Cover Stories – Page 3

Summer of Music

A look at the bands coming to big venues this concert season

There are two kinds of music fans in the world: those who’ve been fooled by Google when searching for concert tickets, and everyone who’s lying about being duped. The search engine’s algorithm groups third-party resellers at the top of search results, with at least one Page Down keystroke needed to get an official venue link.

Even then, there’s no guarantee of finding face value ducats. At BankNH Pavilion in Gilford, now a LiveNation property, “Verified Resale” tickets are built into the site, and for some summer shows, they’re the only seats available. Ticketmaster double dips — after collecting a face value service charge, it pockets a piece of every resale transaction.

An official site scalping its own tickets — what can a poor fan do? It’s the sort of thing that drives Scott Hayward, owner of Tupelo Music Hall, absolutely bonkers. He’s written many emails warning patrons of his Derry listening room about the dangers of going anywhere but tupelomusichall.com for tickets.

“Tupelo Music Hall does not release tickets to third-party ticketing vendors,” a note on the website reads, “and does not guarantee the validity or authenticity of any website, person, or business that claims to be selling tickets to our shows. In other words, if you are not buying your tickets directly from us, you could be purchasing tickets that are not valid.”

Despite such clear guidelines, fans still go to sketchy sites, then blame Tupelo when things go awry. Customers call to say tickets never arrived, only to learn a reference number was bogus and seats weren’t purchased from Tupelo. Fans fork over $100 for $30 seats and “get super pissed” when they realize the venue has nothing to do with the price they paid.

The core injury for an acoustically perfect paradise with the words “It’s All About the Music” written in giant letters above the snack bar is the idea of fans priced out of shows by performers they love, and those fans then blaming the venue for inflated costs it never set and doesn’t profit from.

Even someone as savvy as Hayward can fall for the Google ruse.

“We decided to go to a boat show in Rhode Island, and I almost bought tickets for three times the cost,” he said by phone recently. “I really thought I was on the event website, and I’m in the ticketing business! It’s really difficult sometimes.”

Accordingly, the following list of summer concerts is grouped by venue, and ticket buyers should always go to the website listed to begin the process. For Ticketmaster shows, options exist to filter out resale seats, but don’t be surprised if clicking on that box results in a blank page. Also, though infrequently, third-party seats are sometimes sold below face value.

With that in mind, enjoy the shows!

BankNH Pavilion

72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, banknhpavilion.com

The former Meadowbrook is New Hampshire’s al fresco go-to venue for arena-sized acts. It’s now run by Live Nation, with food and merch sold in a carnival-themed midway, tailgate-ready parking lots, and plenty of rustic charm.

Hot Pick: Dierks Bentley, Thursday, July 9 – When he was starting out, Bentley opened for Brad Paisley at Meadowbrook. Now he’s atop the bill, joined by bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and newcomer Kaitlin Butts. The show spans country’s spectrum, from Skaggs’s well-honed mastery to the headliner’s road-tested arena sound and Butts’s emerging songwriting voice — a crowd-pleasing gathering that builds toward a rousing finish.

Upcoming Shows:

Hardy with Muscadine Bloodline – Thursday, June 25
TobyMac with Zach Williams – Saturday, June 27
Paul Simon – Tuesday, June 30
Lil Wayne with 2 Chainz – Friday, July 3
The Guess Who with Don Felder – Wednesday, July 8
Dierks Bentley with Ricky Skaggs & Kaitlin Butts – Thursday, July 9
Sarah McLachlan with Allison Russell – Sunday, July 12
Dave Matthews Band (also 7/15) – Tuesday, July 14
Motionless In White with Lorna Shore & Fit for a King – Thursday, July 16
Thomas Rhett with Kashus Culpepper – Friday, July 17
Bob Dylan – Saturday, July 18
Train with Barenaked Ladies & Matt Nathanson – Monday, July 20
“Weird Al” Yankovic with Puddles Pity Party – Wednesday, July 22
Mötley Crüe with Tesla & Extreme – Friday, July 24
Chicago with Styx – Saturday, July 25
Five Finger Death Punch with Cody Jinks – Tuesday, July 28
Ella Langley with Kameron Marlowe – Thursday, July 30
Hank Williams Jr. with Joe Nichols – Friday, July 31
Joe Bonamassa with Gov’t Mule – Saturday, Aug. 1
Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band – Friday, Aug. 7
Koe Wetzel with Shane Smith and the Saints – Friday, Aug. 14
Mumford & Sons with Medium Build – Saturday, Aug. 15
Billy Idol – Tuesday, Aug. 18
The Fray with Dashboard Confessional & Colony House – Thursday, Aug. 20
Zach Top with Marcus King – Friday, Aug. 28
Parker McCollum with Vincent Mason – Friday, Sept. 4
ZZ Top with George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Saturday, Sept. 5
Tedeschi Trucks Band with Lukas Nelson – Sunday, Sept. 6

BNH Stage

16 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com

The sleek multipurpose listening room, part of Concord’s Capitol Center for the Arts, offers great sound to enjoy eclectic performers, local favorites, a wide array of tribute acts, and up and coming performers.

Hot Pick: Opiate: The Tool Tribute, Saturday, Aug. 8 – This Rhode Island-based tribute act is known for recreating Tool’s intricate, immersive sound and elaborate musicianship in faithful detail. Tool’s meticulous songscapes aren’t easy to replicate live, making this band a worthy stand-in for fans who’ve never caught the notoriously infrequent touring originals, with an intense show calibrated to match Tool’s hypnotic concerts.

Upcoming Shows:

Martin Toe, B. Snair & Vincent Tesoro, Marxo Phenix – Saturday, June 27
Stewart Copeland: Have I Said Too Much? – Saturday, July 11
April Cushman & Shelly Fairchild (Cantin Room) – Thursday, July 16
Kevin Horan and The Whole Loaf – Thursday, July 30
Opiate: The Tool Tribute – Saturday, Aug. 8
Dueling Pianos – Friday, Aug. 14
Slipbizkit: A Tribute to Nu Metal – Saturday, Aug. 15
The Hot Sardines – Thursday, Aug. 27
Tom DiMenna – Thursday, Sept. 10
Pete Yorn: 25th Anniversary of musicforthemorningafter – Saturday, Sept. 12
Also this summer, at Chubb Theatre 44 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com, catch Home Free on Sunday, Aug. 16

Casino Ballroom

169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach, casinoballroom.com

Perched on Hampton Beach’s main drag, this spot pairs live music with an oceanfront atmosphere. Originally built in 1927, the historic 2,200-seat venue will be torn down and rebuilt after its centennial season next year.

Hot Pick: Badfish, Friday, July 3 – The regular Fourth of July weekend beach stop for this Sublime tribute act, which also has its own original music, with reggae-rock, ska-tinged energy evoking the Long Beach stalwarts. The band built a solid following faithfully recreating Sublime’s loose, sun-soaked sound, later branching out to its own songs. Their return has become one of the Ballroom’s most anticipated annual concerts.

Upcoming Shows:

Little River Band – Friday, June 26
Voyage – Celebrating the Music of Journey – Saturday, June 27
Badfish – A Tribute to Sublime – Friday, July 3
Stephen Marley – Friday, July 10
Gimme Gimme Disco – Saturday, July 11
The Elovaters with John Brown’s Body – Thursday, July 16
The Elovaters with Surfer Girl – Friday, July 17
Aaron Lewis & The Stateliners – Saturday, July 18
Kip Moore – Thursday, July 23
The Fab Four – Ultimate Beatles Tribute – Friday, July 24
Lauren Alaina – Sunday, July 26
Dave Matthews Tribute Band w/ Joshua Tree – Friday, July 31
12/OC – Saturday, Aug. 1
Happy Together Tour – Sunday, Aug. 2
Brit Floyd (also 8/5) – Tuesday, Aug. 4
Pure Prairie League w/ Atlanta Rhythm Section, Orleans & Firefall – Thursday, Aug. 6
The String Cheese Incident (also 8/8) – Friday, Aug. 7
Brett Young – Sunday, Aug. 9
KC & The Sunshine Band – Thursday, Aug. 13
Carly Pearce – Friday, Aug. 14
Face 2 Face – Elton John/Billy Joel Tribute – Saturday, Aug. 15
Yacht Rock Revue (also 8/20) – Wednesday, Aug. 19
Get The Led Out – Friday, Aug. 21
Dirty Deeds AC/DC Experience – Saturday, Aug. 22
Air Supply – Wednesday, Aug. 26
Sevendust / Theory of a Deadman (Also 8/28) – Thursday, Aug. 27
Chris Janson – Saturday, Aug. 29
One Night of Queen – Sunday, Aug. 30

Colonial Theatre

609 Main St., Laconia, colonialtheatrelaconia.org

Built in 1914 and carefully restored to its original Venetian grandeur via a $14.4 million, five-year renovation effort completed in 2021, Laconia’s 761-seat Main Street jewel now welcomes a wide range of touring talent.

Hot Pick: Tab Benoit, Thursday, July 2 – Benoit brings his Soul of the Swamp tour to the Lakes Region with guests The Cold Stares. Benoit’s Louisiana roots fuel fiery, authentic guitar work steeped in bayou tradition, an emotionally direct style that’s earned him respect throughout the blues world. With the Cold Stares’ gritty, stripped-down sound, it will be a night of no-nonsense, deep and real blues-rock in a historic venue.

Tab Benoit Soul of the Swamp Tour w/ The Cold Stares – Thursday, July 2
So Good! The Neil Diamond Experience Starring Robert Neary – Sunday, July 12
JUMP – America’s Van Halen Tribute – Sunday, July 26
EagleMania – Eagles Tribute Band – Thursday, July 30
An Evening With Joanne Shaw Taylor – Sunday, Aug. 16
Boat House Row – Wednesday, Aug. 19
An Evening with Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Sunday, Sept. 13

The Flying Monkey

39 Main St., Plymouth flyingmonkeynh.com

A restored 1920s theater in the heart of downtown Plymouth since the Common Man family revived it in 2010, The Flying Monkey was recently donated to Pemi-Valley Habitat for Humanity. The new owners will continue hosting commercial acts as well as new community-focused events in the 450 seats space.

Hot Pick: YellowHouse Blues Band, Saturday, Aug. 15 – High-energy nine piece Seacoast band with a wide-ranging setlist spanning foundational blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and Freddie King, Motown icons such as Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, and modern acts including Tedeschi Trucks Band and Larkin Poe. Their LIVE from Jimmy’s! LP, recorded in Portsmouth, dropped last year. They’re also at Concord’s Market Days June 27.

Upcoming Shows:

The Wire Jays – Thursday, July 23
Classic Stones Live – Friday, July 24
CJ Solar & The Old Souls Featuring Rick Huckaby – Saturday, July 25
Blue Collar Men – The Music of Styx – Friday, July 31
Emanuel Casablanca with Special Guest Lee & Dr. G – Thursday, Aug. 06
The Music of the Beach Boys By Pet Sounds LIVE – Sunday, Aug. 9
YellowHouse Blues Band – Saturday, Aug. 15
RDMTION Roots. Rock. Reggae. – Thursday, Aug. 20
Ghosts of Jupiter & Caylin Costello Band – Friday, Aug. 28
The Weight Band Featuring Former Members of The Band & The Levon Helm Band – Saturday, Aug. 29
Skerryvore – Friday, Sept. 4
Chris Knight Featuring Chance Stanley – Saturday, Sept. 12
Draw the Line The Ultimate Aerosmith Tribute – Friday, Sept. 18

Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club

135 Congress St., Portsmouth jimmysoncongress.com

An upscale, supper-club-style space that began drawing world-class musical talent into its intimate listening room from the moment it opened in 2021. Van Morrison did two shows there, and Chris Botti headlines often. A restored 1905 YMCA building, it offers art, food and craft cocktails along with music.

Hot Pick: Marc Cohn & Shawn Colvin, Thursday, July 16 – Two acclaimed singer-songwriters share a stage for an evening billed as Together in Concert, a song swap built around decades of celebrated work. Cohn and Colvin share a lot of history, including Grammy-winning debut albums produced by John Leventhal. Each is known for performances that favor intimacy and narrative depth over spectacle.

Upcoming Shows:

Victor Wooten & The Wooten Brothers – Thursday, June 25
Eddie 9V – Friday, June 26
Ana Popovic – Sunday, June 28
Local Artist Series: Tim Theriault – Monday, June 29
Kamasi Washington – Tuesday, June 30
Eric Johanson – Thursday, July 2
Alex Minasian Trio – Friday, July 3
Billy Childs Trio – Sunday, July 5
Local Artist Series: Captain Fantastic – Monday, July 6
I Am In Love: Jane Monheit Sings Cole Porter – Wednesday, July 8
Yonder Mountain String Band – Thursday, July 9
An Evening With Alejandro Escovedo – Friday, July 10
Parker Barrow – Sunday, July 12
Local Artist Series: The Blues Express – Monday, July 13
Hejira: Celebrating Joni Mitchell – Wednesday, July 15
An Evening with Marc Cohn & Shawn Colvin: Together in Concert – Thursday, July 16
Masters of the Telecaster – Friday, July 17
Local Artist Series: Jen Kearney – Monday, July 20
Jimmy Carpenter – Wednesday, July 22
The Brothers Comatose – Thursday, July 23
A Band of Brothers – Friday, July 24
Gunhild Carling – Sunday, July 26
Mohini Dey – Saturday, Aug. 1
Grenadier & Kweku Sumbry – Sunday, Aug. 2
Charles Lloyd Sky Quartet: Jason Moran, Larry Grenadier & Kweku Sumbry – Sunday, Aug. 2
Local Artist Series: Mica’s Groove Train – Monday, Aug. 3
Chris Botti (also 8/7) – Thursday, Aug. 6
Larry McCray – Sunday, Aug. 9
Local Artist Series: Sharon Jones – Monday, Aug. 10
James Hunter Six – Tuesday, Aug. 11
Matteo Mancuso – Wednesday, Aug. 12
Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen – Sunday, Aug. 16
Rick Estrin & the Nightcats – Friday, Aug. 21
Dream Horizon: Jeff Coffin, Nir Felder, James Genus – Sunday, Aug. 23
Thurston Howell – A Premier Yacht Rock Spectacular! – Wednesday, Aug. 26
Bria Skonberg – Thursday, Aug. 27
Mike Zito – Friday, Aug. 28
Benny Green – Sunday, Aug. 30
Local Artist Series: YellowHouse Blues Band – Monday, Aug. 31
Jackie Greene – Wednesday, Sept. 2

Music Hall

28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth themusichall.org

Portsmouth’s grand, beautifully preserved 1878 vaudeville theater is the Seacoast’s premier listening room for top-tier touring artists. In the 1990s it came close to demolition, but a community campaign saved it, and the 900-seat venue’s restoration helped cement Portsmouth as a cultural hub.

Hot Pick: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Thursday, July 23 – This acclaimed Americana duo brings spare, haunting harmonies and deep folk roots to this fine acoustic space. Few rooms suit their hushed, exacting sound better than the Music Hall’s wood and plaster; every note and vocal nuance carries cleanly. Welch and Rawlings have spent decades refining a stripped-down sound that rewards reverent attention.

Upcoming Shows:

Fitz and The Tantrums – Saturday, June 27
Béla Fleck with Edmar Castañeda & Antonio Sánchez – Sunday, June 28
OK Go – Friday, July 10
Alison Krauss & Union Station with Jerry Douglas – Sunday, July 12
John Waite – Friday, July 17
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Thursday, July 23
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs – Friday, July 24
Cat Power – Sunday, July 26
Richard Marx – Wednesday, Aug. 5
I’m With Her – Friday, Aug. 14
Whole Lotta Heart (Music of Heart & Led Zeppelin) – Saturday, Aug. 15
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Sunday, Sept. 6
Here Come The Mummies – Friday, Sept. 18
Also this summer, the Music Hall Presents at Whittemore Center Arena (128 Main St., Durham, NH) will feature Men At Work w/ Toad The Wet Sprocket on Tuesday, July 28

Music Hall Lounge

131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org

A cozy, club-style annex to its grander sibling and built for up-close, intimate shows. Accommodating up to 100 audience members, the former Music Hall Loft re-opened in 2022 after a complete renovation. It offers cabaret seating along with a big focus on emerging and niche performers.

Hot Pick: Haley Reinhart, Monday, Aug. 3 – The American Idol alum brings smoky, soulful vocals to a room where every seat feels close to the stage. Since her 2011 breakout, Reinhart has carved out a genre-spanning career rooted in jazz and blues influences, moving well beyond her beginnings. The room’s clubby footprint suits her sultry delivery perfectly, turning a stadium-scale voice into something intimate and immediate.

