of the Machias Valley Grange Hall in 2005 and a testimony to the 100+ years that the building has served as a community center to the people of Washington County. The event itself embodies the history of the building, as it brings together people from all walks of life — youth and elders, farmers and city folk — in a place where we find our common ground through community and celebration.
The Blackfly Ball is free and funded entirely by poster donations.
Be sure to get your copy of this year’s Blackfly Ball Poster… HAND-PRINTED on an antique LETTERPRESS. Prior to the event, posters will be on sale at the Woodwind Gallery, the Machias Bay Chamber of Commerce, and Whole Life Market, and online at http://weestore.myshopify.com/collections/blackfly-ball-posters. Each year the collectible Blackfly Ball postes are created by a different Beehive artist.
The Blackfly Ball is hosted entirely by volunteers.
Would you like to be involved with decorating, greeting guests, welcoming bands, blueberry-baking, sound set-up, poster printing, sign painting, or any of the other HUNDREDS of tasks that begin weeks before the Ball, on into the days after? Please join in this beautiful group effort!