Trail Session: Louisa Stancioff on July 26, 2025
A hike & concert at Portland Trails’ Conant Property
Trail Sessions build new fans for our public lands and emerging musicians.
Details
Saturday, July 26
Hike 10a-11a
Concert 11a-Noon
Location: Conant Trails, Portland, ME
Band: Louisa Stancioff (Indie Folk)
Tickets: Recommended $10/adult. Sliding scale donation tickets ($0-$50). Kids free!
Portland Trails will lead a gentle hike featuring the Presumpscot River.
Friendly dogs on leash are welcome.
There are no restrooms or water fountains.
Parking on Conant Street is limited - biking encouraged! Use Portland Trails’ trail map to find your route.
Bring: Sunscreen, bug spray, water and snacks! The concert will be held within walking distance of the parking lot so you can fetch your blankets/lawn chairs/food after the hiking portion.
Event held in honor of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival. Sustain Music & Nature have a short film showing at 3pm featuring Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges and some of the biggest names in folk music.
Louisa Stancioff
Born and raised in the foothills of Western Maine, Louisa Stancioff learned to entertain herself by singing songs with her sister and playing the piano, fiddle, guitar and any other instrument lying around the house. Stancioff grew up learning traditional Balkan music from her paternal grandfather’s side of the family, and reveled in singing American folk and roots tunes with her friends. She moved through life nomadically in her early adulthood, living in upstate New York, Western North Carolina, Montana and California, and gathered her songwriting material along the way, playing in multiple bands throughout those years.
Currently settled in Midcoast Maine, she has toured this iteration of her indie folk band all across the country, headlining and opening for bands such as Blitzen Trapper, Pokey Lafarge, Darlingside, The Dead Tongues, Micaela Davis and more.
Backed by her talented bandmates, her intelligent and soulful writing pairs with a confident and catchy indie sound drawing on folk, rock, pop, and her own balkan heritage.
Louisa’s debut album When We Were Looking was released in 2024 under Yep Roc Records.
Conant Trails
Donated to Portland Trails by the late Ellie Conant Sanders, this beautiful riverfront conservation land offers meadowed trails, benches, a tree swing, picnic tables, and the opportunity to say hello to the neighbor’s goats! With more than a mile of trails, it offers great views of the Presumpscot and close proximity to Ernie’s Cycle Shop, as well as other local Westbrook trails. It’s a beautiful hidden gem of the Portland Trails network.
The Presumpscot River has thousands of years of history. For centuries, Indigenous people lived next to and in harmony with the river, hunting its salmon, bass, trout, and other sea-run fish and planting corn, beans, and squash on its banks. The word Presumpscot means the river of many falls, and Abenaki tribal leader Chief Polin once said that the Presumpscot “is the river which I belong to.”
When European colonialists built dams on the river in the 1730s to power paper mills and gristmills, this interrupted the passage of fish, threatening a major food source of the Abenaki people. To protect the river, the fish, and his people, Chief Polin walked to Boston (Maine was still part of Massachusetts) twice to ask the governor to intervene and order the installation of a fish passage but was given empty promises. In response, Chief Polin eventually armed his people to fight for their access to the river. He was killed in 1756 after a long conflict, causing the Abenaki people to either retreat or go into hiding.
In 2018, the nonprofit Friends of the Presumpscot River installed a memorial to Chief Polin on what’s now the Conant Trails. When walking through the property, you’ll see a massive stone marker with a plaque bearing his name, along with four additional granite slabs to signify the four native tribes still active in Maine and a set of informational boards that detail Polin’s and the river’s history. Indigenous historian and professor Lisa Brooks was instrumental to the creation of this memorial.
Portland Trails
Founded in 1991, Portland Trails is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is creating connections between neighbors, communities, and the natural world.
For over 30 years, we have been building and maintaining a trail network for residents and visitors of Portland to use and enjoy. We believe that trails, in conjunction with safe streets and robust public transportation, can transform our community.
Today, our network includes almost 100 miles of trails, and they’re visited over one million times each year. Most notably, our trails are within half a mile of every home and a quarter mile of 95% of homes in Portland. Our trails are in every neighborhood, connect to almost every school, and extend into Westbrook and Falmouth. Every day, thousands of our neighbors visit the trails for a morning jog, a safe walk to school, a moment of peace, or an off-street commute. Our trails are part of people’s lives every day.
Sustain Music & Nature
We make music a force for nature. Tapping into the emotional hook of music and cultural sway of bands, we engage new audiences with the outdoors. Based in CT, we work with all genres of musicians across the entire US. Songscapes and Trail Sessions are our signature programs.
This is a fully outdoor concert. Prepare for any weather!