Upcoming Shows:

Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls – Friday, June 26
KB Whirly – Sunday, June 28
Scott Kirby & Noah Robertson – Monday, June 29
Eric Hutchinson – Wednesday, July 15
Naturally 7 – Thursday, July 16
Dwayne Haggins – Saturday, July 18
Certainly So – Monday, July 20
Caroline Cotter – Friday, July 24
Maia Sharp – Saturday, Aug. 1
Haley Reinhart – Monday, Aug. 3
Mary Fahl (October Project) – Friday, Aug. 7
Tano Jones Revelry – Saturday, Aug. 15
Connor Garvey – Friday, Aug. 21
Tim Easton & Alice Peacock – Wednesday, Aug. 26
Aldous Collins Band – Saturday, Aug. 29
Brendan Cleary (also 9/11) – Thursday, Sept. 10

Nashua Center for the Arts

201 Main St., Nashua, nashuacenterforthearts.com

Continuing the success of midsized rooms like BNH Stage and the Rex, this downtown Nashua venue opened in 2023 and draws a broad mix of acclaimed touring musicians and tribute acts. Seating capacity is 750, with a standing room layout increasing that to 1,000. Their state-of-the-art sound is among the best in the region.

Hot Pick: Oteil & Friends, Friday, Aug. 7 – The longtime Allman Brothers Band and Dead & Company bassist is joined by a band that includes Melvin Seals, Steve Kimock, Jason Crosby, Johnny Kimock, Lamar Williams, Jr. and Tom Guarna. The rhythm king’s “& Friends” billing hints at loose, exploratory sets built around chemistry rather than a fixed setlist, so expect a lot of surprises.

Upcoming Shows:

So Good! The Neil Diamond Experience – Friday, July 10
The High Kings – Friday, July 11
Marc Cohn & Shawn Colvin: Together in Concert – Sunday, July 12
JUMP – America’s Van Halen Tribute – Thursday, July 23
EagleMania – Eagles Tribute – Friday, July 31
Oteil Burbridge & Friends – Friday, Aug 7
Noam Pikelny & Stuart Duncan – Sunday, Aug. 9
BoDeans w/s/g Ari Hest – Sunday, Aug 16
Tuba Skinny – Sunday, Aug 30
An Evening with Kenny G – Wednesday, Sep 16

Palace Theatre

80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org

Listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, this charming 111-year-old theater anchors Manchester’s arts district. Most of the summer events at the 834-seat venue are tribute acts, great for escaping to the classic rock era, locking in a beach vibe or finding a “Rocky Mountain High.”

Hot Pick: NH Irish Festival, Saturday, Aug. 22 – Now in its fourth year, this annual celebration fills the historic space with traditional music, dance and a festive tribute to Irish heritage. The 2026 lineup includes County Donegal, Ireland’s Screaming Orphans, The Spain Brothers (Liam Spain organizes the show), local treasures the Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki Trio, and Rory Makem of the storied Makem Brothers.

Upcoming Shows:

Tribute to Queen: Somebody to Love (also 6/28) – Saturday, June 27
Beatlemania Again: The Beatles Experience Live on Stage! – Saturday, July 11
Music of the Beach Boys – Saturday, Aug. 8
Changes in Latitudes (Jimmy Buffet tribute) – Saturday, Aug. 15
NH Irish Festival – Saturday, Aug. 22
Remembering John Denver feat. Ted Vigil – Thursday, Sept. 17

Prescott Park Arts Festival

105 Marcy St., Portsmouth, prescottpark.org

This community-supported summer series is held on a scenic waterfront location. There are no tickets, and anyone can walk in, though don’t be gauche — a $10 donation is recommended, and collected at the gate. BYO chair and a blanket; Adirondack chairs and VIP tables can also be rented.

Hot Pick: Patty Griffin & Kathleen Edwards, Monday, July 20 – These two acclaimed singer-songwriters co-headline, each bringing a catalog full of lyrical depth befitting the intimate, open-air feel. Griffin’s haunting, soul-inflected songcraft and Edwards’s wry, incisive storytelling make for a complementary double bill. With a Piscataqua River and lush garden backdrop, it promises to be a lovely night of outdoor listening.

Upcoming Shows:

An Evening of Beatles Music with The Walrus – Monday, June 29
The Dip with Tre. Charles – Wednesday, July 1
Infinity Song – Monday, July 6
Kashus Culpepper – Wednesday, July 15
Patty Griffin & Kathleen Edwards – Monday, July 20
Tiny Habits – Thursday, July 23
The Lone Bellow – Wednesday, July 29
Josh Ritter – Monday, Aug. 3
Devon Gilfillian – Wednesday, Aug. 5
Maggie Rose – Thursday, Aug. 6
Ryan Montbleau Band – Wednesday, Aug. 12
Allen Stone – Thursday, Aug. 13
Caiola – Saturday, Aug. 15
Madi Diaz – Wednesday, Aug. 19
Fantastic Cat – Friday, Aug. 21
Seacoast Jazz Festival – Saturday, Aug. 22
Langhorne Slim – Friday, Aug. 28
The Devil Makes Three – Saturday, Aug. 29

Rex Theatre

23 Amherst St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org

This 300-seat listening room began as a mid-1800s print shop, then a movie house, and later became a nightclub, then sat in disrepair until a grassroots effort led to a takeover by the Palace Theatre Trust, which revived and reopened it in 2019. It’s become an anchor to Manchester’s local arts scene.

Hot Pick: Traveling Wilburys Revue, Saturday, July 11 – This tribute act honors the Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Petty and Lynne supergroup, who never toured, with conviction. Celebrating the loose, ego-free joie de vivre that made the musical Mount Rushmore seem disarming, they collaboratively capture the easy camaraderie that defined the band.’s two brilliant albums.

Upcoming Shows:

Traveller: A Chris Stapleton Tribute – Friday, June 26
Yacht Rock with a Twist (Scott Spradling Band) – Saturday, June 27
Traveling Wilburys Revue – Saturday, July 11
Whammer Jammer (J. Geils tribute) – Saturday, July 18
Roomful of Blues – Saturday, July 25
Silver Springs (Fleetwood Mac tribute) – Friday, July 31
Crossfire Hurricane (Stones tribute) – Saturday, Aug. 1
The Rush Experience – Saturday, Aug. 22
Evening With John Gorka – Saturday, Aug. 29
Seconds Out (Genesis Tribute) – Saturday, Sept. 19
Panorama (Cars Tribute) – Saturday, Sept. 26

Rochester Opera House

31 Wakefield St., Rochester, rochesteroperahouse.com

This lovely opera house has dodged a few bullets in its history, including almost becoming office space in the 1940s. Built in 1908 and restored in 1998 following a 24-year closure, it gives touring rock and pop acts an unusually ornate backdrop.

Hot Pick: Everclear, Sunday, July 26 – Enjoy the ’90s alt-rock staples “Santa Monica” and “Wonderful,” along with newer songs like “Sing Away,” which addresses the issue of teenage bullying. With frontman Art Alexakis the band’s sole constant, Everclear continues touring strong, despite Alexakis being diagnosed with MS a few years ago. Its setlist is built around radio favorites that fans still know by heart.

Upcoming Shows:

Are You Ready For It? A Taylor Experience – Friday, June 26
Last Child NYC – A Tribute to the Music of Aerosmith – Saturday, June 27
Everclear – Sunday, July 26
Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac Tribute – Thursday, July 30
Kanin Wren’s Pop Girl Summer Tour – Friday, Aug. 7
Pet Sounds LIVE! – Friday, Aug. 14
Noise Pollution – The AC/DC Experience – Friday, Aug. 21
Hey Nineteen – A Tribute to Steely Dan – Friday, Aug. 28
Whitesnake Experience w/ ZeppHalen – Tuesday, Sept. 1
Reverend Horton Heat w/ Messer Chups – Monday, Sept. 7

The Range

96 Old Turnpike Road, Mason, therangemason.com

A family business that ventured into live music with a one-off Roots of Creation show in 2011, this Mason driving range has grown into a much beloved outdoor venue. It offers an eclectic mix of jam-band and roots music, cool tribute acts and regional favorites in a relaxed, communal setting.

Hot Pick: Leftover Salmon and Toubab Krewe, Saturday, July 11 – Rootsy jamming and an instrumental “sonic Pangaea” combine for this double bill. Leftover Salmon pioneered “slamgrass,” fusing traditional bluegrass, rock, country and zydeco, while Toubab Krewe layers in kora, djembe and other African instruments. The two promise genuinely unpredictable, boundary-crossing sets.

Upcoming Shows:

G. Love & Special Sauce w/ Moon Taxi & Donavon Frankenreiter – Friday, June 26
The Breakers – Tom Petty Tribute – Saturday, June 27
Brother Seamus 3^rd of July Picnic – Friday, July 3
Leftover Salmon with Toubab Krewe – Saturday, July 11
Hearts & Bones – Paul Simon Tribute – Saturday, July 18
Granite Lion Presents Algorhythm – Friday, July 24
Range Full of Blues feat. Jeff Pitchell and the Texas Flood – Saturday, July 25
Almost Queen + Elton vs. Billy – Friday, Aug. 7
Max Creek – Saturday, Aug. 8
The Wallflowers (30th Anniversary Tour) – Friday, Aug. 14
The Mountain Grass Unit – Saturday, Aug. 15
Parmalee – Saturday, Aug. 29
The Machine (Pink Floyd Tribute) – Friday, Sept. 18
Town Meeting – Saturday, Sept. 19

SNHU Arena

555 Elm St., Manchester, snhuarena.com

Manchester’s arena will have one concert this summer: Shinedown with Coheed & Cambria and From Ashes to New on Monday, July 20.

Tupelo Music Hall

10 A St., Derry, tupelomusichall.com

Named after Elvis’s birthplace, the region’s gold standard for listening rooms has a strict no-talking policy to focus the concert experience. Originally opened in 2004 in a repurposed Londonderry farmhouse with seating for 200, it moved to Derry in 2017 and more than tripled in capacity.

Hot Pick: Spyro Gyra, Thursday, Aug. 13 – Jazz fusion leaders marking five decades of smooth, genre-crossing instrumentals. Formed in the late 1970s, the band built a devoted following on melodic, accessible compositions bridging jazz, funk, and pop without sacrificing musicianship. The band’s classic tracks include “Summer Strut,” a perfect August banger.

Upcoming Shows:

Dio Rules – Tribute to Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio – Friday, July 10
Beginnings (Chicago tribute) – Saturday, July 11
Howie Day – Thursday, July 16
Metal Church – Friday, July 17
YellowHouse Blues Band – Saturday, July 18
Direct From Sweden (ABBA tribute) also 7/22 – Tuesday, July 21
Dwight + Nicole and Friends Celebrate Our Musical Kings & Queens – Friday, July 24
Harvest & Rust (Neil Young Tribute) – Saturday, July 25
Dokken – Sunday, July 26
The Broken Hearts – Friday, July 31
Sister Hazel – Wednesday, Aug. 5
Stanley Jordan plays Jimi – Friday, Aug. 7
Vandenberg “My Whitesnake Years” w/ co-headliners Marco Mendoza & Vinnie Moore – Saturday, Aug. 8
Cherry Cherry (Neil Diamond tribute) – Sunday, Aug. 9
Spyro Gyra 50^th Anniversary Tour – Thursday, Aug. 13
Bostyx – Saturday, Aug. 15
Revisiting Creedence – Friday, Aug. 21
Ugly Kid Joe – Saturday, Aug. 22
Collective Soul – Tuesday, Aug. 25
Start Making Sense (Talking Heads tribute) – Friday, Aug. 28
John Violinist – Saturday, Aug. 29
An Evening with Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Thursday, Sept. 10
Matthew & Gunnar Nelson – Thursday, Sept. 17
Hammerfall w/ Evergrey and Elvenking – Friday, Sept. 18

Tupelo is all about the music

Scott Hayward talks about upcoming shows

Tupelo Music Hall owner Scott Hayward says this summer’s lineup is one of the strongest he can remember, even as the venue’s schedule of roughly 150 to 160 shows a year leans more into tribute acts than in the past.

“Definitely a part of the game nowadays,” Hayward said. “If you want a full schedule, you have to do tributes.”

Among his personal favorites this July are Beginnings, a Chicago tribute Hayward praises for its horn section, and ABBA Direct from Sweden, which performs at Tupelo twice a year. On the original side, he’s looking forward to two hard rock acts, Metal Church and Dokken.

The latter is part of a broader push into heavier music for an audience that Hayward believes craves the energy but not the chaos.

“A lot of it is of an era where people our age are like, ‘Oh, I kind of want to go see them, I want to get up and down a little bit, but I don’t want to have to deal with crowd surfing,’” he noted.

Other summer highlights include Stanley Jordan’s tribute to Jimi Hendrix, the return of jazz veterans Spyro Gyra for their 50th anniversary tour, and Revisiting Creedence, a quasi-tribute act that includes the original CCR rhythm section, drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford and bass player Stu Cook.

Sister Hazel and a nearly sold-out Collective Soul round out the season’s bigger draws. In September, Tupelo will host a just booked triple bill with 1980s rockers The Fixx, Colin Blunstone of the Zombies and the Peter Asher Band. Hayward says the bill surprised him. “When the agent first presented that to me, I was kind of like, are you trolling me?” he recalled.

Not everything is nostalgia-driven. Dwight and Nicole, a local soul and R&B act with a stack of regional award wins, are performing a show celebrating the artists who’ve inspired them.

“These guys are real musicians. They’ve got good vocals,” Hayward said. “It’s nice to have regional people in the room once in a while.”

Asked how the season compares to past years, Hayward said Tupelo’s numbers are holding strong relative to the rest of the industry.

“I think our shows are really good, and I think our schedule’s strong,” he said, crediting affordable pricing and a loyal, older crowd for keeping seats filled even as national ticket sales soften.

Changes coming

Casino Ballroom nears centennial eyeing rebirth

Two months into his new role as marketing and sales director at Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, Freddy Schaake is juggling a packed summer concert calendar with the weight of a century of family history, as well as a redevelopment plan that will ultimately reshape the venue entirely.

Schaake succeeded longtime director Andrew Herrick after his 22-year tenure ended. In a recent phone interview, he said the season’s lineup speaks for itself. There are two nights with The Elovators in July (one already a sellout), a Yacht Rock celebration, reggae legacy act Stephen Marley, and a heavy August bill pairing Sevendust with Theory of a Deadman.

But the bigger story is what comes after the venue celebrates its centennial next year.

The Casino Ballroom is a family business. Schaake’s grandfather worked there in the 1930s and ’40s, followed by his father and aunt. But the wooden structure is coming down, to be replaced by a 4,000-person-capacity performance space — more than doubling the existing room — and extending operations year-round.

“It’s really cool to see how much the business has sustained success over the years,” Schaake marveled, calling his recent elevation in the family business “kind of a full circle moment.”

The redevelopment timeline is fluid, though published reports have pointed to a start date when the 2027 season ends.

“We have a great team that is going to make this project the best it possibly can be,” Schaake said. “With this scope and size, it could be at the end of 2027 … we don’t really know yet.”

He’s also hesitant to predict exactly how a larger venue might change the talent the Ballroom attracts, citing his short time in the role. However, year-round programming is a clear priority. Schaake pointed to a November Mitchell Tenpenny show that sold out six months in advance as proof that a bigger, longer season could open doors for many acts.

Schaake admits the old building’s quirks — the floor rumbling underfoot as a metal band plays, or side doors thrown open to let in ocean air on a sweaty summer night — are part of what makes the place special.

“There’s something about a live show when it’s 80 degrees in July and there’s no AC,” he said. “That really encapsulates some of the best nights at the Casino.”

When the wrecking ball eventually comes, he expects to feel “bittersweet” but optimistic about changes that will improve nightmarish beach parking, add new apartment housing and open up possibilities for new retail businesses and dining.

“I also think,” he said finally, “that the future is bright, too.”

Featured photo: YellowHouse Blues Band, which you can catch this weekend at Market Days in Concord on Saturday, June 27, on the main stage from 6 to 8 p.m. Courtesy photo by Chris Cote Photography.

COFFEE In Summer

Iced coffee offers a refreshing way to get your caffeine in the hot season and year-round

Chip George gets a unique, ground-level view on just how much local coffee drinkers love iced coffee. His company, AAA Ice Cube Delivery, specializes in making large deliveries to businesses whose ice makers have broken down temporarily.

“I’m an emergency service,” George said. “I have personal relationships with a lot of the [restaurant] managers, and basically, if they call me, I’m there.” He used Dunkin’ as an example: “They have hundreds of [ice] machines, and they break all the time. People pull into Dunkin’ expecting to get an iced coffee, and if they don’t have ice, you know, it’s a real horror show. In a day, one location can easily go through a thousand pounds [of ice] — most of them more.’

Angelica Basile is the hospitality manager at Sunny Cafe in Manchester. She has worked in coffee for her entire career. (“I love, love coffee so much!” she said.) Her theory is that New Englanders’ love of iced coffee is tied to a sense of comfort and predictability.

“I think a big part of it is that it’s easier to get a consistent cup of coffee when it’s iced,” she said, “because you don’t have to worry about temperature. You don’t have to worry about the texture of your milk and everything. It’s dependable. I know that if I go to Dunkin’ today, I can get the vanilla iced coffee that I got when I was 16, and it’s going to taste exactly the same. And that means something to somebody. To get your drink and to not have to question whether or not you’re going to enjoy it by the time you get to your office when you’re able to take your first sip, that matters. It’s dependable. I think it’s a ritual. I’m the same way. Anything with a straw, you sign me up. So I have to have it in my hand. It also might have to do with the fact that New Englanders, in the last 20 years, all decided to quit smoking at the same time. So the straw plays a big part, too.”

