The Hippo Press

Halloween 2026 — 10/15/2026

On the cover

We are in the thick of the season of Halloween events with options for everyone from the scary-movie fans to the little kids looking for less-spooky fare. In this week’s cover story, we offer a rundown of Halloween and fall-themed events for the next few weeks including haunted attractions, Halloween parties for kids, Halloween parties for adults, movie screenings, theatrical productions and, of course, your annual dose of Rocky Horror Picture Show events.

Also on the cover Goffstown holds its annual celebration of fall and giant gourds at the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Regatta (page 20). Michael Witthaus talks with comedian Kathleen Madigan ahead of her show Friday at Hampton Beach’s Casino Ballroom (page 30). Find more music this weekend and beyond in the Music This Week listing, which starts on page 32.

Read the e-edition

News & Notes 26/10/15

261015 Featured Content News

Peregrine falcon news A New Hampshire Audubon newsletter for October had this update on the peregrine falcon breeding season: “Peregrine ...

Quality of Life 26/10/15

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I know marrows, and that is a big marrow! According to an Oct. 6 press release issued by the Deerfield ...

Brown out as C’s start

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The Big Story – Celtics Are Back: The new-look Celtics open their season Tuesday vs. Detroit. It’ll give Celtic Nation ...

This Week 26/10/15

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Thursday, Oct. 15 New Hampshire Film Festival, nhfilmfestival.com, will take place at the Music Hall and other locations in Portsmouth ...

Halloween 2026

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Your guide to scary movie screenings, local festivals, downtown trick-or-treats, haunted houses and more spooky season fun for all ages ...

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Cirque Kalabanté brings kinetic World of Words to Concord As Cirque Kalabanté’s new show begins, a thick rope splits the ...

Pumpkin party in Goffstown

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Pies, pets and pool plops on the Piscataquog Goffstown’s Pumpkin Regatta is not just another pumpkin festival, Tina Lawton explained ...

Treasure Hunt 26/10/15

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Album Reviews 26/10/15

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Pumpkin party in Goffstown

Pies, pets and pool plops on the Piscataquog

Goffstown’s Pumpkin Regatta is not just another pumpkin festival, Tina Lawton explained. The two-day, pumpkin-themed event, which will take place in Goffstown Village on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, is organized by the Goffstown Main Street Program. Lawton is the board president for the program.

“The whole focus of Goffstown Main Street is to spotlight the village and what it has to offer,” Lawton said. “The whole idea is to draw people to the village so that they can see what a quintessential sort of small-town vibe it has … and then to continue to keep coming back. I’ve heard multiple times from people who tell me they came to this event and they fell in love with the village and they moved and raised their family in Goffstown. I hear it all the time. I think every year we hear of at least one family that comes from some other part of the world because it has become one of those bucket-list kind of things. Because, you know how many places can you go and see a giant pumpkin being dropped in a river from a crane?”

The most famous element of the Pumpkin Regatta festival is, as the name suggests, a boat race down the Piscataquog River in Goffstown Village with boats carved from giant pumpkins. This year’s race might be bittersweet, Lawton said.

“We have been sort of focused on this all year … because the Hadley Falls Dam needs to be removed. It was scheduled to be removed in 2027, so this was going to be the last Regatta part of the event. Recently we heard that they might push it to 2028. So it’s possible it could be the last one, but we might get lucky and have one more. We’ll see.”

Other events over the weekend will include pumpkin carving, pie eating, a pet parade and a pumpkin cooking competition.

“We have apple slingshots we set up every year, and so the apples go into the Piscataquog River. They shoot them toward specific targets. And so that’s a very favorite thing of, especially, you know, young teenage boys. They love to shoot. We have a 400- or 500-pound pumpkin that’s going to get carved, that gets carved every year into some sort of character that’s related to our theme. The theme [this year] is ‘America 250.’ It’s an anniversary for Goffstown too, 200 years, I believe. The other big thing we do is we drop about an eight [hundred] to thousand-pound pumpkin into a giant pool of water. We used to carry the record for the highest drop of a giant pumpkin. Somebody challenged us on that…. And now we’re going back to the pool at 100 feet.”

