Kiddie Pool 26/04/02

Family fun for whenever

Showtime

The Hispanic Flamenco Ballet will perform for students on Friday, April 3, at 10 and 11 a.m. at the Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St. in Concord, according to theaudi.org. Call 305-420-6622 for tickets.

• Ovation Theatre Company will present The Addams Family Musical, primarily featuring performers ages 13 to 19, on Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4, at 7 p.m. as well as April 4 at 2 p.m. at the Derry Opera House, 29 W. Broadway in Derry, according to ovationtc.com, where you can purchase tickets.

Cinderella will be presented by Southern New Hampshire Youth Ballet as their spring show on Saturday, April 4, at 1 and 4 p.m. See snhdt.org for tickets; the show takes place at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, whose website says the show is 75 minutes long with a 15-minute intermission.

Easter fun

• Hunt for eggs at the Lions Clubs of Pinardville and Goffstown’s Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 4, with 9 a.m. (for ages 1 to 4), 9:45 a.m. (ages 5 to 7) and 10:30 a.m. (ages 8 to 10) start times at Roy Park in Pinardville. Find the clubs on Facebook.

• Carriage Shack Farm, 5 Dan Hill Road in Londonderry, will hold an Easter Bunny Party at the Farm on Saturday, April 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to carriageshackfarmllc.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Charmingfare Farm, 774 High St. in Candia, will wrap up its Egg-citing Egg Hunt, geared toward egg hunters ages 2 to 12, this Saturday, April 4, and Sunday, April 5, with entry times from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to visitthefarm.com.

Science!

• Retro-priced $3 admission continues at the SEE Science Center, 200 Bedford St. in Manchester, through Saturday, April 4, to celebrate the Center’s 40th birthday. The center opens at 10 a.m. (with a last admission at 3 p.m. on weekdays and 4 p.m. on weekends) and is closed Sunday, April 5, for Easter, according to see-sciencecenter.org.

• The monthly Super Stellar Friday at McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord on Friday, April 3, is all about the nocturnal world of caterpillars and moths: “The Caterpillar Lab will present a photograph and video packed talk that explores the nighttime world of caterpillars, moths, and how to find them. … This special lecture will include time to meet a few special caterpillar specimens up close, try out blacklight flashlights, and chat with Caterpillar Lab educators about all things local caterpillar,” according to starhop.com. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. presentation, and a sky viewing will take place at 9 p.m., weather permitting, according to the website, where you can purchase admission tickets for the program as well as add-on tickets for the 8 p.m. planetarium show.

This Week 26/04/02

Thursday, April 2

It’s time for your encyclopedic knowledge of the movie Dirty Dancing to pay off at Dirty Dancing Trivia tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Cinema Pub (707 Huse Road, Manchester, 206-3888, chunkys.com). Tickets are $7 through the Chunky’s website.

Thursday, April 2

The new season of music at the Casino Ballroom on Hampton Beach kicks off tonight with Melissa Etheridge. Doors open at 7 p.m.; show starts at 8 p.m. See casinoballroom.com for tickets.

Friday, April 3

Jewel Music Venue (61 Canal St., Manchester, 819-9336, facebook.com/jewlnh) will host the Hachi presented Wizard’s Wasteland Tour featuring headliners Space Wizard along with Swamp Wizard, She-Wolf, Ainonow and Slang Dogs, according to Jewel’s Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets.

Friday, April 3

The BNH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com) will host Lisa Joins a Cult tonight at 7:30 p.m. foran immersive evening of exploring religious cults, why they happen and what keeps them going. Tickets are $27 through the Capitol Center website.

Saturday, April 4

There’s a Baa Baa Bash at Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com) from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday in April beginning today. Welcome spring with baby animals, muddy boots and maybe even a live animal birth. Buy feed bags and feed the animals. Admission is free. Visit brookfordfarm.com/events.

Saturday, April 4

The Exeter LitFest will run today from noon to 5 p.m. at Exeter Town Hall and feature authors including Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (whose works include the April 7 release The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie) and Catherine Newman (author of 2025’s Wreck) among other author conversations, according to exeterlitfest.com. The day will also feature children’s events at the Exeter Public Library starting at 10 a.m., the website said.