The coffee

Basile said that another factor with commercial takeout iced coffee is the size of the company selling it and the quality of the coffee beans they use. Huge coffee chains have to balance the quality of the ingredients with the price a customer is willing to pay. Iced coffee, she said, lends itself to extras that tend to mask subtle tasting notes of the base coffee.

Some coffee drinkers have started “to change their drinks to be more coffee-focused, and then there’s people that love what they love, with 12 pumps of caramel,” she said, “and there’s no shame on either way. When a place has a poor-quality bean or the extraction method is not up to par, then the flavor’s not there just on its own and so that’s when we add the sugar and everything.”

Meg Wright, the owner and operator of Two Moons Cafe in Manchester, said she serves a lot of iced coffee. “Probably 150 cups a day on average.” She and her staff might serve several cold coffee drinks at a given time, she said, but they are all built around the same base coffee.

“We’ve always used a medium roast,” she said. “That usually goes well with whatever flavors customers ask for. But for the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to switch it to a blend called Blackcraft’s Salem 1692, which is more of a dark-medium. People seem to enjoy that more with ice. We use nugget ice, so it tends to be more drink, less ice.” Wright said her customers are encouraged to experiment with different flavors in their iced coffees. “On average, we have about 15 different flavors. We can make our house specials with that. But customers can make any variation. We love making potions here, we love to just create things and make customers happy.”

The Iced Shaken Muskov
Brothers Cortado in Concord has a reputation among area iced coffee drinkers for making one of the best cold coffee drinks around. According to Chuck Nemiccolo, it’s called an Iced Shaken Muskov.

“The idea behind this drink,” Nemiccolo said, “is that we like to use this really dark, unrefined sugar, which gives it a real earthiness but also some caramelization when it heats up. That’s where the name came from; ‘muscavado sugar’ is a mouthful to say, so we changed it to ‘Muskov.’”

“What we do is we use a shaker, like you’d find at like a bar or anything like that, and we muddle bourbon vanilla, which we make in house. It’s vanilla syrup that we’re famous for as well, along with the unrefined dark sugar and espresso. We muddle those together, then we add ice, shake them up, put them in a cup, and then top it off with oat milk. It’s a layered beverage, so when the customer typically gets it, it’s going to be dark brown on the bottom, and then it turns to a light color at the top. It’s creamy. The oats actually provide a lot of the flavor since we use full-fat oat milk. It has a very distinct flavor that it also adds to the drink’s profile, along with that dark sugar and the vanilla to round it out to give it a three-tiered tasting. It’s like drinking in three dimensions.”

The add-ons

For Wright and her staff, syrups and flavorings for iced coffee are not afterthoughts.

“We make half of our syrups in-house,” she said. “Sometimes getting a syrup is harder than we’ve counted on — our boysenberry syrup, for instance. That one turned out to be very involved and time-consuming. Basically, a boysenberry is a mix between a blackberry and a raspberry, and you have to boil those down. You have to strain out the seeds, and then you can start making the syrups. But you have to strain the seeds like five different times. It can take hours before I’m able to add the sugars, the cinnamon, and all the other things I need to to create that thick syrup.” And some flavors just aren’t team players. “We made a blueberry-lemon latte at the beginning of the year and the lemon sang through the whole thing. It was good, but you could not taste the blueberry. I was like, ‘OK, that’s not great….’”

In spite of the dozens of flavors available at Two Moons, and the hundreds of possible combinations of flavors, Wright said many of her customers consistently make the same two choices.

“A lot of people just come in and get black iced coffee; they’re mostly mill workers. And they’ll just come in, get their coffee, and walk out. They’re just looking for the caffeine hit; sometimes they’ll ask for a splash of milk, but no syrups, no sugars, just straight up. Nothing fancy, We offer them sugars and milks, but they tend to opt out. The other iced coffee we get a lot of is vanilla, because our house-made vanilla is really, really good. People with the specialties are people with a little more time on their hands and a little quirkier. Some people are really into the sweet stuff, but a lot of our house syrups are not super-sweet. That’s on purpose, because we want the coffee to shine. That’s kind of why we’re here.”

The grind

Smithers Lafferty is the owner of Mill City Roasting Co., an industrial coffee roasting company in Londonderry.

“It’s important to get the name right,” he said. “Mill City Roasters is actually a company that builds [coffee roasting machines] in Michigan, and we get their phone calls all the time.”

Mill City Roasting roasts raw coffee beans and custom blends them for a variety of customers. Because the vast majority of the beans are ultimately used to make traditional hot coffees (including espresso-based drinks), iced coffees and cold brewed coffee, Lafferty puts a great deal of thought into coffee brewing, as well as roasting. He said that to make good coffee of any kind it’s important to think about everything it goes through before it touches your lips.

“Originally,” he said, “someone would take hot coffee and actually pour it over ice.” That would melt most of the ice and water the coffee down. Then, he said, kitchens would compensate by making the coffee stronger. “You’d take a finer grind and a heavier drop-weight to make a more intense base coffee.”

In coffee parlance, “grind” refers to how tiny the pieces of roasted coffee beans have been processed to. The same weight of coffee with a finer grind will have much more surface area that comes in contact with the brewing water and will have a more intense flavor. Beans for espresso, for instance, are ground almost to a powder. “Drop-weight” refers to how much of the ground coffee — measured by weight — goes into the basket of the coffee maker. Thus, a finer grind and a heavier drop-weight results in a stronger pot of coffee.

“Now,” Lafferty said, “typically, people will brew the coffee and set it out, let it come to room temperature, and then refrigerate it. The coffee we sell to be used in iced coffee is usually a slightly darker roast, which has a fuller taste. We recommend that the users grind it finer [than for hot coffee] and use a heavier drop-weight. Typical drop weights [for a standard 64-ounce pot of coffee] are two ounces to three ounces. For iced coffee we recommend a three-and-a-half-ounce drop weight.” This is the brewed coffee that is left to cool to room temperature, then refrigerated.

Cold brew

Then there is cold brew.

“Cold brew is coffee extraction without hot water,” Lafferty said. “Hot water is what pulls the oils, the tannins, the essence out of coffee grounds during a typical three to three and a half minute brew cycle. Cold brew alleviates the heat, so the coffee grounds steep in room temperature or cold water for 12 to 24 hours, depending on what strength you want. Caffeine extracts differently, so cold brew is a much more caffeinated product. There’s a deepness and a richness to it. We do it for our customers in filter bags to make it easy for them. And with cold brew, you grind it the opposite of iced coffee — you grind it coarser because it’s in contact with the water for so long. If you were to grind it finer It would just be far too overextracted.” Additionally, he said, there are some chemical compounds in ground coffee that are only released with heat, so cold brew will actually have a different chemical composition than traditionally brewed coffee.

Not surprisingly, Emeran Langmaid, the vice president of operations of Rare Breed Coffee in Nashua, has strong feelings about iced coffee.

“I am somewhat opinionated on this,” she said. “I think the best way to have iced coffee in the summer is actually to make a cold brew concentrate. It is basically a one-to-five up to one-to-eight ratio of coffee to water. That’s by weight. I make it in a French press, with a coarse grind. I let it steep for 24 hours, and the benefit is that you end up with a concentrate that you can dilute with whatever liquid you want to dilute it with. So my preference is diluting it with an alternative milk and it resembles a quick and easy iced latte. You can dilute it with water. You can dilute it with seltzer. You can dilute it with ice cream. So there’s a lot of different ways that you can serve that beverage. And that concentrate is shelf-stable for 20 days in the refrigerator.”

“In terms of like the actual dispensing of it,” Langmaid said, “because it is refrigerated, ideally it would be in a pitcher. So if you are hosting an event, then you would take that concentrate and dilute it with whatever beverage you want to, and that would be in a pitcher, which you would then pour out into glasses with ice.”

Langmaid suggested using standard-sized ice cubes for iced coffee.

“I wouldn’t use shaved ice or chips,” she said. “This is not a sipping drink that you’re going to linger over for a while. You wouldn’t want to use some of those oversized ice cubes that are used for cocktails sometimes.”

Straw or no straw? “I think that kind of depends on the glass that you put it in,” Langmaid said. If it’s like a rocks glass, if it’s like a smaller drink, then I would say no straw. But if it’s in a tumbler, like a 12- or 16-ounce tumbler, then I’d put a straw in it.”

The Iced Coffee Klatch
Brothers Cortado (3-5 Bicentennial Square, Concord, 856-7924, brotherscortado.com), Open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Mill City Roasting Co. (669-7625, millcityroasting.com)
Rare Breed Coffee (2 Pittsburgh Ave., Nashua, 578-3338, rarebreedcoffee.com)
Sunny Cafe (50 S. Willow St., Manchester, 935-8658, sunnycafenh.com), open Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities (155 Dow St., Suite 102, Manchester, twomoonscafenh.com), open Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Iced coffee at home

According to our experts, there are some general principles you should stick to when making iced coffee.

Start with whole beans. This will allow you to have more control over how fresh the coffee is and how fine the grind is. Most supermarkets have grinding machines in the coffee aisle that will allow you to grind your beans to whatever degree of fineness suits you. Most of them will also calculate and measure the weight of your ground coffee for you. “They use a timer for a custom drop-weight,” Smithers Lafferty from Mill City Roasting said. “You set it for a particular weight, and the timer turns the grinder off at the right time for that amount.”

Grind the right amount of coffee for the type of coffee you want. Lafferty suggested a three-and-a-half-ounce drop-weight for traditionally brewed iced coffee.

Don’t dilute the coffee more than you have to. “We put our coffee in an immediate bath,” Meg Wright of Two Moons Cafe said. “We put it in a secondary container, we let it sit in there. We don’t want to water it down with more ice, so we don’t add ice to it.”

There are rumors of area restaurants that make ice cubes from frozen coffee, which will not water down iced coffee, but they are difficult to verify. There seems to be a word-of-mouth network of area coffee enthusiasts who keep track of such things. Lafferty endorsed this idea but cautioned, “Take the time to make ice cubes — it’s worth it — but buy yourself a coffee-only ice tray because you’ll find there’s going to be a sticky frozen residue. You’ll never make clean water ice in the same tray again.”

Pay attention to the details when you make cold brew. Meg Wright from Two Moons Cafe suggested a 10-hour soak for cold brew. “You want to make sure you’re submerging all of your beans,” she said.” Make sure you stir it up every once in a while.”

For large batches of cold-brew, Smithers Lafferty recommended suspending 5 pounds of coarse-ground coffee in 5 gallons of water for 10 to 14 hours. He uses large reusable nylon bags to hold the cold brew grounds, much like a giant tea bag. These can be purchased online and fit easily across the rim of a standard (food-safe) 5-gallon bucket.

Emeran Langmaid uses a ratio of water to coarse grounds (by weight) to make a concentrate, which she said gives the drinker a lot of flexibility.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture. When Smithers Lafferty serves iced coffee — either traditionally brewed or cold brewed — he shakes it with ice and a small amount of whole milk in a cocktail shaker. “That gives it a little bit of body,” explained his wife, Sarah. After shaking, the coffee will have a thick head of foam. “Typically, cafes will serve it with a foam topper,” Smithers said, “which they just make out of a little whipper. Again, it’s an add-on for them to be able to maximize some form of marginality in it. Any little thing that you can differentiate yourself to seem unique.”

Recipes

Easy Iced Coffee

3 ounces cold-brew coffee concentrate, homemade or premade
6 ounces half & half – With iced coffee, the richness is part of the point. In theory, you could use any dairy or dairy substitute, but try to use something with about a 15 percent milkfat content.
1 ounce simple syrup – Sugar is resistant to dissolving into cold liquids. Take a tip from southern sweet tea enthusiasts and use syrup instead. Simple syrup made from sugar and water will keep the flavor straightforward, but any flavored syrup will work well here.
Frozen coffee (optional) – Ice cubes made from frozen black coffee will keep your iced coffee from getting watery if your conversation runs long.
Garnish – shaved dark chocolate. Freeze a few squares of your favorite dark chocolate or a handful of chocolate chips. To garnish your iced coffee, use a vegetable peeler to sprinkle chocolate shavings over your iced coffee. Alternatively, bash a small handful of frozen chocolate chips with a hammer.

Combine coffee concentrate, half & half, and simple syrup with ice (preferably frozen coffee cubes) in a cocktail shaker and shake enthusiastically for 10 to 15 seconds, then pour into a tall glass.

Iced Irish Coffee

3½ ounces freshly ground coffee
6 Tablespoons (about ⅓ cup) brown sugar
1¼ cups (10 ounces) Irish whiskey
Garnish – gloppy whipped cream

Fill the basket of your coffee maker with 3½ ounces of your favorite coffee. Brew a standard 64-ounce pot of coffee with it.

While it is still hot, stir in the brown sugar. Stir it more than you think you need to. Because the coffee is hot, the sugar will dissolve, but it might take a little convincing.

Leave the coffee to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

When it has cooled to your satisfaction, stir in the Irish whiskey, and pour into individual glasses over ice; frozen coffee cubes would be very good in this application. Top with a healthy glob of whipped cream.

Kid’s Guide to Summer 2026

A season of festivals, theater, concerts, movies and more family fun

School’s Out! For! Summer! School’s! Out! For— wait, for how long?

In this year’s kid’s guide to summer we offer a rundown of events and attractions for kids and families in the forthcoming school-free weeks. Got a kid-friendly event not mentioned here? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Events

• The Make It Fest!, a “gathering of makers, doers, DIYers, crafters, tinkerers, self-proclaimed engineers and aspiring mad-scientists!” according to makeitfest.com, will take place Saturday, June 13, from noon to 4 p.m. at Make It Labs, 25 Crown St. in Nashua. The event will feature demonstrations, exhibits, workshops, a sumo robot competition, vendor sales and more, according to the website, where you can register to attend.

• Applecrest Farm Orchards, 133 Exeter Road in Hampton Falls, has a series of festivals throughout the summer and into the fall on select weekends, starting with a Strawberry Festival on Saturdays, June 13 and June 20, and Sundays, June 14 and June 21, according to applecrest.com. Other festivals include a Blueberry Celebration July 12, a Blueberry Festival July 25-26, Blueberry & Peach Celebration Aug. 2, Peach Festival Aug. 15-16, Fall Harvest Kick-Off Aug. 29-30 and Labor Day weekend Sept. 5-7.

• The Seacoast LitFest will take place Thursday, June 11, through Sunday, June 14, at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, according to a press release. Young readers may enjoy the Book Fair and Free Kids Book Giveaway slated for Sunday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 28 Chestnut St. in Portsmouth. It will be “a lively book fair with local vendors and authors, featuring live music and poetry readings, free book swap and free children’s books for young readers,” according to themusichall.org, where you can find the LitFest’s complete schedule.

• Nashua kicks off its SummerFun program with Superheroes in the Park at Greeley Park on Saturday, June 13, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring trucks to explore, vendors, games, Jedi training, a superhero show and giveaways, including free superhero capes, masks and light sabers to the first 250 kids, according to Nashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun.

• Golden: A K-Pop Kids’ Party, an all-ages family dance party (kids must be accompanied by an adult), will be held by The Kawaii Rave and VNK Entertainment on Sunday, June 14, at 1 p.m. at the BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St. in Concord, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Joppa Hill Educational Farm, 174 Joppa Hill Road in Bedford, is holding weekly animal storytimes on Tuesdays (June 16 is the third in the series) through Aug. 11 at 10:15 a.m. “Listen to a short story about farms and animals and then visit with one of the farm residents,” according to jhef.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The 26th Annual Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Classic runs Thursday, June 18, through Saturday, June 20, with the illuminated sculptures on display through June 28, according to hamptonbeach.org/events/sand-sculpture-event. A group carve takes place Wednesday, June 17, according to the website, where you can find a schedule of events and a look at this year’s contributors.

• SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester) will hold its Kick Off to Summer Saturday, June 20, through Friday, June 26, “featuring activities using LEGO® Bricks and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the completion of our LEGO® Millyard Project,” according to see-sciencecenter.org, where you can find admission prices and pre-purchase admission. Through Labor Day, the Center is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the website said.

• The New London Parks and Recreation Department will hold its ninth annual Strawberry Fest on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the town green, featuring strawberries and strawberry shortcake for sale (cash or check only) as well as other food and vendors and entertainment, according to newlondon.nh.gov/recreation and a post on the department’s Facebook page.

• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 1160 Bridge St. in Manchester, will hold its Lamb BBQ and Food Festival on Saturday, June 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a church email. Check back on the church’s socials or at stnicholasgreekchurch.com for updates.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire will hold its annual Father’s Day Weekend Fly-In BBQ at Boire Field in Nashua on Saturday, June 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to aviationmuseumofnh.org, where you can check back for details.

• The Wilton NH Main Street Association’s SummerFest will be held Saturday, June 20, according to facebook.com/wiltonmainstreetnh. “Main Street will be closed to traffic and full of vendors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. We have live music on two stages during that entire time. The Lions will also have their annual Duck Drop fundraiser in the afternoon,” according to an email from organizers. “Activities move up to Carnival Hill in the evening from 6 to 10 p.m. That will include music provided by a DJ, kids’ games, a pie-eating contest and an amazing fireworks display by JPI Pyrotechnics, enhanced this year for the 250th birthday of America,” the email said.

