If you find yourself hearing about fun community events after they happen and wishing you’d got the memo, save this calendar. It’s got something for everyone: A dinosaur takeover of not one but two Maine civic centers. A 1970s parade. Dog agility courses. And a Civil War-themed opera. We’ve got classic cars, classic boats … and an amphicar that’s both. There are whole festivals built around simple pleasures like strawberry shortcake and wild Maine blueberry pie, a lavender farm in bloom, fresh-shucked oysters and beer samples alongside the Fore River. And if you’re looking for tried-and-true summer favorites like open-air concerts, parades, garden parties, fun runs and food trucks, you won’t be disappointed.

JUNE 16

York Auto Show
York High School, 1 Robert Stevens Drive, York, yorkautoshow.com

Where better to celebrate Father’s Day than at the York Auto Show, one of the biggest auto shows in New England? And it’s a fundraiser for York High School Athletic Boosters. General admission is $5; free for kids under 12. Gates open at 8 a.m.

JUNE 20-22

Scapegoat Garden
7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.), Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress St., Portland

Movement company Scapegoat Garden presents “Liturgy/Order/Bridge,” a participatory dance performance “that calls upon Black church traditions and secular performance” in a way that explores ideas of “faith, nature, fashion and experimentation.” Featuring the Threshold Chorus and a group of “Wisdom Keepers” made up of Portland-area artists. Tickets are available via Eventbrite; $30-35. Presented by Space with support from Indigo Arts Alliance.

JUNE 20-23

La Kermesse
St. Louis Field (John F. Kennedy School), Biddeford, lakermessefestival.com

Highlights of Biddeford’s annual Franco-Americaine festival include a cruisin’ night car show and Dragon Man fire juggler (Thursday night), a parade and Studio Two Beatles tribute (Friday night), a baked bean supper, Don Campbell band and fireworks (Saturday night), and free admission, a crepes breakfast and kids activities (Sunday).

“Cirque du Soleil Corteo”
Cross Insurance Arena, Portland, crossarenaportland.com

Cirque du Soleil describes this clown-centric acrobatic show as “a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.” Tickets available online.

JUNE 21-23

Plein Air Paint for Preservation
Cape Elizabeth, capelandtrust.org

Thirty-one plein air artists will come to Cape Elizabeth for a weekend of painting the town’s iconic land- and seascapes, culminating in a Sunday afternoon auction at The Castle at Garrison Field to benefit Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. Auction tickets are available online.

JUNE 23

Ogunquit Museum of American Art Garden Party
4-6 p.m., 543 Shore Road, Ogunquit, ogunquitmuseum.org

Experience the splendor of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art – inside and (weather permitting) out in the sculpture garden – as Art in Bloom designers vie for the visitors’ choice award. Tickets are $50 and include drinks and light fare.

JUNE 24

South Berwick Strawberry Festival
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Central School grounds, South Berwick, southberwickstrawberryfestival.org

Thousands of strawberry shortcakes are served each year at this one-day community festival that showcases regional craftsmen and performers. Start the day with a 5-mile road race or fun walk (8 a.m.), followed by strawberry shortcake or cheesecake (starting at 9 a.m.).

JUNE 28 & 30

“Rappahannock County”
7:30 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., portlandstage.org

Opera Maine’s Studio Artist Program presents a Virginia-based Civil War opera with lyrics in English, capturing the “key emotional, sociological and historical moments” of the war. Tickets are $38 via Portland Stage (if you’re 25 or younger, email operamaine@operamaine.org to reserve a seat for free).

JUNE 29

Wavy Days Beer Fest
Noon to 4 p.m., Thompson’s Point, Portland, mastlandingbrewing.com

An afternoon beside the Fore River with 55 breweries from across the nation pouring their best and a fleet of food trucks to fill any craving. General admission tickets are $75 on Eventbrite.com ($12 for designated drivers).

JUNE 29-30

The Maine Oyster Festival
Freeport, visitfreeport.com

This celebration of Maine’s favorite bivalve includes raw oysters available from sea farms and mobile shuckers, oyster farm tours and The Big Shuck speed-shucking contest (Sunday at noon at L.L. Bean Discovery Park Stage). Festival admission is free. There’s also a Friday night Meet the Farmer kickoff party; tickets available on Eventbrite.