Saturday, April 4

Concord’s Giant Indoor Yard Sale takes place today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord), according to the event’s Facebook page. Adult admission costs $5, the page said.

Sunday, April 5

Catch Cecil B. Demille’s first attempt at the Moses story when the 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments plays at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Main Street in Wilton, screened with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, today at 2 p.m.

Friday, April 3

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats open their 2026 season tonight at 6:03 p.m. at Delta Dental Stadium (1 Line Drive, Manchester, 641-2005, milb.com/new-hampshire). They will take on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies tonight and again tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, and Sunday, April 5, at 1:05 p.m. See milb.com/new-hampshire for tickets. The game will be preceded by a Hot Dog Happy Hour with food and live entertainment beginning 90 minutes before game time.

Save the Date! April 17, 2026
The three-time Grammy Award-winning Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will perform at the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) Friday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. as part of their “Farewell Tour, All the Good Times: 60 Years of Dirt.” Tickets start at $66, with a limited number of VIP passes available through the Nashua Center’s website.

Featured photo: Retired Navy pilot Lynn “Skip” Carter. Courtesy photo.

Quality of Life 26/04/02

I’ve been meaning to clean out my freezer, anyway

As reported on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection website (fsis.usda.gov), Ajinomoto Foods, a frozen food company that supplies many grocery stores, including Trader Joe’s, has expanded a recall of frozen rice and frozen chicken products. “The establishment is recalling approximately 33,617,045 additional pounds of various ready-to-eat (RTE) and NRTE chicken and pork fried rice, ramen, and shu mai dumpling products, for a combined total of 36,987,575 pounds subject to recall” the USDA statement read.

QOL score: -1

Comment: Approximately 9 million pounds of the recalled food was Trader Joe’s Vegetable Fried Rice. According to the USDA website, “The problem was discovered when the establishment notified FSIS that it received multiple consumer complaints involving glass found in product.”

Easter shortages

As reported by New Hampshire Public Radio in a March 23 online article, cold weather and a delayed harvest have contributed to a local carrot shortage. NHPR reported that “a mid-January freeze and exceptionally hot weather this month in California, from where the majority of the national carrot supply originates, appears to have delayed harvests in the southern San Joaquin Valley,” leading to shortages in area supermarkets. Additionally, according to a March 29 online article by WMUR, rising chocolate and candy prices have driven up the cost of this year’s Easter candy. “Along with chocolate, candy prices are up nearly 12% over the past year,” the article reported.

QOL score: -2

Comment: You could grow your own. Carrots, that is, not candy. Late spring is the time to harvest your early-spring-planted carrots.

Indoor bugs

As reported on March 26 New Hampshire Public Radio at nhpr.org, the large numbers of ladybugs that have been appearing in your house are, according to horticulturist Emma Erler, “not dangerous and they don’t hurt the structure or lay eggs, but they are annoying.” Erler said in the article that “[y]ou can vacuum them up with abandon as the species is invasive and in no danger of disappearing from the landscape.”The native New Hampshire ladybugs tend to hibernate outside and it’s the Asian ladybugs we’re seeing indoors, the article said.

QOL score: -1

Comment: One ladybug? Awww. More? Ewww.

QOL score last week: 51

Net change: -4

QOL this week: 47

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?

Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

News & Notes 26/04/09

Bird news

The pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the Brady Sullivan Tower in Manchester welcomed an egg on March 25, according to the daily log for the Peregrine Cam, which you can access via nhaudubon.org/education/birds-and-birding/peregrine-cam. The cam offers livestreaming video of three angles on the nest via NH Audubon and the support of Peregrine Networks and Brady Sullivan Properties, according to the website. Last year the nest produced five eggs, of which three hatched.

Bird events

The NH Audubon’s Massabesic Center, 26 Audubon Way in Auburn, will celebrate the return of nesting birds with two programs on Saturday, April 11. “NestWatch Volunteer Training: Eastern Bluebird and Tree Swallow Monitoring” will run from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and “Build-A-Birdhouse” will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., according to the NH Audubon’s newsletter. Register for either at nhaudubon.org.

