Memories of the Q97.9 Stage at the Old Port Festival

This Sunday’s 46th annual Old Port Festival will be the last after Portland downtown made the decision to end the summer tradition. There have been a lot of memories over the years at the Old Port Festival and it got me to thinking of all the fun times we had each year on the Q97.9 stage with musical acts at the festival.

Our very first show was in 1997 with headliner Night Ranger. We don't have any video to show you of it because, well, it was 1997 and there was no such thing as YouTube, smart phones. We didn't even have a website yet. If you weren't around in the 80s, you probably haven't heard of Night Ranger, but they had a #1 hit called "Sister Christian."

The turnout to see these guys was something the Old Port Festival had never seen before. A sea of people lined Free Street as far as we could see from the stage.

Jump ahead 13 years later and Maine's very own Spose took the Q stage at the Old Port Festival. He was coming off his hit "I'm Awesome" and performed in front of yet another massive crowd.

And then there was the 2008 show at the Old Port Festival when Meredith, Jeff and Lori were actually a musical artist...sort of.

This was they year the video game Rock Band was huge, so we formed our own Rock Band band called Cluster Fudge. With Lori and drums, me on guitar and Meredith on vocals, we performed Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive," and people actually came to watch us play a video game.

We'll miss the Old Port Festival and all the great memories we had on that stage. What was the show you remembered seeing on the Q stage at the Old Port Festival? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook page.