JULY 3

Maine Attraction Waterski Show
6:30 p.m., Number One Pond, William Oscar Emery Drive (down the hill behind Hannaford), Sanford, maineattractionwaterski.com

Maine Attraction competitive waterski team shows off traditional and barefoot waterskiing, human pyramids and jumps, followed by fireworks! Free, but donations accepted. Bring your own chairs and arrive a half hour before the show. If you can’t make it for this Independence Day pre-show, set out your chair on July 11, 18 or 25 (always weather permitting).

JULY 4-7

Bath Heritage Days
Bath, visitbath.com/bath-heritage-days

One of Maine’s largest Fourth of July parades – part of a four-day festival – is worth the road trip. Start with an Independence Day road race and cap off the holiday with fireworks over the Kennebec River. The party continues over the next three days with a whole lot more live music, a firemen’s muster, art and book sales, an antique car show and a Portland Reavers sword-fighting demonstration.

JULY 11

“Living on a Bad Name”
6 p.m., The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach

Bon Jovi played this seaside municipal ballpark in 1989 on the “New Jersey” tour. Why not “pack the pahk” for an evening with tribute band “Living on a Bad Name”?

JULY 12

Brownstone Brews & Bites
5:30-8:30 p.m., 109 Danforth St., Portland, victoriamansion.org

Enjoy Allagash beer, food by Cheese Louise and live music by the Pete Kilpatrick Band at a lawn party to support preservation of Portland’s best known historic brownstone, Victoria Mansion. Tickets available online.

Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services Gala
6-9 p.m., Agora Grand, 220 Bates St., Lewiston, meirs.org

Enjoy food, music, art and performances from the Ukrainian, Azerbaijani and Congolese communities, among others, and recognize trailblazers at this benefit for Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, which provides support for thousands of immigrants, refugees and their families to become self-sufficient while maintaining their cultural identities. Tickets are $100.

JULY 13

Battle of the Food Trucks
11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Stonewall Kitchen, 2 Stonewall Lane, York

Competing food trucks include Cheese Louise, Clyde’s Cupcakes, Eighty8 Donuts, Maddie’s Acai Bowls, Mainely Burgers, Mami, Gotta Be Frank Gourmet, Roaming Eats, Rustic Taps and Whoa Nellie! Order up some good weather; there’s no rain date.

JULY 17 TO AUG. 3

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”
Maine State Music Theatre, 22 Elm St., Brunswick, msmt.org

Why not a Christmas musical in July? Especially when it’s the classic that brought us the title song “White Christmas”?

JULY 18-20

Sebago Days
3-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, behind Sebago Elementary School, 283 Sebago Road, Sebago, sebagodays.com

Throw it back to the decade this community festival was established – the 1970s – with a themed parade Saturday at 10 a.m. The usual favorites include a 5K run/walk, a cornhole tournament, music performances and a talent show, a car show, rides and fireworks.

JULY 19-21

Yarmouth Clam Festival
Downtown Yarmouth, clamfestival.com

Highlights of Yarmouth’s summer festival include the Maine State Clam Shucking Contest, a Diaper Derby, a car show, a road race and a kids’ fun run, concerts, rides, crafts and vendors. It all starts with a “Pop Culture Phenomena”-themed parade (6-7:30 p.m. Friday). Nonprofits, churches and school groups serve clams, lobster rolls, shore dinners, pancakes, pies, strawberry shortcake and Lime Rickeys. To get there, go toward Main Street and follow the signs.

JULY 20

Brunswick in Bloom
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a garden party at 4 p.m., Brunswick, oasisfreeclinics.org

Tour some of Brunswick’s most interesting and colorful gardens, followed by a garden party with tea, lemonade and light snacks. Tickets are $35 online and benefit Oasis Free Clinics’ medical, dental and prescription assistance services for uninsured and low-income Mainers.

Lavender Festival
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Lavender Hill Farm, 11 Brooks Lane, Berwick, lh-farm.com

This first-time festival will include all-day live music, games and activities, farm animals and crafters – all at lavender fam with over 250 plants. Bring a picnic or grab a bite from a food vendor.