Health care forum

The New Hampshire Insurance Department will hold the 2026 Commissioner’s Health Care Policy Forum on Wednesday, April 29, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. “This first-of-its-kind event is designed to bring together policymakers, stakeholders, and interested members of the public for a proactive discussion on one of the most pressing issues facing New Hampshire residents and employers: the rising cost of health care among Granite Staters. The forum is the first event hosted by the Department specifically focused on examining ways to help bend the cost curve and promote greater transparency around the drivers of health care spending. The program will feature the rollout of New Hampshire’s Total Health Care Expenditure findings, including the New Hampshire Health Care Dollar, 2023 and 2024 total statewide health care spending, and insights from the NHID Health Care Data Chartbook,” according to a press release. The forum will take place at the New Hampshire Fire Academy Auditorium, 98 Smokey Bear Blvd. in Concord. Register at bit.ly/3NyeIzY.

Baby shower

The United Way of Greater Nashua is collecting items for its Community Baby Shower, which is slated for April 22, according to a press release. Donate to the registry or drop off baby items to 20 Broad St. in Nashua, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., through Sunday, April 12. Items include baby clothes, car seats, diapers, board books and more; see unitedwaynashua.org/event/community-baby-shower.

Manchester Artists

The Manchester Artists Association will hold its April meeting on Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in the Community Room at the Michael L. Briggs Public Safety Building, 405 Valley St. in Manchester, featuring speaker watercolor artist Leah Keuhne, according to a press release. See manchesterartists.com.

“Emergence,” a spring juried members exhibition, will open Thursday, April 2, and run through Saturday, June 27, at the Center for the Arts Members Gallery, 428 Main St. in New London, with an opening reception slated for Saturday, April 4, from 3 to 5 p.m. “‘Emergence’ highlights artwork inspired by themes of transformation, renewal, and the shifting energy that arrives as spring moves toward summer. The exhibition reflects both the natural transition from cold to warmth and the creative momentum that grows within a supportive arts community,” according to a press release. The gallery is open Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. See cfanh.org.

Dave Anderson of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests wraps up the Cottrell-Baldwin Environmental Lecture Series with a talk called “New Hampshire Forests — Past, Present and Future: 125 Years Protecting NH Landscapes and Landmarks Mammal Tracking in New Hampshire” on Tuesday, April 7, from 7 to 8:30 a.m. at Fox Forest’s Henry I. Baldwin Environmental Center, 309 Center Road in Hillsborough. See forestsociety.org/events to RSVP.

Salem Animal Rescue League will hold a fundraising music bingo event on Friday, April 10, at 7 p.m., doors open at 6 p.m., at the Windham Country Club, 1 Country Club Road in Windham. Tickets cost $60 and include dinner; see sarlnh.org.

The Queen City will be featured in its own board game with Monopoly: Manchester Edition, slated for release in late November, according to a press release.

Comfort on a Plate — 03/26/2026

on the cover

What foods do you turn to when you need a little culinary comfort? John Fladd asked folks in the food industry as well as others what they turn to for comfort and offers a few recipes to make your own comforting meal.

Also on the cover John also talks to the folks at Sunflower Bakery and Cafe about their weekend business (page 14). Michael Witthaus talks to Dirty Cello ahead of their show in Concord on Sunday (page 20). And find more music this weekend in our Music This Week listings, which start on page 21.