• The Seacoast Science Center in Rye will celebrate World Ocean Celebration Day on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring games, educational activities, tide pool sessions, food trucks and more, according to seacoastsciencecenter.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The 44th Somersworth International Children’s Festival will take place Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Noble Pines Park and on Main Street and feature activities for kids, food vendors, craft vendors, a World Cultures Passport Center, a kids’ play area, Wildlife Encounters, roaming entertainers, a petting zoo and more, according to nhfestivals.org.

• The Second Annual Audubon Nature Challenge will run Sunday, June 21, through Saturday, June 27, according to nhaudubon.org. “Join people all over New Hampshire documenting birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, flowers, trees, mosses, mushrooms, and everything else during this weeklong conservation event. There is at least one location in every county and three that meet ADA accessibility guidelines,” according to the website. Participants can explore on their own or join a guided tour in locations listed on the website, where you can register to participate in the challenge.

• Concord’s Market Days Festival will run Thursday, June 25, through Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, according to marketdaysfestival.com. Each day features music and performances on three stages, food trucks and food vendors, vendors selling other goods and more, the website said.

• Dartmouth Health Children’s NH East-West All Star Football Game featuring “the state’s best graduating high school football players together” will take place Friday, June 26, at 6 p.m. at the Grappone Stadium at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, according to childrens.dartmouth-health.org/events, where you can purchase tickets.

• The next New England Reptile Expo is Sunday, June 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown, 700 Elm St. in Manchester, featuring more than 200 vendor tables, according to reptileexpo.com/all-shows/newhampshire.

• The Strawberry Festival held by the Hollis Town Band and Congregational Church of Hollis will be held Sunday, June 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Monument Square in Hollis featuring strawberry shortcake for purchase with locally sourced strawberries as well as a concert by the Hollis Town Band, according to hollistownband.info.

• Merrimack’s Independence Day celebrations begin with a concert on Friday, July 3, at 6:30 p.m. featuring the Merrimack Concert Association (which will be performing and selling root beer floats) at Abbie Griffin Park behind the Merrimack Town Hall, according to merrimackparksandrec.org. A parade will take place Saturday, July 4, at 1 p.m. and fireworks at Kollsman Athletic Fields around 9:15 p.m., with music and food trucks from 5 to 9 p.m., the website said.

• Go to nashua.gov now to reserve tickets for the Fourth of July Fireworks and Baseball Game on Saturday, July 4 — tickets to the Silver Knights Game are free for the first 500 adults and children under 13, according to the city’s website. Tickets must be reserved in advance. The game, which starts at 10:30 a.m., will feature an expanded kids’ zone and on-field activities, the website said. That evening the program starts with a performance by the band The Slakas at 6 p.m., Nashua Hall of Fame inductions at 8 p.m., the Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps at 8:30 p.m. and a fireworks show at dusk, the website said.

• Concord’s July Fourth Celebration will take place Saturday, July 4, starting at 6 p.m. in Memorial Field with food vendors and music, with fireworks at 9:20 p.m., according to the Concord Parks & Rec Summer and Fall guide at concordnh.gov.

• The Hillsboro Summerfest will run Thursday, July 9, through Sunday, July 12, at 29 Preston St. in Hillsborough, featuring carnival rides and midway games, live entertainment, a 5K on July 10, a town parade, a women’s skillet toss, fireworks on Saturday evening and more, according to hillsborosummerfest.com.

• The Raymond Town Fair will be held Friday, July 10, through Sunday, July 12, featuring “live music, fireworks, children’s activities, educational exhibitions, games & vendors,” according to facebook.com/RaymondTownFair, where you can check for schedule updates.

• The American Independence Center will hold the American Independence Festival in downtown Exeter on Saturday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring a live reading of the Declaration of Independence, demonstrations of historic 18th-century trades, reenactment groups, colonial games and music and more, according to aicnh.org/american-independence-festival.

• The 10th annual Fairy and Hobbit House Festival will take place at Bedrock Gardens, 19 High Road in Lee, on Friday, July 17, through Sunday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, according to bedrockgardens.org. Come in costume to compete in the Designer Fairy and Hobbit House Competition (see the website for details), vote in the competition, take part in fairy and gnome-related activities and more, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets and reserve parking.

• Stratham Summerfest 2026 will take place Saturday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Stratham Hill Park and feature 4-H animal barns, exhibits and more; magic shows, live music, kids’ activities, helicopter exhibits weather permitting, a pie-eating contest and more, according to strathamnh.gov.

• The Second Congregational Church, 25 Gregg St. in Wilton, will hold their annual Summer Fair on Saturday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring crafts, food, music, kids’ activities, plant sales, book sales, a food auction at 1 p.m. and more, according to an email from the church. See 2ccwilton.org.

• The Nashua Fairytale Festival will take place Saturday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Greeley Park in Nashua featuring stage acts, fairytale characters, character meet and greets and “over 30 community vendors with activities, caricaturists, games, books, and more for the whole family,” according tonashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun.

• The Canterbury Fair is, as always, the last Saturday in July — Saturday, July 25, starting at 9 a.m. with a 5K at Canterbury Center, according to canterburyfair.com. The fair, which runs until 4 p.m., in Center Canterbury will also include children’s games, a used book sale, live music including from Mr. Aaron and The Ragged Mountain Band, demonstrations of handicrafts, a “whatnot” tag sale, a barbecue and more, the website said.

• The Downtown Nashua Association will present the Summer Stroll on Saturday, July 25, on Main Street in Nashua, according to downtownnashua.org, where you can check for updates on the event. “This event turns Main Street into a pedestrian-only festival of food, art, music and kids’ activities, featuring dozens of vendor tents and local makers,” the website said.

• The Coppal House Farm in Lee will hold its annual Sunflower Festival Saturday, July 25, through Aug. 2, open daily with food vendors and special events on the weekend including children’s storytimes, music and a craft fair, according to nhsunflower.com, where you can find daily times and admission prices, purchase admission and find tickets to special events.

• The Suncook Valley Rotary 44th Hot Air Ballroom Rotary will run Friday, July 31, through Sunday, Aug. 2, at Drake Field on Barnstead Road in Pittsfield, featuring daily night glow displays of the balloons and flights (weather permitting) as well as touch-a-truck, a 5K, a regatta and more, according to nhballoonrally.org.

• The Belknap County Fair will run Saturday, Aug. 1, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 174 Mile Hill Road in Belmont, according to bcfairnh.org.

• Pizzastock 10, a fundraiser put on by the Jason R Flood Memorial featuring 12 bands on two stages, will take place Saturday, Aug. 1, from noon to 6 p.m., according to a post on the Jason R Flood Memorial Facebook page. The event is geared toward all ages with games including wiffleball and cornhole, activities for little kids, community organizations with information available, pizza slices from Kendall Pond Pizza as well as other food vendors, raffles and merch, the post said. See pizzastock.org for more on the event and organization.

• Friends of Aine will hold its annual Kids Try-athlon on Sunday, Aug. 2, starting at 8 a.m. at Bedford High School and the Bedford Town Pool. The event is a swim, bike, run race for kids grouped by age — 4- to 10-year-olds and 11- to 15-year-olds, according to friendsofaine.com. The event is open to kids regardless of athletic ability and features a post-race festival, according to the website, where you can register to participate.

• Tuesday, Aug. 4, is the National Night Out, when many first responder departments hold outreach events, such as fairs and touch-a-truck events. Brentwood’s Police Department, for example, will hold an event from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Brentwood Recreation Department featuring food, a K-9 demonstration, touch a truck, face painting and more, according to a post on its Facebook page.

• Hudson Old Home Days are Thursday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 9, according to hudsonoldhomedays.com, where you can check for updates for this year’s events. Last year’s events and activities included carnival rides, food trucks and other vendors, live music, midway games, a craft fair and more, the website said.

• Sunfox Farm in Concord presents its annual Sunflower Bloom Festival Saturday, Aug. 8, through Sunday, Aug. 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., featuring live music, food trucks and other vendors, according to sunfoxfarm.org/sunflowerfestival, where you can find details on pricing, parking and more.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, 6 Washington St. in Dover, will hold its annual Teddy Bear Clinic on Friday, Aug. 8, from 9 to 11 a.m. Kids can bring stuffed animals in for a checkup and learn more about what happens at the doctor’s office, according to a press release. See childrens-museum.org.

• Londonderry Old Home Day includes a day-long event Saturday, Aug. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a parade as well as, at the Town of Londonderry Historical Society, colonial crafts, music, cannon and musket firing and more, according to londonderryhistory.org. See facebook.com/TownofLondonderryOldHomeDay for more events and updates.

• History Alive 2026 in Hillsborough on Jones Road will feature historical reenactments of famous battles as well as daily village life (from Viking and medieval demonstrations to World War II) on Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16. See historyalivenh.org for a schedule.

• The Concord Model Railroad Show, sponsored by the Concord Model Railroad Club, will take place Sunday, Aug. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Everett Arena in Concord, according to a flyer from the club. Admission costs $2 for adults, free for kids under 15 with an adult, the flyer said. The day will feature more than 20 dealers, a food stand, raffles and more, the flyer said. See trainweb.org/cmrc.

• The Annual Hampton Beach Children’s Festival will run Monday, Aug. 17, through Friday, Aug. 21, with a lineup of performances and events each day leading up to a giant costume parade on Aug. 21, according to hamptonbeach.org/events/childrens-events.

• CelebratEd welcomes Manchester students back to school with an event on Thursday, Aug. 20, from 4 to 7 p.m. in Victory Park in Manchester offering backpacks and school supplies, haircuts and clothing support, a family resource fair and school registration assistance, according to manchesterproud.org/celebrated.

• Candia Old Home Day starts on Saturday, Aug. 22, at 11 a.m. with a parade, followed by a celebration featuring a dunk tank, food vendors, music and more, according to candiaoldhomeday.com.

• The 8th Annual Family Fun Day at Field of Dreams in Salem will take place Saturday, Aug. 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to fieldofdreamsnh.org.

• Dog Friendly NH will host Bark in the Park: Wag Around the World Festival on Saturday, Aug 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Rollins Park in Concord, according to a post on the Dog Friendly NH Facebook page. “Come wander through country and region themed areas, [and] enjoy international food trucks, live music, vendors, and a park full of fun and discovery” according to the post, which said the event would also feature a Kids Zone, shopping and more. The event is open to dogs who are “vaccinated, healthy, well-behaved with people and dogs, and comfortable on a leash,” the post said.

• Pembroke and Allenstown’s Old Home Day returns on Saturday, Aug. 22, with homemade crafts, merchants, information booths and more, according to pembrokeallenstownoldhomeday.org, where you can check for updates on this year’s events.

• Greekfest, a celebration of Greek food and culture, will take place at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, 111 Island Pond Road in Manchester, on Saturday, Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 30, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to an email from the church. The event, held underneath a tent rain or shine, will feature Greek food and pastries, raffles, kids activities and vendors, the email said. See assumptionnh.org.

• The Hopkinton State Fair bills itself as a Labor Day weekend tradition happening this year from Thursday, Sept. 3, to Monday, Sept. 7, at the fairgrounds (392 Kearsarge Ave., Contoocook). There will be livestock shows, a demolition derby, carnival rides, monster trucks, live entertainment, food and more. The fair hours are 5 to 10 p.m. on Thursday; 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, according to hsfair.org.

• The 2026 Exeter UFO Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, with a lineup of speakers as well as family-friendly festival activities (costume contests for people and pets, a parade, a dance party and more), according toexeterufofestival.org.

Live performances

• Nashua’s Summer Fun program has a series of Tuesday summer concerts running through Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Greeley Park Bandshell, 100 Concord St., according to nashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun. Next week, Tuesday, June 16, catch North River Music Band, playing music “from the Eagles and Dylan to the Indigo Girls and Grateful Dead,” the website said. Tuesdays, July 7 through Aug. 25, Nashua Community Music School will hold a musical playgroup from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Greeley Park, the website said.

• The Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St. in Concord, will feature several dance schools’ recitals and showcases in the coming weeks, according to theaudi.org, which explains where to find tickets for each event. On Saturday, June 13, at 2 p.m., Turning Pointe Center of Dance presents Mary Poppins, as its annual recital, the website said. On Saturday, June 20, at 10 a.m. Dance Inspirations presents 27th annual dance recital for dancers ages 2 to adult, the website said.

• The Martin School of Dance will present its Enchanted Forest school show on Sunday, June 14, at 4 p.m. as well as a Minis show featuring twirl and tap, tumbling and petite ballet students, at 10:30 a.m. at the Chubb Theatre at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, according to ccanh.com, where you can purchase tickets to either show.

• Nice Work If You Can Get It Teen Edition, a musical featuring the music of George and Ira Gershwin, will be presented by the Palace Teen Company (featuring actors ages 12 to 18) at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, on Tuesday, June 16, and Wednesday, June 17, at 7 p.m., according to the palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Children’s musical performer Mr. Aaron has several performances slated for the summer, according to mraaronmusic.com. Upcoming dates include Friday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Riverfront Park in Northfield; Saturday, June 20, at noon at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye for World Ocean Day; Friday, June 26, at 11 a.m. for Market Days in downtown Concord; Wednesday, July 15, at 10:30 a.m. at the band stand at the Dunbarton Public Library; Wednesday, July 22, at 10:30 a.m. at the Nesmith Library in Windham; Saturday, July 25, at 11 a.m. at the Canterbury Fair; and Mr. Aaron Band on Thursday, July 30, at 4 p.m.in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, according to mraaronmusic.com/calendar.

• The Prescott Park Arts Festival’s outdoor production in Portsmouth this summer is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which will run June 19 through Aug. 9, with performances most Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m., with some matinee performances, according to prescottpark.org, where you can reserve blanket or table space.

• The Palace Academy’s Spring 2026 Dance Showcase featuring dancers ages 3 to adult will take place Sunday, June 21, at 10 a.m., according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Somersworth Festival Association will hold Celebration Night Friday, June 26, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Somersworth High School, 11 Memorial Drive in Somersworth, featuring entertainment such as “Lightheaded Collective (featuring members of the Somersworth Student Jazz Ensemble), Tricky Dick’s Magic Show and Bad Breath Microphone,” according to nhfestivals.org. The evening will also offer food, kids’ activities and fireworks, the website said.

• Andy’s Summer Playhouse, 582 Isaac Frye Highway in Wilton, features productions and workshops for kid and teen performers, according to andyssummerplayhouse.org, where you can find the schedule of productions to which audiences can purchase tickets. First up is Welcome to the Hilltop, a night of plays by young artists on Saturday, June 27, at 7 p.m., followed by A Staged Reading Through the Greenhouse Initiative: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on Friday, July 3, at 7 p.m., the website said.

• NH School of Ballet presents Snow White and The Wizard of Oz, the themes of its year-end dance celebration, Saturday, June 20, at 11 a.m. at the Dance Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, according to tickets.anselm.edu, where you can purchase tickets.

• School of Rock, a teen Actorsingers production of the stage musical, will take place Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 28, at 2 p.m. at the Janice B. Streeter Theater, 14 Court St. in Nashua, according to actorsingers.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Palace Youth Theatre Summer Camp, featuring performers in grades 2 through 12, will present productions throughout the summer at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets. Performances include Diary of a Wimpy Kid (July 2-3, 7 p.m.); The Music Man Kids (July 10, 7 p.m.); The SpongeBob Musical Youth Edition (July 24, 7 p.m., and July 25, 11 a.m.); Miss Nelson Is Missing The Musical (July 31, 7 p.m.); Madagascar Jr. (Aug. 14, 7 p.m., and Aug. 15, 11 a.m.) and Shrek The Musical Kids (Aug. 21, 7 p.m.).

• The Palace Theatre’s 2026 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series runs July 7 through Aug. 27, with a new show each week and showtimes Tuesday through Thursdays at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Fridays at 10 a.m., all at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets. This season’s shows include Peter Pan Jr. (July 7-10); Willy Wonka Jr. (July 14-17); The Wizard of Oz Youth Edition (July 21-24); How To Train Your Dragon Jr. (July 28-31); Madagascar Jr. (Aug. 4-7); Shrek Jr. (Aug. 11-14); Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr. (Aug. 18-21), and magician BJ Hickman (Aug. 25-27).

• The Somersworth Festival Association will offer Kid Concerts at the Pavilion at Somersworth High School on Wednesdays, July 8 through Aug. 12, at 6 p.m., according to nhfestivals.org. The show schedule includes Wildlife Encounters (July 8), Miss Julian (July 15), Mr. Aaron (July 22), Philip Alexander (July 29), Rockin’ Ron the Friendly Pirate (Aug. 5) and Tricky Dick’s Magic Show (Aug. 12), the website said.

• The Secret Garden, based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, will be presented by Majestic Productions at the Derry Opera House, 29 W Broadway in Derry, on Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 12, at 2 p.m., according to majestictheatre.net, where you can purchase tickets.

