The crowd at the Maine State Music Theatre’s Concert on the Mall on Aug. 13. (David Treadwell photo)

Aug. 13. We arrived early for the Maine State Music Theatre’s annual Concert on the Mall. We thought it would be crowded, and we were right. The mall was packed. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy a free concert, featuring extraordinary singers from around the United States, some professional, some dreaming of making a career in the musical theater?

Curt Dale Clark, MSMT’s masterful artistic director, served as the emcee. The acts included some leading cast members of “West Side Story,” then playing at Pickard Theater, as well as the MSMT singers, young people selected from among thousands of hopeful candidates in a nationwide search for the best of the best.

As we were leaving the concert, I said to some other people, “Aren’t we lucky to get to see such an amazing concert for free?” They all agreed.

The MSMT concert highlighted the Brunswick Downtown Association’s popular Music on the Mall series, held on Wednesdays during the summer.

We also enjoyed the Brunswick Arts Festival held just three days later on the mall, featuring a wide array of offerings from local artists. Tina and I succumbed to the appeal of alpaca stuffies for our two young granddaughters, Phoebe and Charlotte.

And then there’s 2nd Friday Brunswick, yet another successful summer series sponsored by BDA. And Movies on the Mall.

All of MSMT’s 2025 offerings, including four main stage shows, three children’s shows and three concerts, drew large crowds, many of them sellouts. Moreover, MSMT tickets are reasonably priced when compared with cities like Boston or New York.

Speaking of reasonable: How about getting to witness the talents of young musicians participating in the Bowdoin International Music Festival? We attended several of these free concerts and were simply blown away by the skill of the performers. Just imagine the hours required to reach that level at such a young age. Incidentally, it was a special treat to have several of the musical festival students perform at Thornton Oaks.

The farmers market at Crystal Spring Farm, sponsored by the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, experienced bad weather early in the summer, although many people braved the weather to attend. The weekend weather eventually cooperated, and big crowds flocked to the market. Our granddaughter Emma and her friend Maeve played music on one of the rainy Saturdays but had a grand time nonetheless. Indeed, several of the vendors brought food to them and thanked them for playing.

Limited space precludes listing all the activities that took place in and around Brunswick this summer. But there’s ample reason to give a big shout-out to organizations such as the Brunswick Downtown Association, Maine State Music Theatre, the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust for adding so much to the life and vitality of Brunswick every summer.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns at dtreadw575@aol.com.