SUNAANA Extends to Two Days & Multiple Venues; Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Portland, Maine's newest, most exciting discovery event-music, breweries, art, all amid the wild, windy winters of Southeast Maine-will return next spring. The sophomore Sunaana festival will expand to two days-Friday and Saturday, March 2-3, 2018-and multiple venues following last year's premier, one-day edition, which was the inaugural event at Brick South on Thompson's Point.

There will be music Friday night and all day Saturday, and there will be a robust craft beer list that includes Maine breweries as well as an out-of-state lineup curated by revered Portland brewery Bissell Brothers Brewing. Early bird tickets are available now and can be purchased here; there will also be offsite opportunities to enjoy food, beverage and music on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

Sunaana co-founder Patrick Arnold has said of this year's expansion: "When we launched Sunaana last year, our focus was on doing something wildly fun in the City of Portland at the coldest part of the New England winter. It's amazing to us how vivid winter actually is and how being immersed in the cold can occupy your focus throughout the spring, summer and fall."

Sunaana has announced that Philly band Bel Heir and rising local artist Jon King will be among 2018's performers. Inspired by a recent trip to Iceland Airwaves-last year, Icelandic band Mammút (whose newest album Kinder Versions was released this summer via Bella Union) was among the festival highlights-Sunaana's founders will later be announcing the festival's international performers.

Those who love beer, music, and culture in general won't want to miss Sunaana's second year; its first was acclaimed in Fodor's Travel and October. Now a two-day festival, the first year's successes, which exceeded even the highest expectations of its founders, will be repeated and expanded upon over twice as much time.

About Sunaana

Sunaana is a winter festival created to embrace the time of year when the days are short and the nights are long. The experience is a unique and groundbreaking mix of emerging musicians from Maine, Iceland, and beyond; contemporary performance (circus and modern dance); and the craft beer industry's "best of the best" beers. As Portland increasingly becomes the epicenter of New England's cultural, economic, and political engagement with the North Atlantic region, Sunaana sees itself similarly, as a hub for these kinds of regional and, ultimately, international encounters and engagements. 2018 puts forth the second edition of an event that will ultimately grow into a city-wide winter festival blending music, art, food, beer, and outdoor recreation.

Thompson's Point is a 30-acre, former railyard that is being transformed into Portland's newest and most dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood. The venue is anchored by two great structures: a renovated historic brick building that will accommodate the indoor portion of the event and an outdoor pavilion that is home to an outdoor ice rink, tubing hill, and outdoor recreation area. As the Sunaana brand grows, Thompson's Point will continue to be the creative nucleus, but the festival will ultimately have interconnected hubs and a shared promotional and organizational infrastructure with partnering institutions all over the city, much like Iceland Airwaves.

The great highlight of Sunaana is the rich fabric of collaboration that it produces and leaves as a foundation for expansion, extension, and intensification in subsequent years. Non-profit collaborators include Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, Portland Trails, the Maine Brewers' Guild, Iceland Airwaves, Jewels of the North Atlantic (Iceland), and the Open Bench Project, a shared space based at Thompson's Point. Private business collaborators include Soli DG, Eimskip, Halo Recording Studio, the State Theatre, Thompson's Point, Circus Maine, Bissell Brothers Brewing, Cellardoor Winery, Stroudwater Distillery, and artist Sam Van Aken.