Ground Floor, Freeport

U21

Under 21 Shows

Talent:

Under 21!

Audience:

Under 21!

Each show has a lot of great young talent, creating an eclectic variety concert.  

All PERFORMERS – under 21
All AUDIENCE – under 21 

The pro sound system rocks. The entire evening gets recorded.  Very cool.

The story of U21
And so it begins...

First there was
Ben's project

Even before our grand opening, we hosted an event that would steer us toward creating an Under 21 series. 

 

In our home town of Freeport, the high school requires seniors to design a project for themselves to share in presentation.  FHS student, Ben Morang partnered with us for his project which included recording his original music live in concert at Ground Floor.  He brought a full band and some guests. All ages attended, and it was a big success.  

U21 Debut

After Ben’s event, it was clear that there was a lot of young energy out there looking for opportunities to showcase and gather.   With commitments from a couple of acts offering to  anchor a concert, we decided to put together an under 21 show, where the performers, tech crew, and audience would all be under 21. 

 

Additional talent was quickly rounded up and it wasn’t long before there were more than enough performers.  A date was announced and rehearsals were underway, when the entire town of Freeport experienced a terrible tragedy.

Steel & the show goes on

A week before the event, 17 year old Steel Crawford tragically died in an accident. Steel was close friends with a number of out U21 performers and had planned to attend the show. We turned to the kids, ready to cancel, but they wanted to go on. It was clear that the music and the chance to be together was what they needed. 

 

That night became a safe space for emotions to be raw and for friends to pay tribute to a lost friend.  Even Steel’s sister, Natalie, showed up unexpectedly and took the stage. It was real love, all love, in the room that night. 

Hear a bit

Check out this clip of Ben Morang and Emma Rankins with an original song.  Emma and Ben have performed at all GFF U21 events.

Bigger
&
better

After that first show, there was no question that there would / should be another.  With the help of Py Morin, a Ground Floor apprentice and North Yarmouth Academy student, we were introduced to even more amazing talent from neighboring Yarmouth and beyond. Within months after the first one, the second U21 show happened with more than a dozen acts as we turned away some talent to be slated for the “next” one.  It was a very special, high energy night.

A new series

And that’s how U21 naturally grew from a single high school senior project into an open series.  We scheduled them for every three months starting with March 7th 2020, but we all know what happened then.  Sure, the pandemic shut us down for a while, but we’ll pick right back up with this project even before our 2022 re-grand opening.  Wanna be part of it?

Ben and group

Get Involved

We’ll need musicians, singers, and bands, with a variety of styles.

Get Involved!

When we restart the U21 series, we’ll be looking for talent to play and produce. We’ll need performers & stage crew.  We’ll ask some parents to sponsor and maybe feed the rehearsals. Give us a shout to get involved.

Get Involved

We’ll need people to do sound, lights, video, stage support, hospitality, promotion.