March 20 may be the official start of spring, but Emily Isaacson said the third month of the year is often Maine’s most miserable time.
“We’re stuck inside,” Isaacson said. “It’s too warm for skiing but too cold for swimming. And so I started to think about creating something that broke us out of hibernation and into spring.”
As she developed the idea, Isaacson, the founder and artistic director of performing arts collective Classical Uprising, said her vision became less about escapism and more about how joy and connection can help to revitalize and reawaken a community.
“When we gather in community, when we dance and lift our voices, we really become alive again,” Isaacson said. “And so, we created a series of events that encourage you to come out of isolation, to connect, to refuel burnout through play and despair through collective energy and to really promote being silly and playful.”
Two years later, Maine’s first Mudfest is set to energize and inspire people of all ages through events like live-orchestra musical chairs, choir-singing in a brewery and an all-out dance party, complete with a Burning-Man-style bonfire.
The ethos of Mudfest is in lockstep with the aims of Classical Uprising, which works to “challenge current norms and re-envision where, how and for whom we make music,” Isaacson said. For more than a decade, she said the group has been performing, hosting events and leading educational programs that bring classical music into the everyday lives of community members and into unexpected spaces, like bars and bowling alleys.
Photo by Christina Wnek, provided by Classical Uprising
That central mission is what drew Jenny O’Connell, co-creator of The Joyfire Project, to Mudfest. She said both projects are about exploring a shared humanity, resilience and power.
“It’s about staying close and connected to what makes us feel human,” O’Connell said. “Given the mission of Classical Uprising’s events, which are so based around strengthening and connecting communities and helping people into their bodies, into the world in a way that allows them to really experience music and experience community, it was just such a natural progression to jump into Mudfest.”
O’Connell and The Joyfire Project will be a part of the Mud Ball, the dance party that culminates in a communal release through a bonfire.
“It’s an intentional act of letting go of what our bodies have been holding all winter and releasing what we need to release — the fear, the stress, the anger, whatever we need to let go of to create the space for new growth and for spring,” O’Connella said. ”It’s sort of a spring cleaning of the mind and spirit.”
So how much mud is actually part of Mudfest? Plenty, Isaacson said. But the mud represents much more than just mess to her.
“I really think that joy is a civic practice and that we don’t create enough opportunities, especially as adults, to give ourselves permission to be truly joyful. So mud is a symbol of permission to do all of those things with reckless abandon,” Isaacson said.
Mudfest runs from Thursday, March 19, 2026 through Sunday, March 29, 2026 in Greater Portland, Brunswick and Freeport. Click here for more information
Guests
- Emily Isaacson, conductor, composer, founder and artistic director of performing arts collective Classical Uprising.
- Jenny O’Connell, award-winning writer, outdoor guide, speaker, author of the memoir “Wildheart,” co-creator of The Joyfire Project