Bath's Chocolate Church Celebrates Saint Patrick's Day with Irish Music, Dance, and Poetry

The Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath brought together Irish music, dance, and poetry on Friday, March 13, for a Saint Patrick's Day celebration that drew on talent from across the region.

Boston-based Irish folk band Boxty headlined the evening, bringing the kind of traditional sound that anchors any proper St. Patrick's gathering. Sharing the bill were the Fife Irish Dancers, whose footwork gave the night its visual pulse, and Gary Lawson, a Brunswick bookseller and poet whose readings added a literary dimension to the program.

The event was billed as a community-centered celebration, fitting for the Chocolate Church, which has long served as one of Sagadahoc County's most active cultural venues. Housed in a converted 19th-century church on Washington Street, the space has built a reputation for programming that blends regional artists with outside performers.

Lawson's presence gave the evening a distinctly local anchor. As a fixture in Brunswick's literary community, his participation connected the celebration to the broader Midcoast arts scene that the Chocolate Church regularly draws from.

The pairing of Boxty's Boston-rooted folk tradition with the Fife Irish Dancers and Lawson's verse reflected the kind of multi-disciplinary programming the venue favors, weaving performance forms together rather than staging a straightforward concert.