• RB Productions, which is a “non-profit community theatre organization founded in 2003 by Ryan Brown to provide experiential and educationl theatre opportunities for youth and young theatre professionals throughout greater Concord and the state of New Hampshire,” will present several shows via the Capitol Center of the Arts throughout the summer, according to ccanh.com. At the Chubb Theatre, shows include Footloose Youth Edition (Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m.); Disney’s Frozen Jr. (Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, at 7 p.m.); Disney’s The Lion King Jr. (Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, at 7 p.m.), and 13 Jr.(Friday, July 31, and Saturday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.) . At the BNH Stage, shows include Seussical Kids (Saturday, July 18, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.) and Shrek The Musical Kids (Saturday, Aug. 1, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.).

• Disney’s Frozen will be presented Friday, July 17, through Sunday, July 19, by the Windham Actors Guild at Windham High School, according to windhamactorsguild.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Children’s musician Judy Pancoast celebrates 30 years of performing with a show at the Goffstown Public Library on Monday, July 27, at 11:30 a.m., according to a press release. Find more summer dates at judypancoast.com.

• The Prescott Park Arts Festival’s Camp Encore student performers will present Mean Girls Jr. Saturday, Aug. 1, and Sunday, Aug. 2, at 1 p.m. and Willy Wonka Kids on Saturday, Aug. 8, and Sunday, Aug. 9, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to prescottpark.org, where you can reserve blanket or table space.

• Seussical will be presented by the child and young adult performers of Peacock Players on Friday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 8, at 2 & 7 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 9, at 2 p.m., according to peacockplayers.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Shrek the Musical, presented by the Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative, will be on stage at the Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St. in Laconia, on Friday, Aug. 7, through Sunday, Aug. 9, with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday, according to powerhousenh.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Willy Wonka Kids will be presented by The Prescott Park Arts Festival’s Camp Encore student performers on Saturday, Aug. 8, and Sunday, Aug. 9, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to prescottpark.org, where you can reserve blanket or table space.

Movie time

• The Summer Movie Clubhouse, a lineup of kid-friendly films running Wednesday and Thursday mornings (with a start time usually around 10:30 to 11 a.m.) at Cinemark Rockingham Park (15 Mall Road in Salem; cinemark. com/theatres/nh-salem/cinemark-rockingham-park-and-xd), began the first week of June. Upcoming screenings include Sonic the Hedgehog (June 10-11); K-Pop Demon Hunters Sing Along (June 17-18); Shrek Forever After (June 24-25); The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants (July 1-2); A Minecraft Movie (July 8-9); Dog Man (July 15-16); How to Train Your Dragon (July 22-23); The Bad Guys 2 (July 29-30) and Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (Aug. 5-6), according to the website.

• The Milford Drive-In Theater (531 Elm St., Milford; milforddrivein.com) has two screens for movie screenings, each mostly offering double features, Fridays through Sundays. The box office opens at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 7:15 p.m. on Sunday.

• Fathom Entertainment (fathomentertainment.com) features specialty screenings of live events as well as anniversary screenings at area theaters including the Apple Cinemas in Merrimack and Hooksett, Cinemark Rockingham Park and Regal Fox Run in Newington. Upcoming kid-friendly screenings include the 55th anniversary screening of Willy Wonka starring Gene Wilder on Sunday, Aug. 2, and Wednesday Aug. 5; see the website for times and locations.

• Studio Ghibli Fest 2026 screenings via Fathom include Ponyo (June 13-17); My Neighbor Totoro (July 11-15); Tales from EarthSea (Aug. 8 and Aug. 10); Only Yesterday (Aug. 9 and Aug. 11) and Castle in the Sky (Aug. 22-26). See the website for times, locations and which screenings are subtitled versus dubbed.

• Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St. in Concord, redrivetheatres.org) screens kid- and family-friendly first run movies among its offerings — Toy Story 5 is slated to start screening on Thursday, June 18. The theater also has an outdoor movie scheduled in partnership with Intown Concord at the August Friday Friday event on Aug. 7, according to an email from Red River.

• Movies in the Park takes place in Riverfront Park in Tilton, hosted by the Hall Memorial Library (hallmemoriallibrary. org), on Fridays throughout the summer, with the park opening at 6 p.m. and the movie starting at dusk. According to the website, the upcoming schedule is Soul (June 19); 2025’s Lilo & Stitch (July 31); Road to El Dorado (Aug. 28) and Hercules (Sept. 25).

• Chunky’s, 707 Huse Road in Manchester, has Sensory Friendly Screenings, when theater lights are up and the sound is down, and Little Lunch Date screenings, also with lights slightly dimmed, according to chunkys.com. Coming up: Toy Story 5 will be screened in a Sensory Friendly Screening on Tuesday, June 23, at 11:30 a.m., 2:45 and 6 p.m. and then at a Little Lunch Date on Tuesday, June 30, at 11:30 a.m., according to the website, where you can pick seats and purchase tickets.

• O’Neil Cinemas, 16 Orchard View Drive in Londonderry, will hold a Summer Kid’s Series of screenings of kid-friendly movies on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m., according to oneilcinemas.com. Screenings on the schedule include The Bad Guys 2 (July 6 & 8); Dog Man (July 13 & 15); How To Train Your Dragon (July 20 & 22); The Wild Robot (July 27 & 29); Kung Fu Panda (Aug. 3 & 5) and Despicable Me 4 (Aug. 10 & 12).

Attractions

Find more local museums in our May 14 issue in the story “Granite State Curiosities.” The issue is in our digital library at hippopress.com; the story starts on page 8.

• Andres Institute of Art (106 Route 13, Brookline, andresinstitute.org) has a network of trails featuring sculptures including pieces created during the annual International Bridges and Connections, according to the website. Find printable trail maps as well as a gallery of the sculptures online.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, aviationmuseumofnh.org) offers exhibits related to the aviation history of the state — as well as a cockpit kids can get inside of, featuring real audio from traffic control at neighboring Manchester Boston Regional Airport. The museum is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. See the website for admission prices.

• Beaver Brook (117 Ridge Road in Hollis, beaverbrook.org) offers camps, regular walks and hikes and other programs as well as trails and gardens that are open daily. Maps for the trails are available on the website.

• Canobie Lake Park (85 N. Policy St., Salem, canobie.com), an amusement park with rides and water attractions, is, in summer, open daily with tickets sold in advance only via the website. Prices vary by day. After-5 p.m. tickets are available Friday through Sunday nights.

• Charmingfare Farm (774 High St., Candia, 483-5623, visitthefarm.com) is a working farm with wildlife exhibits featuring animals such as black bears, coyotes and more. Charmingfare is currently open Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reptile Day is slated for Saturday, July 18, with a reptile show scheduled for 1 p.m.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover, 742-2002, childrens-museum.org) is a family museum featuring interactive exhibits with a focus on art, science and culture. It is open for morning (9 a.m. to noon) and afternoon (1 to 4 p.m.) play sessions Wednesdays through Saturdays and for morning sessions only on Tuesdays and Sundays. See the website for special programming, such as Toddler Tinker Time on Tuesdays, Wacky Art Wednesdays, Cultural Crafts on Thursdays and Science Fridays. New at the museum: the Kids Cafe is being transformed into a pretend pizzeria, and later in the summer the museum will reveal a “Calling All Superheroes!” exhibit “featuring capes, accessories, and green-screen superpowers,” according to a press release.

• Chuckster’s Family Fun Park (Route 4, Chichester, chuckstersnh.com) is open daily, hours vary by day (and weather). This year a new zipline is slated to open; the park also features minigolf, batting cages, bumper boats, a climbing wall, go karts and more. Admission varies based on attraction packages. Chuckster’s also has a minigolf-only location at 53 Hackett Hill Road in Hooksett.

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester, currier.org) is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission costs $20 for regular admission, $15 for 65+ and students (with ID) and $5 for ages 13 to 17, according to the website. The museum also offers free admission for New Hampshire residents on the second Saturday of each month.

• Funspot (579 Endicott Lane, Laconia, funspotnh.com) bills itself as the largest arcade in the world, including classic arcade games, and also offers bowling, indoor minigolf, on-site eateries and more. Open daily, Funspot’s hours starting June 22 will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. on Saturdays).

• Joppa Hill Educational Farm (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford, jhef.org) is open daily, dawn to dusk, with a suggested donation of $5 per family. Visit the animals or check out the hiking trails, maps for which are on the farm’s website.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive, Concord, starhop.com), a celebration of space, science, engineering and aviation, is open daily, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. The outdoor Jeanne Gerulskis Science Playground is open when the center is open, weather permitting. Purchase admission to the center and extra tickets to see planetarium shows. See the website for the current line-up of planetarium films.

• Mel’s Funway Park (454 Charles Bancroft Highway, Litchfield, melsfunwaypark.com) offers minigolf, go karts, laser tag, arcade, batting cages, bumper boats, bounce houses and more. The park is open daily, with hours varying by day and attraction.

• New Hampshire Audubon (nhaudubon.org) has two nearby centers — Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way in Auburn) and McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road in Concord). Both centers are open to visitors Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Trails near the centers and in the Audubon’s 40 wildlife sanctuaries throughout the state are open daily, free of charge (though donations are welcome), the website said. Find maps and other information about the trails on the website, as well as a calendar of events.

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester play their next home games Tuesday, June 23, through Sunday, June 28, with games at 6:03 p.m. (except Sunday, when game time is 1:05 p.m.) against the Somerset Patriots. Regular season games continue through Sunday, Sept. 13. See milb.com/new-hampshire for tickets.

• The Nashua Silver Knights, members of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, will next play at Holman Stadium (67 Amherst St., Nashua) on Monday, June 15, at 6:03 p.m. against the Worcester Bravehearts. Their last home game of the regular season will be on Friday, Aug. 7, at 6:03 p.m. against the Norwich Sea Unicorns. See nashuasilverknights.com.

• SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St., Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org) is open daily at 10 a.m. — until 4 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends. This hands-on science center offers exhibits on a variety of subjects. Admission is recommended to be purchased in advance via the website.

Your town

Libraries have reading programs and town gazebos have music — at least, that is the schedule you’ll find in many area towns and cities. Some town and city events are meant just for residents and others don’t specify. Your location’s library and parks and recreation department will have the most up to date information about summer happenings; registration is often required. Here are some of the family-friendly highlights.

• Allenstown: At the Allenstown Public Library, the summer reading program, with the theme “Unleash a Story,” began in June, according to allenstownlibrary.org.

• Amherst: The Amherst Town Library (amherstlibrary.org) is kicking off its summer reading program with a concert featuring Steve Blunt Tuesday, June 16, at 6 p.m. (registration required). On Wednesday, June 24, there will be a Live Pet Show from 10 to 11 a.m. on the library front lawn (bring your pet or just come to see other’s pets), according to the website. Mondays throughout the summer are “Chalk the Walk” days, when chalk will be provided to draw on the sidewalk outside.

The Amherst Recreation department (amherstnh.gov) will offer Summer Concerts on the Green on Tuesdays, June 23 through Aug. 11, 6:30 to 8 p.m., starting with Amherst Town Band.

• Auburn: The Griffin Free Public Library (griffinfree.org) will hold a Build a Gnome Home event on Thursday, July 9, at 1 p.m. (register online). The summer reading program — “Plant a Seed, Read” — starts June 17. The library will hold its annual book sale at the Auburn Village School gym on Saturday, July 25, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, July 26, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the library’s Facebook page.

Auburn’s Parks and Recreation department will hold a Summer Concert Series at Circle of Fun Playground, 5 Bunker Hill Road in Auburn, monthly on Thursdays at 6 p.m.: Off Duty Angels (June 18); Emily’s Garage Band (July 16), and Gary Mav & His Ad Hoc Rock Band (Aug. 20), according to auburnnh.gov.

• Bedford: The Bedford Public Library (bedfordnhlibrary.org) holds its Summer Reading Kickoff Concert with Ben Rudnick and Friends on Monday, June 15, at 6:30 p.m. (register online). A Wildlife Encounters event for ages 7 to 12 will take place Monday, July 20 (two sessions, register online).

The Bedford Parks & Recreation department will host its Family Concerts in the Park on Wednesdays, June 24 through July 29, at 6 p.m. at the Bedford Village Common Park Gazebo, according to.bedfordnh.gov.

• Bow: At the Baker Free Library (bowbakerfreelibrary.org) the “Plant a Seed, Read” Summer Reading Kickoff Party & Farm Animal Petting Zoo is Friday, June 19, at 4 p.m. The library also hosts a magic show with Magician Mike Bent on Thursday, July 23, at 4 p.m.; a live reptile show on Thursday, July 2, at 10:30 a.m.; an outdoor concert with NH Scot on Monday, June 29, at 6 p.m., and Mr Aaron at the Town Gazebo as part of the Bow Rotary Summer Concert Series on Thursday, July 16, at 6:30 p.m.

The concert series runs through Aug. 13, according to the summer program brochure at bownh.myrec.com, which lists a variety of camps and kids’ programs.

• Boscawen: The Boscawen Public Library (boscawenpubliclibrary.org) kicks off its “Unearth a Story” Summer Reading program on Monday, June 22, with a program at 6 p.m.

• Brookline: The Brookline Public Library (brooklinelibrarynh.org) will hold its Summer Reading Kick-Off Party on Tuesday, June 23, at 4 p.m. featuring “ lawn games, crafts, bubbles, and freeze pops,” according to the website. The library will also host a Dinosaur Safari Magic Show at the Brookline Community Church Tuesday, July 28, at 4 p.m., the website said.

• Canterbury: The Elkins Public Library (elkinspubliclibrary.org) offers storytimes and other activities for kids.

• Chichester: The Chichester Town Library (chichesternh.org) will hold a book sale on Saturday, June 13, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to its Facebook page, where you can also find the summer storytime schedule. There will be a summer reading kickoff party with a Musical Puppet Show by Tom Knight on Friday, June 26, at 11 a.m. at the Chichester Grange Hall, according to a post.

• Concord: The Concord Public Library (concordpubliclibrary.net) will hold storytimes in the park on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. June through August; see the website for a schedule. The library will hold its summer reading kickoff on Saturday, June 20, at 9:30 a.m.

The Concord Parks & Rec lists a variety of summer kids’ programs in its summer and fall brochure, available via concordnh.gov. The city holds multiple concert series including Tuesdays featuring the Nevers Band at a variety of city parks and other locations at 7 p.m. (starting June 17); Thursdays at Eagle Square at 7:30 p.m. (July 2-Aug. 13); Wednesdays at Canal Street at 6:30 p.m. (July 15, July 29, Aug. 12 and Aug. 26), and a White Park Sunday Concert series many Sundays into September at 10 a.m., the website said.

• Derry: The Derry Public Library (derrypl.org) will hold its “Plant a Seed, Read” Kick Off Dance Party on Thursday, June 18, at 1:30 p.m. Let’s Play Music will offer a musical petting zoo on Wednesday, July 8, at 10 a.m.; the Children’s Museum of NH will present Dinosaur Detectives on Thursday, July 16, at 2 p.m. and there will be family storytimes many Friday mornings on the patio, according to the website, where you can register for these and other events.

The Derry Parks & Recreation Concert Series runs Tuesdays, June 16 through Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. in Macgregor Park, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.

• Dunbarton: The Dunbarton Public Library (dunbartonnh.org/dunbarton-public-library) will kick off its “Unearth a Story” summer reading program on Tuesday, June 23, with a make a library fairy garden program at 1 p.m., according to the website, which also lists programs such as a reptile show on Thursday, June 25, at 1 p.m.; a touch a truck on Saturday, July 11, at 10 a.m., and several storytimes.

Dunbarton’s Old Home Day is slated for Saturday, Aug. 15, according to dunbartonnh.org, where you can find a schedule of the day’s events such as a 10 a.m. parade, vendors and exhibitors from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and ice cream at 2 p.m.

• Goffstown: The Goffstown Public Library (goffstownlibrary.com) is also theming its summer reading program “Plant a Seed, Read” and kicks it off June 20. See the website for the line-up of storytimes and other activities. Judy Pancoast will perform at the library’s Picnic on the Lawn on Friday, July 24, at 11:30 a.m.

• Hollis: Hollis Social Library (hollislibrary.org) will kick off its summer reading program with a Touch-a-Truck on Tuesday, June 23, at 2 p.m. at Lawrence Barn, 28 Depot Road in Hollis, according to the website. The library also has craft programs and storytimes for a variety of ages. Mr. Aaron is slated to perform on Thursday, July 23, at 3:30 p.m. and Lindsay and her Puppet Pals are slated to perform on Tuesday, July 28, at 3 p.m.

Hollis Recreation will hold a playground pop-up this summer on Tuesdays, 2 to 4 p.m., with activities at the Little Nichols Playground behind the library, according to the department’s Facebook page.

• Hooksett: The Hooksett Public Library (hooksettlibrary.org) will hold a touch-a-truck event to kick off the summer reading program on Saturday, June 20, at 10 a.m. and a Magic Fred Show on Monday, July 13, at 10:30 a.m., according to the website, where you can find other kids’ activities.

• Hopkinton: The Hopkinton Town Library (hopkintontownlibrary.org) starts its “Plant a Seed, Read” summer reading on Monday, June 22, with activities including Music With Meghan on Friday, June 26, at 10:30 a.m., storytimes with Miss Grammy Pat and Ice Pops with Super Cool Cops on Wednesday, July 29, at 3 p.m.

