PORTLAND — The foot traffic on Munjoy Hill picked up as Saturday afternoon went on, which was good news for the people set up along Congress Street trying to capitalize on the large crowd.
Some were collecting money for causes, others were just trying to make a buck.
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Justin Asaph said he was enjoying the music, but it was business that brought him from Portsmouth, N.H. Asaph, simply put, buys tickets cheaply and sells them for more.
Asked how many tickets he had, Asaph said, “How many do you want?”
Asaph said he had probably bought 40 tickets Saturday for $20 to $40 from people who arrived in Portland with extras.
Asaph said he sold them for around face value, but declined to be more specific.
Asaph said by 5 p.m. he was down to about two tickets.
The Portland Fire Department set up a giant boot for donations to muscular dystrophy.
Across the street, Kelly O’Brien held a yard sale to raise money for her 4-month-old son Liam, who has a birth defect.
Eleven-year-old Gwen Carhart set up a lemonade stand around the corner from her house. Her mother, Uschi Carhart, said they wished they’d set up one on each side of Congress Street.
The Munjoy Hill Organization sold water and T-shirts to raise money.
“Cold water! Dogs are invited,” Ralph Carmona, a member of the organization, yelled.
Von Nida also offered water, as well as ginger ale, to help people not get “caught up in the dehydration vibe” from the heat and alcohol, she said.
Nida, wearing a silver sequined tank top and rabbit-fur hat, said she was burning incense, ringing a bell and cracking jokes with potential customers in an effort to create a “portal of positive energy” for people before they entered the concert.
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Mumford & Sons gained at least one fan during their concert Saturday night in Portland.
Linda Dresch, who said she was in her 60s, was staffing a line of barricades on Congress Street about a block from the Eastern Prom while the band was playing.
“I think they’re very good,” she said. “I hadn’t heard them before tonight.”
Dresch is a volunteer usher at Merrill Auditorium and says she normally prefers the quieter acts that perform there. She said the Mumford & Sons folk-rock genre appeals to her.
“You can understand the words,” she said. “You can bring a family, too.”
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Festival-goers arrived at 5:30 a.m. outside the gates. First in line were Christine and Gabi Urenn, a mother and daughter from Delran, N.J.
The mother, Christine, said their strategy to get a good spot was to have her 13-year-old daughter make a dash for the stage.
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Bathed in sweat, Rickshaw Rick said business was booming Saturday.
Rickshaw, who also goes by the name Rick Hamburger — “like the popular sandwich,” he said — operates a pedicab in Portland.
He said he was running a shuttle for concert-goers from the Old Port to the base of the Eastern Promenade. “That way I get to avoid going up and down Munjoy Hill on Congress Street while carrying two, three or four people,” he said.
He then nabbed another fare and started pedaling toward the festival.
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Michael McAllister of Portland worked the concert as the co-owner and operator of Cabin Cove, a food vending business. He and his business partner, Juliet Totten, sell oysters and lobster rolls.
“This (was) a great opportunity to come and see a show and be part of something special,” McAllister said.
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Nadine Haddad drove down from Halifax, Nova Scotia, with two friends. She was awed by the venue overlooking Casco Bay.
“It’s amazing,” Haddad said.
— Compiled by Staff Writers Leslie Bridgers, Bob Keyes, Edward D. Murphy and Beth Quimby
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