Lawton said the pies eaten at the pie-eating contest are chocolate cream pie, not pumpkin.

“We’re still going to do cream pies because I think that’s preferred for the younger ones to dip into some chocolatey fluff,” she said. “It’s trying to eat the whole pie — whoever can eat the whole pie first. And there are different age groups, [from] smaller, younger children all the way up to an adult category. The Goffstown High School Student Council will run that activity for us again this year. They did that last year, so they did a wonderful job leading that activity as a part of their community service.”

“The Glen Lake Animal Hospital, which is in the Village, will help coordinate [a pet costume contest] and do it in front of their clinic,” Lawton said. “People bring their dogs — it’s all dogs — over and do a little red carpet thing. Then there’s voting. And then after that, many of the pets and pet parents that want to come over to Main Street, which is just like a block and a half away, come over to Main Street and they participate in the parade in their costumes.”

The pumpkin-cooking contest is where some of the real drama comes in, Lawton said. “There are a lot of categories. The funniest thing about the cook-off is that there’s this one Goffstown family who has done it for years. And for many years, they bring family in from different parts of the country for this event. They all get together and they all make their different offerings. or whatever it is they’re making. And at least half of the participants are [from] this huge family that participate and compete against each other.”

25th Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Regatta
Where: Goffstown
When: Saturday, Oct. 17, from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
More: goffstownmainstreet.org/pumpkin-regatta.

This Week 26/10/15

Thursday, Oct. 15

New Hampshire Film Festival, nhfilmfestival.com, will take place at the Music Hall and other locations in Portsmouth today through Sunday, Oct. 18, according to the website, where you can find available pass packages and find updates about the schedule and festival line-up. In addition to shorts blocks that run throughout the weekend, the schedule includes the documentary Once Upon a Time in Harlem (Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. at The Music Hall); a comedy panel with host Greg Kretschmar (Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. at 3S Artspace); Fatherland (Oct. 17 at 6:15 p.m. at The Music Hall); We Are The Shaggs (Oct. 18 at 12:30 p.m. at 3S Artspace), and an evening with Alicia Silverstone and a screening of Clueless (Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m.), among many panels and screenings, according to the website.

Friday, Oct. 16

The Far Out, which describes itself as “a funk and soul pop band from Boston, Massachusetts,” will perform tonight at 7 p.m. at the Andres Institute of Art Welcome Center, the Big Bear Lodge, 106 Route 13 in Brookline, according to andresinstitute.org, where you can purchase tickets. See video clips of the band at thefarout.band.

Friday, Oct. 16

New art alert! “Harvest Hues” opens today and will run through Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Kimball Jenkins Mansion, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, kimballjenkins.com, with a reception on Oct. 18 from 1 to 3 p.m., the website said. “Home Sweet Home,” featuring fiber art, glass, and pottery from Lisa Almeida, Laura Morrison, Anne Boedecker, Verne Orlosk, Sarah Burns and Cheryl Miller, will run at Two Villages Art Society 846 Main St. in Contoocook, twovillagesart.org, Saturday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Nov. 14, with a reception on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m., the website said.

Friday, Oct. 16

Queens, a play by the Pinkerton Players about King Henry VIII in purgatory, will be presented at Stockbridge Theatre, 5 Pinkerton St., Derry, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre, tonight through Sunday, Oct. 18 (7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. on Sunday), according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. “King Henry VIII is trapped in purgatory … In his gilded cage, he is forced to relive the sins he committed against his six queens, his mistresses, and the people of the court in his life,” the website said.

Friday, Oct. 16

Get in the spooky mood at The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a “Halloween Old Time Radio production,” which will be presented by Epping Community Theater, 38 Ladds Lane, Epping, eppingtheater.org, tonight at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

Saturday, Oct. 17

Deerfield Arts Tour takes place today and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features artists at 10 locations according to deerfieldarts.com, where you can find a map of the studios and get a preview of the artists involved.