Hopkinton Recreation Committee hosts the July Fourth Parade and Family Fun in Riverway Park in Contoocook with a farmers market, the Brad Myrick Band, the kids’ parade at 11 a.m. followed by the Independence Parade at 11:30 a.m. and family fun activities, according to hopkintonnh.myrec.com.

• Hudson: The George H. and Ella M. Rodgers Memorial Library (rodgerslibrary.org) will offer summer events including storytimes in Benson Park; a performance by Magic Fred on Tuesday, June 23, at 1:30 p.m.; a Teddy Bear Garden Party on Friday, July 10, at 10 a.m.; Wildlife Encounters on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 1:30 p.m. and more.

• Litchfield: At the Aaron Cutler Memorial Library (litchfieldnh.gov/222/Aaron-Cutler-Memorial-Library), the “Plant a Seed, Read” summer reading program starts Tuesday, June 23, with weekly themes, activities for kids, teens and tweens and more according to the newsletter on the library’s website.

• Londonderry: The Leach Library (londonderrynh.gov/371/Leach-Library), which continues to operate from the Community Room of the Londonderry Police Department while work is done on the building, will hold a visit from the Lorax on Tuesday, June 16, at 4 p.m. and Thursday, June 18, at 11 a.m. at Moose Hill Council Chambers in Town Hall as well as other storytimes and activities. The Leach Library will team up with the Londonderry Arts Council for a Concert on the Common for Kids on Saturday, July 11, at 1:30 p.m. featuring Matt Heaton and the Outside Toys at the Londonderry Town Common, according to the May newsletter.

The Londonderry Arts Council’s Concerts on the Common program began in early June and runs through Aug. 12 on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the Common, 265 Mammoth Road in Londonderry, according to londonderryartscouncil.org.

• Loudon: The Maxfield Public Library (maxfieldlibrary.org) will host Alejandro’s Olde Tyme Magik Showe at Charlie’s Barn on Thursday, June 11, at 6 p.m., according to the website. The library will start its summer reading with a magic show featuring Jason Purdy at Charlie’s Barn on Saturday, June 20, at 11 a.m., where you can also register for summer reading, the website said. Find more storytimes and events, including a Dinosaur Tea Party on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 11 a.m., on the website.

• Manchester: Manchester City Library (manchesterlibrary.org) will offer Family Movie Afternoons on Mondays at 2 p.m. starting Monday, June 22, according to a post on the library’s Facebook page. The library will also host a Dino Party on June 22 at 10 a.m., on theme with the summer reading program, “Unearth a Story,” which also begins June 22, according to the website. Other summer events include Slime of the Month club, escape rooms, multiple storytimes, Teen Thursdays and more, the website said.

• Merrimack: At the Merrimack Public Library (merrimack.aspendiscovery.org), the summer reading program begins with a performance by musical performer Tom Knight on Thursday, June 25, at 6 p.m. in Abbie Griffin Park, according to the website (where you can register). In addition to a line-up of storytimes and craft events, the library will have a Dino Tea Party on Tuesday, July 14, at 11:30 a.m. (register online) and more.

The Merrimack Parks & Recreation Department will host a Summer Concerts in the Park series on Thursday nights at 6 p.m. in Abbie Griffin Park starting June 25 with the Tom Knight performance, according to merrimackparksandrec.org. The series runs through Aug. 13.

• Milford: At the Wadleigh Memorial Library (wadleighlibrary.org), summer kicks off on Friday, June 12, at 6 p.m. with a community picnic. Along with crafts, storytimes and teen-specific programing, the library will feature a vegetable derby for grades 2 to 5 on Wednesday, July 8, at 2 p.m. and Miss Lindsay and Her Puppet Pals on Wednesday, July 29, at 11 a.m., according to the website.

The Milford Recreation Department’s summer offerings include the Keyes Summer Bash 2026 in Keyes Memorial Park from noon to 3 p.m. featuring a bike parade, touch a truck, local vendors, games, a reading of the Declaration of Independence and a live concert, according to a post on the recreation department’s Facebook page.

• Mont Vernon: The Daland Memorial Library (dalandlibrary.com) runs its summer reading program Tuesday, June 16, through Friday, Aug. 7, according to the website.

• Nashua: The Nashua Public Library (nashualibrary.org) will hold is Summer Reading Kick-Off Party on Friday, June 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Library Plaza and feature a bounce house, an inflatable corn maze, ice cream and popcorn, live music from Straightjacket (’90s cover band), crafts, an herb garden activity, a plant clipping swap, lawn games and more, according to the website. In addition to storytimes and other kids’ activities, the library offers a variety of programming (including a Teen Rock Show on Tuesday, June 23, at 7 p.m. featuring Fates Collide from Nashua Community Music School), the website said.

Nashua’s extensive SummerFun programming (nashuanh.gov/546/SummerFun) includes special events such as the Fairytale Festival and Superheroes in the Park as well as weekly Tuesday night concerts at the Bandshell in Greeley Park at 7 p.m.; the Nashua Community Music School playgroup in Greeley on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. starting June 30 as well as Thursdays starting July 9, and more. See the city’s website for the complete summer schedule.

• New Boston: Whipple Free Library (whipplefreelibrary.org) will offer storytimes and other events attached to its summer reading program — see the website for upcoming events and to sign up.

The New Boston Recreation department will host Concerts on the Common on Tuesdays, July 7, through Aug. 11, at 6 p.m. with live music and food concessions, according to the department’s Facebook page. The series starts with The Bel Airs, playing the oldies, the post said. See newbostonnh.gov/recreation for updates.

• Pembroke: The Pembroke Library (pembroke-library.org) will hold a Summer Reading Kickoff on Wednesday, June 24, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a fun walk, a children’s performance by Miss Julieann and a musical performance for teens and adults by Oliva Conway, according to the website, where you can sign up and find the schedule of storytimes and drop-in play times.

• Salem: The Kelley Library (kelleylibrary.org) offers programming for kids and teens, according to the website’s calendar.

See the Salem Community Services Department Facebook page for upcoming events this summer.

• Windham: Nesmith Library (nesmithlibrary.org) will hold its Summer Reading Program Kickoff on Tuesday, June 23, from 4 to 7 p.m. with lawn games, the Walking Gourmet Food Truck and Bryson Lang juggling at 6 p.m., according to the website. See the website for storytimes, crafts for kids and teens, Wildlife Encounters on Wednesday, July 8; Lindsay and Her Puppet Pals on Wednesday, July 15, at 10:30 a.m.; Mr. Aaron on Wednesday, July 22, at 10:30 a.m. and a “Meet the Town Vehicles” on Thursday, July 30, at 10:30 a.m.

The Windham Recreation Department will hold the town’s Fireworks display on Wednesday, June 24, at the high school, where the parking lot opens at 5:30 p.m., according to windham.recdesk.com. The department also offers a summer concert series, starting Sunday, June 14, at 2 p.m. with Nicole Knox Murphy playing on the Windham Town Common — see the website for the full schedule of seven shows, running through September.

• Wilton: The Wilton Public & Gregg Free Library (wiltonlibrarynh.org) will hold its summer reading Kick-Off Party on Friday, June 26, at 2 p.m.: “Join us for a summertime treat, make a craft, show off your artistic skill with some sidewalk chalk (weather permitting), take a walk along our story-trail at the front entrance, take some pictures at our photo-booth designed by Iggy, and welcome in the summer!”

Smoke Show

How adding smoke can transform your favorite flavors

When most people think of smoky food, their minds go immediately to barbecue.

David Mielke is the co-owner of Smokehaus Barbecue in Amherst. He said one of the reasons we are so drawn to smokiness is that it has been with us for so long.

“Smoking meat goes way, way back…,” he said. “Originally it was used to cure meats so people could hold them for long periods of time. As time went on, I think people have figured out that you can use smoke to impart flavor.”

A smoking tradition

For Mielke, choosing what type of wood to burn is as important as choosing the right cut of meat.

“In the barbecue world,” he said, “when we use smoke we’re very particular about the type of wood that we use. There’s all sorts of different types and each gives you a different flavor. I’m very particular about really wanting wood that only comes from New Hampshire. So I only use red oak. There are a lot of other barbecue places that use hickory and pecan wood and stuff like that, but it just doesn’t grow here. That’s a southern Texas thing. We don’t do that here. Honestly, I think that red oak really gives a really nice sweet flavor to the flavor profile that I’m looking for for my meat. My oak is green. It’s not seasoned. It’s not dried. It’s green. It comes from a friend’s property. He does wood for a living and he splits it from the tree and it comes right here. What happens is when it’s green like that it still has all of its moisture content. So you get a lot longer burn time with it, a lot longer smoke time. So when I smoke, I smoke for 14 hours. My brisket and my pork goes for 14 hours.”

Mielke said the “low and slow” method of cooking meats means he can focus on cuts that are more flavorful. The most flavorful cuts, though, come from muscle groups that get a lot of exercise during an animal’s life and can be extremely tough unless they are cooked a long time to break down connective tissue into something silky and delicious.

pan filled with different cuts of meat and cups of side foods — Smokehaus Barbecue. Courtesy photo.

“The chest of the cow and the chest of the pig,” he said, “are very hard-working muscles. So you need to have a longer smoke time to be able to break those muscles down.”

“Our main items going [through the smoker],” Mielke said, “are half chickens, brisket, pulled pork, which is the butt.” (In spite of their names, the pork “butts” and “picnics” come from the shoulder and upper arm of a hog.) “I use the butt and the picnic, so it’s all one,” he said. “It’s a bone-in butt that I use, because I think it adds the best flavor. It takes longer to cook it but it adds flavor and I think it helps render the meat down better. I also do St. Louis-style ribs. I used to do baby backs, but I do St. Louis-style now. They’re pork, just a different section of the rib. So the baby back is like the top section of the rib cage, closer to the spine, and the St. Louis is a little further down the rib, you know, more toward the belly, and they are a little bit bigger,” Mielke said.

Mielke said traditional southern side dishes have a natural affinity for smoke.

“I like collard greens a lot,” he said. “We cook it for six hours to where it basically melts in your mouth. It has vinegar in it, which is one of those things that people seem to really like with barbecue.” Creamed corn is another natural with smoky barbecue, he said. “I make a creamed corn from scratch. That’s a very Texas thing, by the way. Nobody up here does it. I think that goes really well with smoked meats because it’s very balanced.”

Smoked, in a glass

And then there’s smoked beer.

Mike Neel is the owner of Candia Road Brewing Co. in Manchester. At any given time, his brewpub has at least one smoked beer on tap.

“Right now, we’ve got two,” he said. “We’ve got Grodziskie, which is a lighter, Polish-style wheat lager, and we have Brennenator, which is a darker Helles-style lager.”

While Neel and his staff make most of their beer on site, he said, they subcontract out the smoke.

“All of the smoked malt that we use was smoked at Blue Ox Malt House in Lisbon Falls, Maine. They have a small program, which has been growing. They’ve been working with distilleries to do smoked peat malt and other smoked malts to do smoked whiskeys. Grodziski is an oak-smoked wheat, where the Brennenator has a mix of alderwood and maple smoke,” Neel said.

Neel said that while a taste for smokiness can vary widely, he generally looks at smoke as an accent flavor. About a fifth of the malt he uses to brew his smoked beers is actually smoked. “Quantities really do matter,” he said. “How much you put into the beer will determine your overall effect. So Grodziskie is 20 percent of smoked malt that went into that beer.”

Because it is a light lager, he explained, it has a crispness that lets the smoke stand out.

“Brennenator is also 20 percent,” he said. “However, that is a higher ABV [Alcohol By Volume] beer. It does have some other character malts, like crystal malts to make it a little bit sweeter. It’s a sweeter style, and the sweetness covers up the amount of smoke that comes to the front when you taste it. It’s funny, the percentage of smoke malt is exactly the same between both beers. So how much it comes through, I think, has a lot to do with the character grains that are going in as well. [Some other brewers] use more smoked malt, but 20 percent is already a little terrifying for us; we throw that to a consumer and hope that it’s not too much. But there are breweries out there like Schlenkerla, who has been making smoked rauchbier in Germany for hundreds and hundreds of years. Some of theirs are 100 percent smoked malt. A lot of people will tell you it is wildly too smoky. Others will tell you that it’s perfect.”

Neel said that while he, personally, would drink a smoked beer with anything, it goes especially well with seafood.

Smoked, on the rocks

While many spirits traditionally have smoky flavor profiles — peaty scotches and some traditional tequilas, for example — for the past few years adventurous bartenders have been deliberately adding smoke to cocktails. James Brownell is a bartender at Nashua speakeasy CodeX — though at work he goes by the name Rusty. According to him, there are some drinks that are enhanced by adding smoke.

“It just adds one characteristic to the cocktails that we make,” he said, “primarily, old-fashioneds, sometimes Negronis, Boulevardiers or Manhattans. We use applewood here; it’s mostly universal. But you don’t always just have to smoke wood. You can smoke herbs and spices as well — like thyme, sage, cinnamon for various other flavors, for the oils to connect to the glass.”

Rusty said the bartenders at CodeX have two main ways of adding smoke to their cocktails.

“We either smoke the glass itself by turning it upside-down over burning wood chips,” he said. “The oils from the wood cling to the glass. So as you pour the liquid into the glass, it combines over time as the drink warms.”

“Or,” Rusty continued, “we use a top smoker, which draws the smoke into the glass from the top of the glass instead of having it vertically flipped over.” He indicated a top-smoker, a wooden disk with a pipe-like bowl in its center.

“We light some wood chips here,” he said, pointing to the bowl, “and the smoke gets sucked down into the glass.” If the drink has been properly chilled, he explained, the air left at the top of the glass will be cold and less dense than the air in the bar, and that creates negative air pressure that will draw the smoke down. ”It adds a little less smoke,” he said, “but it adds a little bit more of a show. It provides the smoke on top of the cocktail so that the guest gets that full whiff of smoke and the flavor from the wood itself. Instead of infusing the bottom smoke, the top smoke only does the top of the cocktail — not throughout the glass.”

Rusty said there are many different ways to smoke cocktails. “Another method a lot of bars use,” he said, “is they smoke the ice cubes as well, which works really well with a top-smoker, so that the smoke infuses into the cube. So what I like to do is smoke the cube and the glass. And then once the cocktail is chilled, pour it into there so that you get the smoke with the cube and the glass. And then you still get the show as well. So when you’re pouring the cocktail into here, you can see all the smoke come out of the glass.”

Smoked cheese

I don’t know how cheese-focused you are, but you’ve probably noticed that at any event where a cheese platter has been put out, the smoked Gouda always disappears first. (Followed by the pepper jack, but the smoked Gouda gets snagged first. Often by me.)

Fox Country Smoke House in Canterbury has a reputation for outstanding smoked cheeses. Owner Bill Annis said Fox Country produces 13 different smoked cheeses.

“The extra-sharp cheddar is our No. 1 seller,” he said. “And then my personal favorite is the horseradish cheddar. But we also do a pepper jack, we do a ghost pepper, and another popular one is Gouda. Then we do the specialties — Swiss, mozzarella, and provolone. We even do string cheese.”

Annis said he smokes about 600 pounds of cheese each week, but that can vary depending on the type of cheese and the time of year.

“Your mozzarella and your other soft cheeses are the hardest ones to do in the summer months. When you get a hot, humid day and night, that’s a challenge. During the winter months or cold weather, we try to do all the smoking at night, and the cheese is in [the smoker] for about 18 hours — a nice slow smoking. That runs at least once a week, and then when we get into the holidays, three times a week,” he said.

The smokehouse has been in business since 1969, Annis said. “We still use the original smokehouse, in that one room. We use hickory to smoke everything. It’s in sawdust form. It’s basically a chainsaw. It’s a very, very fine grind. The machine that we use now works on a line like a pellet stove. It has an auger, it drops the sawdust onto a hot plate and that creates the smoke for us.”

Annis said that because the cheese is a handmade product, some of it will be exposed to more smoke than other cheese in the same batch. “Any cheese that’s over that pipe gets much darker than the stuff on the other side of the room, which is much lighter. I prefer a milder smoking, but I do have customers who want the darkest possible.”

All about the wood

Smoke enthusiasts — competitive barbecuers, for instance — have strong opinions about which woods should be used to smoke particular foods. Jay Beland is a pitmaster at Lemay & Sons in Goffstown, a custom slaughter house and specialty butcher shop. According to him, successful smoking comes down to paying attention to details.

“If you’re smoking cheese,” he advised, “you have to watch the temperature [in your smoker] to make sure it doesn’t go over 100 degrees — otherwise it will start to melt. And then you need to use a milder wood, like apple, hickory or cherry. Stay away from the mesquites — mesquites will be too strong for cheese. It’ll give it a burnt flavor. You want a subtle smoke flavor and those will give you a subtle smoke flavor. I stick with apple wood for the most part. I like hickory — the most universal wood to use, and it works with most foods. I will mix in cherry sometimes, but if I’m having people over who don’t really like a strong smoke flavor, then I’ll use apple, because apple can be more subtle.”

If this all seems complicated and specialized, Beland said to think about the flavors of iconic smoked foods.

“Most bacon that you get is smoked in hickory,” he said. “It’s the most-known smoke flavor So a lot of times, you know when I have my smoker going, my neighbors say, ‘Wow, it smells like bacon!’ Or if I get it on my sweatshirt and I go somewhere, because I smell like smoke, they’ll say, ‘Do you smell like bacon?’ And I have to admit that I do.”

