The annual kick-off fundraiser for our summer season!
The once-a-year chance for the public to visit the home of Hogfish’s Artists-in-Residence and the internationally recognized rose garden of historic Beckett Castle.
5-6pm: enjoy local brews or a glass of wine while wandering the garden at peak bloom which features over 70 varieties of heirloom roses.
From 6-7pm: be serenaded by our 2025 artists-in-residence in an unforgettable Maine summer outdoor concert accompanied by the crashing ocean waves.
*Please note there is no parking at Beckett Castle or on Singles or Shore Roads. We request that all guests park at the Cape Elizabeth High School parking lot, where shuttles will be running to the castle. More information in the FAQ section below.
WHY WE ARE FUNDRAISING
This fundraiser supports the Hogfish 2025 summer season and a continued exploration of how the arts can be regenerative to the soil of the human heart. Join us for an unforgettable Maine summer evening, and in so doing, help us continue to build an artistic sanctuary and body of work that restores creative and physical health to individuals, our communities, and our earth.
The majority of our annual budget goes to giving our artists-in-residence a living wage and making tickets affordable for our community to witness their extraordinary art. The ticket price of our events does not cover even a third of these costs.
TICKET LEVELS
1) K&R GENERAL ADMISSION (standing or grass seating for the concert) | $75
2) K&R GENERAL ADMISSION (provided seat for the concert) | $150
3) TWO TIX EACH FOR K&R + SVADBA! | $500
Two tickets for Kegs & Roses with provided seats for the concert as well as two tickets to our flagship summer 2025 show SVADBA by Ana Sokolovic 7/26 or 7/30 at Halo at the Point, Brick North Thompson's Point, Portland ME. Total value = $600.
4) REGENERATIVE ARTS CSA (Community Supported Arts) | $1000
Join the Hogfish Regenerative Arts CSA (community supported arts) and receive a summer 2025 season pass good for two tickets to all Hogfish summer 2025 events, plus receive an invitation to quarterly (four total) Regenerative Arts CSA member-only salons with regenerative artists at Beckett Castle and other venues. Be a part of a community that is committed to regenerating through the arts! Summer 2025 events include:
Kegs & Roses on 6/28
The "Regenerative Arts Seed Project", regenerative works-in-progress by individual artists-in-residence on 7/14
The flagship show of the summer SVADBA on 7/26 or 7/30
The first ever Regenerative Arts Summit, 7/30-8/1
Total value = $1350 value
A note from Hogfish founders - "Your support is integral to our continued cultivation of regenerative artists and exploration of the regenerative arts in Maine - how the arts can help regenerate the bodies, minds, and spirits of individuals, our communities, and our planet."
5) REGENERATIVE ARTS GARDENER | $6000
This level of donation fully supports a regenerative arts residency at Hogfish. It comes with everything the Regenerative Arts CSA provides, PLUS:
Two more tickets (4 total) for each Hogfish summer 2025 event
Invitation to an intimate dinner at Beckett Castle.
INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING OR PROVIDING HOUSING FOR ARTISTS?
If you are interested in volunteering or providing housing for artists, we have a variety of volunteering needs and durations of stays with fabulous artists that match all interests. It takes a village and we welcome you to be a part of ours. Contact our Executive Director Bettina Mehne at bettina@hogfish.org today!
FAQ
DRESS CODE
We welcome garden party attire. Bright colors and florals are encouraged with sensible shoes as the lawn is grass and sloped. There is usually a breeze from the ocean, so you might want to bring a light jacket or sweater.
PARKING
Please note there is no parking at Beckett Castle or on Singles or Shore Roads. We request that all guests park at the Cape Elizabeth High School parking lot, where a Hogfish representative will be checking you into the event.
SHUTTLE SERVICE
Shuttles transport guests from the Cape Elizabeth High School parking lot to Beckett Castle. The first shuttle leaves for Beckett Castle at 4:45pm. The trip between the parking lot and Beckett Castle is approximately seven minutes. Shuttles run back and forth throughout the duration of the event.
RAIN PLAN
In case of rain, we will still allow guests to tour the rose garden from 5-6pm, and then we will hold the concert portion of the evening in the nave at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 885 Shore Road, Cape Elizabeth ME 04107.
RESTROOMS
There will be two portable bathrooms outdoors on site. One will be handicap accessible. They are on Singles Road by the shed outside the Beckett Castle cobblestone courtyard.
TIMING
1st shuttle leaves CEHS high school for Beckett castle at 4:45pm. 5-6pm cocktail hour in the rose garden. 6-7pm concert featuring the Hogfish 2025 artists-in-residence. Shuttles will return guests to the CEHS high school parking lot following the concert.
History
Beckett Castle (founded in 1874)
The Nancy Harvey Rose Garden (founded in 1983)
Hogfish Regenerative Arts Company & Residency (founded in 2021)
In 1874, lawyer, poet, amateur ornithologist, and spiritualist Sylvester Beckett built the first summer residence in Cape Elizabeth, Maine: a stone cottage with a three story tower perched on top of jagged rocks and crashing waves with a one hundred eighty degree view of the Atlantic Ocean and five lighthouses.
“Beckett Castle” quickly became the pre-eminent gathering spot for writers, artists, and society folk. Beckett was a spiritualist like Rudolph Steiner who founded the Waldorf School, and Beckett had a deep belief in the connection between the living world and the after-life. When Beckett died, many stories maintained that Beckett’s soul continued to live in the castle and by the 1970s there were numerous published reports of supernatural activities in the haunted castle.
Beckett Castle languished until social-worker and amateur rosarian Nancy Harvey won the castle at an auction in 1981. Harvey restored the property, and with the help of gardener Lynn Shafer, spent the next thirty years creating a private rose garden that was eventually featured in the final book of Peter Beales, the royal rosarian to the Queen Mother. Lynn Shafer continues to oversee the rose garden with new stewards and friends Matt and Edwin Cahill.
In 2018, Edwin and Matt Cahill purchased Beckett Castle with the dream of joining Nancy Harvey’s vision of a magical rose garden on the rocky cliffs of Cape Elizabeth with Sylvester Beckett’s castle hermitage for artists and thinkers, where the next generation can create new works and performances to inspire the communities in Maine and around the country.