Saturday, Oct. 17

A New England contra dance will take place at the City-Wide Community Center (14 Canterbury Road in Concord, concordnhcontra.wordpress.com) on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 7 to 10 p.m., according to an organizer’s email. “Beginners, singles, families welcome. $10, ages 15-25 $5, under 15 free,” the email said.

Sunday, Oct. 18

Neko Case brings her “Neon Grey Midnight Green Tour” along with Destroyer to the Nashua Center for the Arts tonight at 7 p.m., according to nashuacenterforthearts.com, where you can purchase tickets.

Save the Date! Monday, Dec. 28
One of the hallmarks of the “between the holidays week” in Manchester returns with the Harlem Globetrotters Rivalry Tour on Monday, Dec. 28, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St. in Manchester, according to snhuarena.com, where you can purchase tickets.

Quality of Life 26/10/15

I know marrows, and that is a big marrow!

According to an Oct. 6 press release issued by the Deerfield Fair, several new records were set for giant vegetables at this year’s Fair, which took place Oct. 1 through Oct. 4. “Taking center stage at this year’s weigh-off,” the press release announced, “was a monumental achievement in the giant marrow (zucchini) category. Sarah Whitty of Veazie, Maine, stunned judges and spectators alike by setting both a new United States record and a new North American record. Her prized marrow, affectionately named ‘Secretariat,’ officially tipped the scales at an incredible 170 pounds. Whitty’s victory is a massive leap forward for competitive growers across the continent, completely dominant compared to past standards.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: The press release reported, “The standing World Record for a giant marrow was set in 2021 at 256.62 lbs.” Other record-breaking vegetables from this year’s Fair included a field pumpkin state record of 178 lbs., grown by Bruce Whitter of Henniker, N.H., and a giant tomato state record of 6.38 lbs, grown by Hiram Watson of Farmington, N.H.

Your grandkids will not believe this

An Oct. 9 online article by New Hampshire Public Radio reported that the New Hampshire Time Capsule Project sought “photographs, letters, artwork and other items that capture what it’s like to grow up in New Hampshire in 2026. The time capsule will be buried … and, if everything goes as planned, will be dug up on July 4, 2075.” The Project took input from current students, including “letters to [their] future selves and predictions about technology and life 50 years into the future.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: The burial ceremony will take place Friday, Oct. 23, from 2 to 4 p.m. at 212 Fisherville Road. in Concord. The plan is to reopen the time capsule on July 4, 2075, to celebrate Concord’s 300th anniversary.

Housing and poverty in New Hampshire

According to an Oct. 7 online article by New Hampshire Public Radio, “A new analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that high housing costs in New Hampshire are driving some residents into poverty. The state ranked 10th in a list of states with the highest share of poverty caused by housing costs.” The NHPR story continued: “According to New Hampshire Housing, renters would need to earn $80,440 a year to afford the statewide median rent of $2,011 per month. In addition to the shortage of rental units, the high costs of purchasing a home also affect rental prices.“

QOL score: -1

Comment: According to data in the Pew report, New Hampshire’s overall poverty rate is 16 percent, and our childhood poverty rate is 22 percent. To find the report, search for “Pew, housing, poverty.” Visit nhhousing.org.

QOL score: 63

Net change: +1

QOL this week: 64

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

News & Notes 26/10/15

Peregrine falcon news

A New Hampshire Audubon newsletter for October had this update on the peregrine falcon breeding season: “Peregrine Falcon numbers in New Hampshire showed a slight downturn this year, compared to 2025 and 2024. In 2024, New Hampshire’s Peregrines fledged an impressive 50 chicks, followed by 44 in 2025, and 36 in 2026. Just 31 territorial pairs were confirmed this year, while 37 were recorded in 2025 and 28 in 2024.”

“However, if we compare the total fledglings per incubating pair, 2026 and 2025 were similar — 1.64 fledglings per nest in 2026 and 1.57 fledglings per nest in 2025. Again, 2024 was an especially impressive and productive year, with 2.17 fledglings per nest,” according to the NH Audubon News report, written by Mickayla Johnston.