“Higher Ground” to Benefit Sweetser
8 p.m. (doors 7 p.m.), Vinegar Hill Music Theatre, 53 Old Post Road, Arundel, vinhillmusic.com

Sixteen Portland-area musicians will perform 21 Stevie Wonder songs in this tribute show benefiting Sweetser’s mental health programs for children and families statewide. Tickets are $40, available online. Food truck Sook Thai starts serving at 6 p.m.

JULY 25 & 28

Opera Maine’s “Aida”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St., Portland, porttix.com

This epic professional production of Giuseppe Verdi’s romantic opera “Aida” is set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt and sung in Italian but with English translation projected above the stage. Tickets are $38 via porttix.com (if you’re 25 or younger, email operamaine@operamaine.org to reserve a seat for free).

JULY 27

Woofstock
11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Animal Welfare Society, 46 Holland Road, Kennebunk, animalwelfaresociety.org/woofstock

A family- and dog-friendly day of live music, food trucks, local craft brews, dog agility courses and kids activities. Free admission.

AUG. 5 & 6

“Circus Smirkus: The Imaginarium”
1 and 6 p.m., Cumberland Fairgrounds, portlandovations.org

This whimsical circus production by a traveling troupe of young acrobats brings a toy shop to life with high-flying marionettes, tumbling teddy bears and a mischievous jack-in-the-box. Tickets available online.

AUG. 6-11

Topsham Fair
32 Community Way, Topsham, topshamfair.net

An agricultural fair with all the fixins: harness racing, pig scrambles, truck pulling, demolition derby, baking contests, animal exhibits, midway rides and games, live music and food vendors.

AUG. 9

Classic Watercraft Parade
Naples Causeway & Naples Marina

It’s a car, it’s a boat… it’s an “amphicar” demonstration (5-6:45 p.m.), followed by a classic watercraft parade (7 p.m.) touring from Brandy Pond under the Causeway Bridge to the town docks. Free.

AUG. 10

Gray Blueberry Festival
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 24 Main St., Gray, wildblueberries.me/grayfestival

This blueberry-centric community festival includes wild Maine blueberry pie-eating contests and a wild Maine blueberry dessert bake-off, a spelling bee, corn hole tournaments, potato sack races, live music, food trucks and much more.

Art in the Park Show & Sale
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mill Creek Park, South Portland, artintheparkmaine.com

Up to 170 artists contribute to this show and sale, which also includes a food court and afternoon musical entertainment. Free admission.

AUG. 17

Maine Highland Games and Scottish Festival
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thomas Point Beach, Brunswick, mainehighlandgames.org

If your idea of athletics is tossing sticks the size of telephone poles, Maine Highland Games is the place to be. Come prepared for a full day of pipe bands and harps, traditional dancing, shopping, eating and drinking. Tickets available online: $25 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12.

Woodies in the Cove
8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 974 Post Road, Wells, wellsogunquithistory.org

Collectors of woodies—wood-bodied automobiles—gather in Wells each summer for this unique car show hosted by the Historical Society of Ogunquit and Wells. Admission is free for spectators. Don’t miss the parade at 2 p.m. through Wells and Ogunquit and into Perkins Cove.

AUG. 22-SEPT. 21

“Little Shop of Horrors”
Ogunquit Playhouse, 10 Main St., Ogunquit, ogunquitplayhouse.org

In this musical romp – or perhaps, chomp – based on the film by Roger Corman, a floral shop assistant named Seymour stumbles across a new breed of plant that promises to make him famous. All he has to do is keep feeding it human blood.

AUG. 23-25

Jurassic Quest
Cross Insurance Arena, Portland, jurassicquest.com

It’s not every day that a herd of life-size dinosaurs takes over a civic center – but it’s happening for three days, twice, in Maine this summer. Before Jurassic Quest stops in Portland, it will be at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor Aug. 16-18. See incredible fossils like a real Triceratops horn, but also, with a little imagination, ride a dinosaur, train a raptor, and embark on an interactive Quest. Reserve tickets online.

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