“Pork is a great thing to smoke for the summertime,” Beland said. “With pork, I would always go with hickory because if you think about hickory you think of bacon and bacon’s pork. You put hickory on a pork butt, you put hickory on ribs, that gives it that smoke that tastes like bacon. It’s a familiar smoke with people and it complements the pork.”

Beland said that more aggressive woods have a place in smoking.

“I like to use mesquite on beef cuts,” he said, “but I will use it sparingly. I like to get wood chunks and mix it with a lump charcoal. When I’m grilling at home, I use a Big Green Egg, and I will only put like one large chunk in the whole bundle because a little bit of mesquite goes a long way. You don’t want to overpower with mesquite because then it’s boom, it hits you hard, and it’s not tasteful.”

For seafood — especially mild fish and shellfish — Beland recommends using the same woods you might use for smoking cheese.

“I like to use hickory or cherry,” he said. “I’ve done tuna, I’ve done salmon, I’ve done haddock, swordfish, I’ve done scallops. And crab cakes; crab cakes are delicious on the smoker. I’d recommend that heavily. You get a nice crab cake, it’s delicious.”

Beland said another good rule with smoking is that the denser a food is, the longer it needs to be smoked. He loves to smoke cheese crackers — not surprisingly, with hickory — and he generally smokes them like cheese, at a cool temperature, for 45 minutes or so.

“Cheese puffs are too light to take much smoke, though,” he advised. “They aren’t dense at all. I smoke them for 15 minutes, maximum, but they are really, really good.”

The smoke panel
Smokehaus Barbecue 278 Route 101, Amherst, 249-5734, smokehausbbq.com
Candia Road Brewing Co. 840 Candia Road, Manchester, 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com
CodeX 29 Main St., Nashua, facebook.com/CodeXBARNH
Fox Country Smoke House 164 Briar Bush Road, Canterbury, 783-4405, foxnh.com
Lemay & Sons 116 Daniel Plummer Road, Goffstown, 622-0022, lemayandsonsbeef-bbq.com

Smoke your own

What if you want to smoke something at home? Primitive humans were smoking meat hundreds of thousands of years ago. It’s got to be pretty straightforward, right?

It turns out, if you want a dedicated smoking rig, the type designed for professional barbecuers, you’ll probably spend over $1,000 for a not-great one. The top pros have custom-built rigs that can run upwards of $30,000.

Is there a way to dip your toe into food smoking cheaply enough to try it out and see if you even like it? Spoiler alert: There is and you probably will.

In 2007, Alton Brown dedicated an episode of his Food Network show Good Eats to this problem. For cold smoking — smoking food at a low temperature without actually cooking it — he suggested using a large cardboard box. It should be a couple of feet on each side, he said. He opened each side of the box, then punched several holes near the top and inserted a couple of long wooden dowels through the box, making a resting place for one or more of the cooling racks you might use after baking a cake. (You could also use the grate from your charcoal grill.) The general idea is to suspend a food — Brown smoked a salmon; you might want to start with cheese — above a heating element. He bought a $10 single-burner hot plate from the and placed it in the bottom of the box with a pan of sawdust on it. The concept was pretty straightforward. Use the hot plate to smolder the sawdust, which will make smoke that will rise up and smoke your food. Keep the flaps of the box shut, but open them from time to time to check on whatever you’re smoking.

Here is the FladdSmokeShow Home Smoker (patent pending). It is essentially a big metal box to hold in smoke. A hot plate with wood chips smolders below, filling the top chamber with smoke. Two cooling racks hold slabs of cheese, suspended on bricks to give additional distance from the heat, to minimize melting. Your home grill is also a big metal box. You could place a hot plate at the bottom of your grill, and use the grate you already have to hold whatever food you might want to smoke. Be advised that your home grill is a much smaller metal box and will probably heat up very quickly — that’s what it’s designed to do. You will have to experiment with time, temperature and flipping to find out what works best for you. This will involve several experimental batches of smoked food, which I’m sure will be an enormous sacrifice to eat as you dial in your smoking details. Photo by John Fladd.

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

A well-meaning relative who doesn’t cook bought my wife and me an extremely affordable wood-fired pizza oven a couple of years ago. As it turns out, it is made of thin steel and doesn’t retain heat very well. Pizzas require a very hot temperature — upwards of 700 degrees — and this thing couldn’t make toast. And I got really frustrated trying to keep the fire lit and the smoke kept blowing in my face every time I opened the door, and — hey, maybe —.

So we’ve started using the “pizza oven” as a smoker. We use that same one-burner hot plate in the firebox, and suspend baking racks on top of bricks in the oven compartment to give them some distance from the heat source. We place slabs of cheese between two baking racks and suspend them in the smoke. A quick internet search reveals that the cheapest hot plates are still between $10 and $15. Wood chips for grills are available online or in any hardware or department store.

The key, we’ve found, is to flip the racks every 10 to 15 minutes, ideally when the weather is cool, in order to keep the cheese from melting through the holes in the cooling racks and forming cheese stalactites. Every smoking rig — especially a homemade one like this — will be different, and probably require different smoking times. There’s also the matter of your taste in smokiness. For us, 45 minutes to an hour is about right. We’ve smoked several different types of cheese at this point, but the winners seem to be muenster and pepper jack. We just buy the big bricks of cheese at the supermarket and cut them into slabs.

Featured photo: Smoked cocktail at CodeX. Courtesy photo.

Day in the Garden

Get inspired at public gardens and garden tours

For gardening nerds and the occasional gardener alike, a trip to a top-notch “professional” garden is more fun than a week at Disney. Seeing what is really possible if you have enough experience and put in the hard work can be truly inspirational.

A really good resource for this is the reference book The Garden Tourist’s New England: A Guide to 140 Outstanding Gardens and Nurseries by Jana Milbocker, who views these visits as a good way to see gardening from somebody else’s perspective. She recommends paying close attention to the combination of plants that a master gardener has put together.

“People really give a lot of thought to how they use the forms of the garden design,” Milbocker said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s really helpful for me to go through a garden in that direction, to experience it the way that the garden owner wants you to experience it.” Thinking about the question “Why is this here?” can help reframe a home gardener’s outlook, she said.

But then, she advised, take a second look.

“You’re going to see things that you missed the first time. It’s possible also, for instance, a garden conservancy will have a garden open in the early summer and that same garden open later in the season, like late summer or early fall. It’s great to see any garden in different months because it can be vastly different. Different plants have beautiful colorful foliage in the fall. So to see a garden [over time] is really a great experience.”

A good way to find gardens to be inspired by is to take part in a sponsored garden tour.

Amy Murray is the Open Days Program Manager for the Garden Conservancy (gardenconservancy.org), an organization dedicated to garden preservation.

“We assist public gardens that are either damaged or are in need of preservation services,” Murray said. “We also give small grants to a variety of horticultural organizations that are bringing gardening to people and making significant impacts within their communities.” Murray’s particular job is working with gardens, public and private, in a given area, to help them participate in “Open Garden Days” — one or more days per season when the public can visit them.

“Unless you have a very explicit program or invitation through something like the Open Days program, there’s really not a ton of opportunities to see these spaces,” Murray said. “Open Days are absolutely wonderful because if you are interested in a garden and you want to see it, you have to go to that Open Day. There are no guarantees that a given garden will be open in a subsequent year or even ever again. We have a variety of gardens. Some love the practice of opening every single year. Some will take a few years off in between and then open once and then stay closed for several seasons. And then some will open once and never again. And so if you want to see it you have to see it on that day.”

Michael Gordon is in charge of working out the details for the Open Garden Days in New Hampshire. He said each garden in the program brings something different to each visitor.

“On one level, it’s just fun to have a nice day and you get to see pretty places. And then if you’re a more serious gardener like I am, you get ideas and see plants. It’s a good way if you live in the area to go to a garden and find out what they’re able to grow because you will be able to grow it too because it’s local to you. You can make a day of it and go from garden to garden. And people are generally really excited to share their garden,” Gordon said.

Another popular garden tour each year is put on by the Palace Theatre in Manchester. It is one of the Palace’s biggest fundraising events each year, said Box Office Manager Cherie Prior.

“The garden tour is a self-guided tour we’re running on June 20 this year,” she said. “In the morning, participants register at Demers Garden Center and they’re given a program, which lists the individual gardens. We have a combination of private and public gardens and [people on the tour] have the rest of the day to travel to the gardens and take their time at each one. Our host gardeners are there to talk about the garden and we have write-ups about each garden and its history and sort of the plants and the things that the host gardener wants to talk about.”

“We work with the Manchester Garden Club,” Prior said. “They help a lot about picking the gardens because they’re the ones out there looking at other people’s gardens and letting us know. We [the Palace Theatre] are invested in art in the community. And we consider gardens to be a part of that as well; a beautiful garden is just as valuable as a beautiful stage production. And we like to be able to promote beauty in any form within our community.”

Elinor Terrell of the Manchester Garden Club described the Palace Theatre Garden Tour as a way of giving area gardeners inspiration and a jumping-off point for their own garden projects.

“The Garden Tour is about showing the lovely hidden treasures of Manchester,” Terrell said. “We have little pocket gardens that are just tiny little things. We also have some of the nice big homes down on River Road. So it’s a wonderful way to show the treasures of the city and also to promote the love of gardening and inspiration. People will see them and go, ‘OK, I’ve got something like this. I could do this.’”

The Garden Club of Deerfield will host a garden tour in June called “Heritage in Bloom” that will showcase gardens and plants tied to Deerfield’s almost 300-year history.

“One of the stops,” said Robin McKinnon, the President of the Garden Club, “is a fourth-generation property. It comes from the 1830s. And there are plantings of lilacs that were taken from the Governor Wentworth mansion in Portsmouth. And those were the original lilacs that came to the New World. We have one farm that lies within the region historically inhabited by the Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Seneca and related groups of the Wabanaki Confederacy. And there’s a small family cemetery on site, including the grave of a young man who served and died in the Civil War. Another [stop on the tour] is a farm from 1742 that chooses plants for their beauty but also their sustainability and healing qualities — perennial herbs, fruits, trees, vegetables selected for their dependability and heirloom varieties long valued by earlier generations.”

There are a variety of garden tours throughout the growing season, but there are also public and private gardens throughout the state that welcome visitors but are not part of organized tours. Each appeals to a different type of gardener and embraces a different gardening philosophy.

For 17 years, Petals in the Pines in Canterbury has been a go-to choice for families to spend a day outdoors, hiking along trails and enjoying gardens. According to owner Donna Miller, if you haven’t ever visited, you probably should do so this summer.

“This year will be our last year of being open to the public full-time,” she said. “Four years ago, my husband Jim and I drew a line in the sand. We said, ‘Let’s do this for five more years.’ And this is Year Number 5.”

In addition to pollinator gardens and gardens where visitors can pick their own flowers, “we have 2 miles of outdoor trails,” Miller said. “We have two labyrinths that some people use to get in touch with their thoughts, almost like meditation. We have an outdoor classroom, and a Tale Trail, with laminated pages from four different nature books that parents can read to young children as they walk, and older children can read themselves. There’s something for everyone.”

For families who want to visit throughout the season, season passes are available.

The Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, 783-9511, shakers.org), on the other hand, probably not surprisingly, takes a more historical approach. The Shakers took growing plants very seriously, said Garrett Bethmann, the museum’s Manager of Communications and Engagement, and that is reflected in the gardens on the grounds today. “There are basically three main agricultural or garden spots that people can walk through and check out,” Bethmann said. “There are the granite beds, kind of that smaller plot of what people I think would traditionally see as gardens or botanical gardens. Then we have our farm fields, and those have a lasting imprint on the site. And then we have our orchards.”

“The orchard is filled with different versions of apple trees,” Bethmann said. “The Shakers used to grow apple trees in different locations throughout their close to 200 years of active living here. The orchards in the space, where they are now, first got placed there in about 1917, and a lot of those trees are from that time period.”

“The thing that I think has always been true about when people come and visit our spaces here,” Bethmann continued, “is that as best as we can, we try to use our gardens and our agricultural spaces as ways to showcase the Canterbury Shaker legacy and, as best we can, tie the things that we have going on now to elements and aspects of what they were doing in the past when the Shakers were here. So, for instance, over in our herb gardens where the granite beds are it’s a nice show of preservation in action. Typically we try to use the granite beds to kind of showcase some of the plants and herbs and perennials that were grown there in the past.”

Other gardens focus on plants that grow under very specific conditions.

The Evergreen Woodland Garden in Goffstown, for instance, features plants that thrive in the limited light found on the floor of a forest.

“It’s a one-acre woodland garden heavy on pines,” said Robert Gillmore, the garden’s creator. “There’s a total of around 400 rhododendrons. It’s probably one of the largest rhodi gardens in Northern New England. Of course, there are other ericaceous plants like mountain laurel and Lakota weed and so forth. It’s an extremely low-maintenance garden and it was designed that way. One of the problems, if you want to have a large garden, unless you’re rich with 20 gardeners on your payroll, it’s got to be low-maintenance. So with a woodland garden, one of the reasons it’s low-maintenance is that there’s no grass. There are no high-maintenance plantings, like trees and shrubs and ground covers. Another thing that makes it low-maintenance, of course, is that it’s in the shade. A woodland garden is a shade garden. And a shade garden is a slow ecosystem. Things happen slowly. Weeds happen slowly or not at all.”

“In gardening,” Gillmore said, “there is a quote by the poet Alexander Pope: ‘Consult the genius of a place,’ and by that he meant consult the special character of the site and use what’s on the site. The special character of Evergreen is a pine woods. The most expensive plants in a garden — the plants that are unavailable in any nursery at any price — were already there, planted, growing: the trees, free of charge. There are also some lovely large granite glacial erratics. It’s a wonderful topography,”

Another approach to gardening is aligned with the Palace Theatre’s philosophy of gardening as an art form. This is the perspective of Bedrock Gardens in Lee. John Forti is the Executive Director there.

“Bedrock Gardens opened to the public formally as a public garden nine years ago,” Forti said, “and we just reopened for the season a week or so ago. It’s a 37-acre old farm that has been here for centuries. The founders of the garden, Jill Nooney and Bob Munger, worked for over 30 years to create a really fascinating garden infused with art and rare botanicals that has become an oasis of art and horticulture. It’s become a public garden where people can take garden tours, art tours, special educational programs and events for all age levels that really help people connect to nature and art and find just a really unique, beautiful green space. Unlike a lot of public gardens, this is really designed to just take you on journeys so that it can be a serene step away from the world, but a place where you can really find some sanctuary and some peace. Gardeners or art enthusiasts are drawn into every corner, because there are dozens of outdoor rooms, one after the next, each with its own mood and emotion and color palette and seasonal specializations and rare plants that just tell stories and pull you away from your daily life into experiences all throughout that 30 plus acres. [The art] is largely sculptural art that really is found in every nook and cranny.”

At NH Audubon’s McLane Center in Concord, the focus is immersing visitors into native species. The Center’s Diane DeLuca said that an aim has been to restore an entire ecosystem. “Four years ago or so,” she said, “we restored an old field area that was full of invasives to an acre of pollinator meadow. It hasn’t been possible to clear out all the invasives, as you might imagine, but now there is at least an acre of native pollinator plants out there. We also have native plant pollinator gardens that go all the way around the building. And also up on the hill there’s some space that we call our butterfly garden, which is meant to be more attractive to some of the species of butterflies that move through here — monarch butterflies specifically — and the pollinators that use areas late in the fall, including migrating butterflies.”

“Our gardens here,” DeLuca said, “are meant to be as diverse as possible in order to attract all kinds of wildlife. They have a lot of different structural diversity, meaning we have some attractive trees for pollinators, which would include our birds, some of which are actually nesting in and around the garden. It’s definitely an area that’s attractive for hummingbirds, because there are a lot of plants that are in here that specifically hummingbirds enjoy and will be pollinators of those particular plants as well. The structural diversity in the garden allows for different wildlife species.”

A decision was made early on when planning the Audubon’s gardens, DeLuca said, to fill it with plant species that would peak throughout the entire growing season.

“We have blooms that start in the early part of the spring … and are available for pollinators to come out early, like queen bumblebees and some of the other bees which tend to emerge pretty early in the season and need plants that they can both nectar on and get pollen from. We think about blooms across the season, into mid-summer, and then as late as possible into the fall. We also think about diversity of the flower structures for those plants, because some of the pollinators need plants where they don’t have to get their tongues deep into the plants, because they don’t have that ability. Some of them can reach far in. So you want plants that are tubular, that hummingbirds might be attracted to. You want plants that are flat-topped, that are much easier for some of the bees and butterflies to get into. We want a diversity of structure. so that we can attract many different forms of wildlife into the garden.”

Public gardens

Here are some area public gardens.