See the full report at nhaudubon.org/about-us/news. Find more in the forthcoming From the Field at joyofbirding.nhaudubon.org/from-the-field, the newsletter said.

Save the waste date

The Nashua Regional Planning Commission will hold the final household hazardous waste collection of 2026 on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Nashua Park and Ride, 25 Crown St. in Nashua, according to a Commission press release. The event is open to residents of “Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, Nashua, Pelham, and Windham. Businesses must call NRPC to register and pay,” the release said. The cost is $20 per vehicle for up to 10 gallons of liquids or 20 pounds of solids, cash or check, the release said. “No Latex/Acrylic Paint, No Electronics, No Medications,” the release said. See nashuarpc.org/hhw or call 417-6570.

Pictures for music

The New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra is holding its “Drawn to the Music” program for students in grades 3 to 5, according to a press release. “This year’s program is devoted to Ferde Grofé’s colorful and imaginative Grand Canyon Suite. Students will listen to the music, create original artwork inspired by what they hear, and have the opportunity for their work to be selected and projected during live NH Philharmonic performances on Saturday, April 17, and Sunday, April 18, 2027, at 2 p.m. at the Seifert Performing Arts Center in Salem, New Hampshire,” the release said. The Drawn to the Music program has run since 2008, the release said. For this year’s contest, kids can listen to the five movements of the suite and create an artwork inspired by one or more of the scenes, the release said. “Teachers are encouraged to introduce students to the Grand Canyon Suite during the fall and winter. Artwork may be created using a variety of classroom art media and … [should] be no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches,” the release said. The submission deadline is Feb. 1. See nhphil.org/drawn-to-the-music for details.

Writers conference

The 603 Writers’ Conference, hosted by the New Hampshire Writers Project, will take place Saturday, Nov. 14, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, according to a press release. The day will feature expert-led workshops, a moderated AI panel discussion, a “Pitch Party & Social” and more, the release said. Author Chris Bohjalian will be the keynote speaker; the conference’s theme is “The Evolution of the Female Narrative,” the release said. To register and for a full schedule, see nhwritersproject.org.

The Antique Automobile Club of America, Granite State Region, will hold its Vintage and Antique Car Show on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Canterbury Shaker Village, 288 Shaker Road in Canterbury, according to a Village email. The day will also feature a raffle, live music from Nicole Knox Murphy, food and more, the email said. See shakers.org for ticket information. See hopkintonhistory.org for tickets.

The Squam Lakes Association has two days of lake-adjacent happenings this weekend. On Saturday, Oct. 17, it’s a Fall Workday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., when volunteers will be “tidying up the SLA campus and campsites as we wrap up for the season,” according to a press release. See squamlakes.org/event/volunteer-fall-workday. On Sunday, Oct. 18, the Association will hold “Guided Hike” Rattlesnake Sunrise” from 5:45 to 9 a.m., when participants can hike up the summit of West Rattlesnake for a view of Squam Lake, the release said. See squamlakes.org/event/rattlesnake-sunrise-hike.

The Lead and Healthy Housing East Coast Regional Conference will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3, through Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Doubletree by Hilton in downtown Manchester featuring speakers and a contractor forum, according to an event email. See lhhconferences.com/conferences/manchester-regional-conference.

Game Day Goodness — 10/8/2026

On the cover

WNBA playoffs, MLB post-season, NBA pre-season and season start, NFL and college football, NWSL and MSL and college soccer and the NHL — whatever your sport, there are games aplenty in October and games mean game days and game day means snacks. In this week’s cover, John Fladd presents some good game day eats — some hot savory dips plus some dippables to add to your spread of chips and veggies.

Also on the cover, Milford holds its annual Pumpkin Festival (page 13). Warner holds its annual Fall Foliage Festival (page 15). Sunstone Brewing mixes Renaissance Faire and Oktoberfest fun.

Read the e-edition

News & Notes 26/10/08

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Author: The Hippo Press

Halloween 2026 — 10/15/2026

Pumpkin party in Goffstown

This Week 26/10/15

Quality of Life 26/10/15

News & Notes 26/10/15

Game Day Goodness — 10/8/2026

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