Read the e-edition

The Big Story – Red Sox Season Opens: It gets started Thursday, March 26, at the home of baseball’s first ...
A graphic the shape of the state of New Hampshire, filled in with the New Hampshire flag made up of the crest of New Hampshire on a blue field.
Scam warning The Manchester Police Department sent out a March 18 press release about a “Fraudulent ‘Notice of Hearing’ Scam.” ...
A graphic the shape of the state of New Hampshire, filled in with the New Hampshire flag made up of the crest of New Hampshire on a blue field.
Turtle road In a March 19 press release the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department announced that the Department’s Nongame ...
elderly man standing next to mannequin wearing pilot's uniform
Thursday, March 26 Retired Navy pilot Lynn “Skip” Carter will speak about his military flying career and other exploits, including ...
bowl filled with cheesy macaroni and cheese sitting on red diner counter
Foods that bring us joy Now is the long, damp, Mud Season of our hearts. The weather see-saws madly from ...
group of people standing on sidewalk in front of large painted mural on brick building, colorful mural of collage of drawings
SleepOut event helps unhoused youth In 2015, Manchester social services organization Waypoint, then known as Child & Family Services, organized ...
box of old, clouded glass bottles of various sizes and colors, in dim closet, photo taken from above
Hello, Donna, I have several boxes of old bottles. They are dirty but otherwise in good condition. I think my ...
Red round icon that reads Weekly Dish
• New pie: The new brick and mortar iteration of Slightly Crooked Pies (1209 Elm St., Manchester, 661-4575, slightlycrookedpies.com) will ...
plate of croissants on bakery counter
Sunflower Bakery offers sweet and savory treats Brittani and Jake Randall own the Sunflower Bakery and Cafe in Nashua. They ...
Giant pretzels for the win
Fisher Cats get ready for another season of baseball and eats One of the most challenging aspects of being responsible ...
bowl filled with rice pudding on counter
5½ cups (1,250 g) whole milk – We don’t want this pudding to be too fatty or not fatty enough ...
album covers for Flesh Field, On Enmity and Big Harp, Runs to Blue
Flesh Field, On Enmity (self-released) Some of you may remember the goth phase I was processing in these pages back ...
four member band playing on stage with singer/cellist front woman
Rocking up a staid stringed instrument According to common wisdom, one way to deal with stage fright is to imagine ...

This Week 26/03/26

Thursday, March 26

Retired Navy pilot Lynn “Skip” Carter will speak about his military flying career and other exploits, including his recent work as an author of historical fiction, in an “Exploring Aviation” presentation tonight at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, aviationmuseumofnh.org). Tickets are $10 per person.

Friday, March 27

Iconic New England band Entrain will perform live at the Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St., Derry, 437-5100, tupelomusichall.com) tonight at 8 p.m. See the website for tickets.

Friday, March 27

Acclaimed pianist Teresa Walters will perform “Listz’s Canticle of the Sun” and more at Dana Center (Saint Anselm College, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester) on tonight at 7:30 p.m., according to tickets.anselm.edu.

Saturday, March 28

The Capital City Craft Festival returns to Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord) today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and tomorrow, Sunday, March 29, until 4 p.m. There will be more than 125 juried artisans offering handmade arts, crafts and specialty foods. See castleberryfairs.com/capital-city-craft-festival for tickets.

Saturday, March 28

The Queen City Black Market returns to Manchester today from 1:15 to 8:15 p.m. at the Masonic Temple (1505 Elm St., Manchester). It will feature vendors, attractions, performers, food/drink and more. Visit lustshroometc.square.site.

Saturday, March 28

To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will host a Thrift Shop Prom and Ruth Release Party tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. with music by DJ Shamblez, drag performances with Glamme Chowdah, tarot readings with Arkit Tarot, ear lobe piercings by The Terracotta Room, and vintage finds from Fishtoes Vintage. A portion of prom proceeds will benefit the Pink Boots Society NH Chapter.

Saturday, March 28

There will be a Chamber Concert featuring Symphony NH musicians tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Keefe Center For The Arts (117 Elm St., Nashua, 820-2666). Tickets are available through the SymphonyNH website.

Sunday, March 29

Manchester emo power punk band Time Eater plays an afternoon show to celebrate the release of a new EP, Depression Haver, on a bill with Quickdraw and Fun City Fan Club. Catch them today at 2 p.m. at Candia Road Brewing Co., 840 Candia Road, Manchester, linktr.ee/timeeatermusic.

Wednesday, April 1

Gibson’s Bookstore presents an evening with humorist and writer Jenny Lawson in conversation with Rebecca Lavoie at the Chubb Theatre (Chubb Theatre at CCA, 44 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com) tonight beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $39 through the Capitol Center website. (Admission includes a copy of Lawson’s new book, How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay.)

Save the Date! Saturday, April 4
Concord’s Giant Indoor Yard Sale will take place Saturday, April 4, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord). Expect thousands of items from more than 100 sellers. Adult admission is $5. Children 12 and under get in free. Visit facebook.com/CapitalEventsNH.

Featured photo: Retired Navy pilot Lynn “Skip” Carter. Courtesy photo.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!