Bedrock Gardens (19 High Road, Lee, 659-2993, bedrockgardens.org) A nonprofit public garden that integrates unusual botanical specimens, unique sculptures, and interesting landscape design and features into an inspiring journey. This 30-acre site has recently transitioned from a historic farm and private garden to a self-described “public oasis of horticulture, art, and inspiration.” Adults $15. Children 12 and under free.
Brigit’s Garden in Livingston Park (156 Hooksett Road, Manchester) A public garden within Livingston Park, created by the Brigit A. Feeney Foundation for Hope and Healing, in memory of Brigit A. Feeney, a victim and witness advocate with the NH Department of Justice, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2021.
Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road, Canterbury, 783-9511, shakers.org)Canterbury Shaker Village describes its mission as “preserving and sharing the legacy of the Canterbury Shakers, promoting learning, connection, and rejuvenation for people from down the street and around the world.” There are three main gardens on site: an herb and culinary garden, apple orchards, and farm fields. Throughout the summer the Village will be open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nature trails are free to explore daily from dawn to dusk. Adult admission is $25.
Kimball Jenkins Estate (266 N. Main St., Concord, 225-3932, kimballjenkins.com) A historic mansion in Concord, now the site of the Kimball Jenkins Art School. The campus grounds have gardens that are currently under renovation.
Maple Hill Gardens at the Beaver Brook Association (117 Ridge Road, Hollis, 465-7787, beaverbrook.org/visit-us/maple-hill-gardens) “There are 13 themed gardens, a natural play area, a demonstration compost court, picnic areas and even a wildflower trail to explore,” according to the website.
New Hampshire Audubon Society NH Audubon has two visitor centers in the region with gardens: The Susan N. McLane Audubon Center (84 Silk Farm Road, Concord, 224-9909, nhaudubon.org/center-and-events/mclane-center-concord) is open Wednesdays-Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with trails and pollinator gardens open from dawn to dusk daily; Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way, Auburn, nhaudubon.org/center-and-events/massabesic-center-auburn) is open Wednesdays-Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with trails and pollinator gardens open from dawn to dusk daily.
Petals in the Pines (126 Baptist Road, Canterbury, 783-0220, petalsinthepines.com) A family-friendly farm with hiking trails, pollinator gardens, PYO flower bouquets and a farm stand. The summer of 2026 will be its final year open to the public. Open Wednesday through Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday. Season passes are available for $25.
Pickety Place (248 Nutting Hill Road, Mason, 878-1151, pickityplace.com) An 18th-century Cape surrounded by vast, well-established garden beds, mainly perennials and herbs. The herbs are served in the restaurant’s five-course lunches.

Garden tours

Here are some upcoming garden tours. Know of any tours not mentioned here? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

37th Annual Pocket Gardens of Portsmouth Tour
What: The tour features 10 private gardens in the historic South End neighborhood of Portsmouth, the Goodwin Garden at Strawbery Banke Museum, and the garden at South Church. When: Friday, June 19, Saturday, June 20. Admission: Early bird tickets $25 (until June 13), general admission tickets $30 (June 14, until day of tour). More info: Visit portsmouthnhtickets.com/e/37th-pocket-gardens-of-portsmouth
7th Annual Palace Theatres Garden Tour
What: A self-guided, self-paced tour of both private and public gardens throughout Manchester. When: Saturday, June 20. Admission: Tickets are $20. Registration is from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Demers Garden Center in Manchester. More info: Visit palacetheatre.org/events/2026-garden-tour.
4th Annual Lilac City Garden Tour
What: Organized by Lilac City Gardeners (formerly Rochester NH Garden Club). Local gardeners will showcase their gardens, share knowledge, and inspire others in the community. When: Saturday, June 20. More info: Visit Lilac City Gardeners’ Facebook page.
Heritage in Bloom
What: A tour of six historic gardens in Deerfield. When: Saturday, June 27. Admission: senior/student $8, general admission $10, carload $30. More info: Visit givebutter.com/heritage-in-bloom
Jaffrey Artist and Garden Tour
What: Features local private gardens, each hosting a local artist at work. You’ll have the chance to see artists create in real time — painting, sketching, and capturing the beauty of each setting. When: Saturday, July 11. Admission: $15. More info: Visit jaffreyciviccenter.com/event/event-artist-garden-tour.
Hospice Home and Garden Tour
What: A tour of four residential properties on or near Lake Winnipesaukee, benefiting Granite VNA. When: Wednesday, July 15. Admission: $55
Visit granitevna.org/ways-to-give/hospice-home-garden-tour.
Garden Conservancy’s Open Garden Day
What: A self-guided tour of some of the area’s best public and private gardens in Manchester, Nashua, Milford, Pelham, Hollis, Hudson and Hooksett. When: July 18. Admission: $10, by pre-registration only. More info: Visit gardenconservancy.org/open-days/ticket-release-dates
The Second Annual Five Senses Tour at Tiffany Gardens
What: Use your five senses while exploring the private gardens hidden in a quiet Londonderry neighbor. Enjoy food, drink, music, art and nature. When: Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26. Admission: $20. More info: visit comcaregivers.org/garden-tour.

Summer Guide 2026

It’s summer!

Or, it’s “summer” — the state of mind we enter sometime around Memorial Day weekend, when we dig out the flip-flops and shove the snow boots to the back of the closet. In this guide we present summer season happenings from now through Labor Day, when the vibes turn autumnal. With information gleaned from the events’ websites and social media pages, here are some of the happenings to put on your schedule over the next few months. Did we miss one of your favorite events? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Books
Find book sales, author events and other bookworm fun in the Book listings, which run weekly in our Pop section. Have a literary event this summer? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Fairs & Festivals

• Nashua will celebrate Renaissance on the Riverwalk Friday, May 22, through Monday, May 25 — “The grand reopening of the newly renovated Le Parc de Notre Renaissance [on Water Street in Nashua] will be the location for four days of music, food, events and fun for the whole family,” according to a post on the Enjoy Nashua Facebook page. “A full schedule of Memorial Day weekend activities will include food trucks, lots of live music performances, free arts and crafts activities aimed at all ages, local vendors, lawn games, and more. We’re planning a downtown Seek n Find that will have you looking for fun little prizes, and some objects that score you even bigger prizes! We’ll also have coffee/breakfast food trucks ready before the annual Monday parade down Main Street, so you and your family can power up before supporting our marching veterans!”

• The New Hampshire Arms Collectors will hold a gun show on Saturday, May 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Everett Arena in Concord, according to nharmscollectors.org.

• The Downtown Nashua Association will hold the Rubber Duck Regatta on Saturday, May 23, with a duck launch at 3 p.m. at the Nashua River Walk, according to downtownnashua.org, where you can purchase the ducks to compete. “[A]ll 5,000 ducks will be launched into the Merrimack River from the footbridge between the Clocktower Apartments and the Cotton Mill Apartments. The first three ducks to cross the finish line will win cash prizes,” the website said. See page 23 for more.

• The Memorial Weekend Craft Fair at Mill Falls Marketplace in Meredith from Saturday, May 23, through Monday, May 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (until 4 p.m. on Monday) featuring more than 70 juried artists, according to castleberryfairs.com/memorial-day-weekend-craft-festival, where you can see a list of exhibitors.

• Third annual Granite State Tap Festival Show will take place Sunday, May 24, at 4 p.m. at the Dana Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. The show is preceded (on Saturday, May 23) by a day of classes. See tickets.anselm.edu for details about the classes and to register and to purchase show tickets.

• History Alive at Kemp Park in Hillsborough will feature events about Abenaki culture and the Contoocook River on Friday, May 29, from noon to 3 p.m., and Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to historyalivenh.org. The theme is “The River That Runs Thru” and the Saturday keynote speaker is archeologist Robert Goodby, who will discuss “Paddling Thru Time: The Long History of Canoes in New Hampshire,” the website said. Each day will begin and end with Abenaki drumming and singing, and the event will also feature Abenaki basket and pottery making, traditional foods, stories about the mills, a tour of the railroad corridor, a display of trucks, a presentation about the river, and a tapestry depicting the history of New Hampshire, as well as a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream truck, the website said.

• Less Leg More Heart will hold the 3rd annual Fire Truck Pull & Festival on Sunday, May 31, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Arms Park in Manchester featuring the fire truck pull competition, a car show, food and beverage vendors, a vendor village, a kids zone and raffles, according to lesslegmoreheart.com/events, where you can find details about participating in the pull or car show.

• Truckfest, an event featuring big vehicles that kids can explore, will take place Sunday, May 31, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative High School and Middle School, according to an email from the event’s organizer. The event is free to attend and will feature a “lemonade and cookie stand to raise money for Relay for Life, a program run by the American Cancer Society,” the email said.

• The Nashua Historical Society will host two performances of Declaring Independence: Then and Now on Thursday, June 4, at 5 and 7 p.m. at the Florence H. Speare Memorial Museum, 5 Abbot St. in Nashua, according to a press release. “Presented by actors in period dress, the performance combines historical storytelling with an annotated reading of the Declaration itself, inviting audiences to consider both the courage of 1776 and the enduring relevance of the nation’s founding ideals today,” the release said. The event is free but registration is required; see the society’s Facebook page for links to register for one of the performance times.

• First Friday Concord continues with live music and other special programming June 5 and Aug. 7 from 4 to 8 p.m. as well as first Fridays through November. On Friday, June 5, the theme is Concord Pride with free face painting from 4 to 7 p.m. on City Plaza and live music by Ashborne (City Plaza, 4 to 8 p.m.), Kyle Erickson (4 to 5:45 p.m., Bicentennial Square) and Trade (6:15 to 8 p.m., Bicentennial Square), according to firstfridayconcord.com. Food trucks scheduled to attend June 5 include Nothing Bundt Cakes, Nice Ice Baby, DeadProof and Stacy’s Grill, the website said.

• The Rotary Club of Goffstown will hold its 13th Annual Car Show on Saturday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Parsons Drive in Goffstown, according to an email from the club. “Entering a show car costs $20, spectators enter for free. Proceeds from the event are given as grants to area charities,” the email said. See goffstownrotary.org.

• Goffstown’s Old Home Day will take place Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with local vendors, food, live music and entertainment and kids’ activities and games, according to goffstownmainstreet.org/old-home-day. The festivities also include an outdoor movie at 7 p.m. and LED fireworks in the Town Common on Friday, June 5, the website said.

• The 14th annual New Hampshire Maker Fest will be held in and around the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to a press release. See demonstrations in a variety of subjects from engineers, scientists, bakers, tinkerers, hobbyists and artisans, the release said. See childrens-museum.org/programs/nh-maker-fest.

• The Concord Pride 5K Run/Walk 2026 will take place Sunday, June 7, 9 a.m. to noon at the State House with the start/finish line on Capitol Street, according to posts on the the Equality Health Center Facebook page, where you can find links to sign up.

• The Northern New England Book Fair will take place Sunday, June 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Everett Arena in Concord along with a show from New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association in the same location, according to apassion4books.com. Admission costs $5 and the event will feature more than 90 dealers, the website said.

• The Milford Pride Fest 2026 will take place Sunday, June 7, from noon to 4 p.m. at the stage at Keyes Park in Milford featuring music, drag performers, food trucks, vendors and more, according to the event’s Facebook page.

• The Seacoast LitFest will take place Thursday, June 11, through Sunday, June 14, at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, according to a press release. Events include multiple author talks including with Jenna Bush Hager (June 11), Temple Grandin (June 12) and Jill Lepore (June 14); a book fair and kid book giveaway on June 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; panels; book signings and more, the release said. See themusichall.org for a complete schedule and to purchase tickets to some of the events.

• The Make It Fest!, a “gathering of makers, doers, DIYers, crafters, tinkerers, self-proclaimed engineers and aspiring mad-scientists!” according to makeitfest.com, will take place Saturday, June 13, from noon to 4 p.m. at Make It Labs, 25 Crown St. in Nashua, the website said. The event will feature demonstrations, exhibits, workshops, a sumo robot competition, vendor sales and more, according to the website, where you can register to attend.

• Laconia Motorcycle Week is slated for Saturday, June 13, through Sunday, June 21, according to laconiamcweek.com, where you can find a schedule of rides and other events.

• The 26th Annual Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Classic runs Thursday, June 18, through Saturday, June 20, with the illuminated sculptures on display through June 28, according to hamptonbeach.org/events/sand-sculpture-event. A group carve takes place Wednesday, June 17, according to the website, where you can find a schedule of events and a look at this year’s contributors.

• The Black Heritage Trail New Hampshire will hold events commemorating Juneteenth. On Friday, June 19, at 9 a.m. there will be aJuneteenth Freedom Walk in Portsmouth followed by African drumming at the African burial grounds in Portsmouth at 11 a.m.; visit blackheritagetrailnh.org. On Sunday, June 21, at 10 a.m. there will be a living history event, “Meet New Hampshire’s 5 to Know,” featuring interpreters of Wentworth Cheswell (a Revolutionary War veteran and the first Black person elected to public office in the U.S.); performer Richard Potter; author Harriet Wilson; Prince Whipple (Revolutionary War veteran and one of the signers of the 1779 Petition for Freedom) and Ona Marie Judge, the website said. On Saturday, June 27, there will be a statewide reading of Frederick Douglass’ “What to a Slave Is Your Fourth of July.” On Sunday, June 28, starting at 10 a.m. in Portsmouth there will be aguided bus tour of New Hampshire’s Black Revolutionary War history, according to the website, where you can register for all of these events.

• Black Womxn in New Hampshire Collective will hold its Juneteenth New England celebration on Saturday, June 20, starting at 1 p.m. at Crossway Christian Church in Nashua featuring music, dancing, storytelling, food, history, community connection and more, according to a post at the group’s Facebook page facebook.com/bwinhinc. See also bwinhsc.com.

• The Concord Historical Society will host “Liberty and Legacy: Civic Saturday Social” on Saturday, June 20, from 1 to 6 p.m. at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, “in conjunction with Kimball Jenkins, the Pierce Manse and Concordia Lutheran Church. The event will kick off the city’s semiquincentennial celebrations. This celebration is free to the public and will be held on North Main Street amidst several iconic historic buildings,” according to kimballjenkins.com. Later that evening in a separate event starting at 6:30 p.m., Kimball Jenkins will host improv troupe Stranger than Fiction with America, Signing Off!, “inspired by America 250, where some of the lesser-known Founding Fathers gather to debate one audience-suggested line for the soon-to-be-written Declaration of Independence,” according to the website, where you can purchase tickets.

• Nashua Pride Festival & Parade will run Saturday, June 20, from 2 to 7 p.m. at Holman Stadium in Nashua, according to downtownnashua.org. The day will include live performances, food trucks, local vendors, community organizations and activities for all ages, according to the website.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire will hold its annual Father’s Day Weekend Fly-In BBQ at Boire Field in Nashua on Saturday, June 20, according to aviationmuseumofnh.org, where you can check back for details.

• The Wilton NH Main Street Association’s SummerFest will be held Saturday, June 20, according to facebook.com/wiltonmainstreetnh. “Main Street will be closed to traffic and full of vendors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. We have live music on two stages during that entire time. The Lions will also have their annual Duck Drop fundraiser in the afternoon,” according to an email from organizers. “Activities move up to Carnival Hill in the evening from 6 to 10 p.m. That will include music provided by a DJ, kids’ games, a pie-eating contest and an amazing fireworks display by JPI Pyrotechnics, enhanced this year for the 250th birthday of America,” the email said.

• Concord’s Market Days Festival will run Thursday, June 25, through Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, according to marketdaysfestival.com. Each day features music and performances on three stages, food trucks and food vendors, vendors selling other goods and more, the website said.

• The Town of Windham will hold a Revolutionary Living History and Encampment with the First New Hampshire Regiment at Crossing Life Church, 122 N. Lowell Road in Windham, on Saturday, June 27, to celebrate America’s 250th, according to a post on the town’s Facebook page. The day featuring a camp and farmers market will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a contra dance and fireworks from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the post said. The event will have live reenactments, cannon and musket firing demonstrations, 18th century cooking, colonial music and clothes, animals and soldier’s drill as well as food truck, the post said.

• The Manchester Pride Festival & Parade will take place Saturday, June 27, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Manchester, according to manchestertrue.org. The parade will kick off the day, followed by live performances, food, local vendors and community organizations and more, according to a post on the Manchester True Collaborative Facebook page. See the Manchester True Collaborate website for details on other Pride events happening throughout June including the Pride Youth Hop on June 23 and the official Pride afterparty on June 27.

• The Liberty Weekend Craft Festival takes place in the Town Common in Hampton Falls on Saturday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, July 5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring juried artisans and specialty foods, according to castleberryfairs.com/liberty-weekend-craft-festival, where you can find a list of exhibitors.

• The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum, 18 Highlawn Road in Warner, will hold its 25th annual Pow Wow on Saturday, July 11, and Sunday, July 12, according to indianmuseum.org, where you can purchase tickets. “Experience the vibrant colors of regalia, powerful dances, heartwarming music, and over 20 traders with handmade crafts,” the website said about the event.

• Merrimack Paddle Battle 2026 will take place Sunday, July 18, starting at 10:30 a.m. in Wasserman Park in Merrimack hosted by Merrimack Parks & Recreation and the Merrimack Run Club, according to merrimackparksandrec.org. The day features a community water race in a one-mile loop around Blueberry Island, according to the website.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road in Londonderry, will hold its annual Classic Car Show on Saturday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a press release. “Admission to the grounds for spectators is $10 per adult; children 12 and under free. Admission is cash only,” the release said. The day will also feature food trucks, and admission to the museum is included with admission to the car show, during the show, the release said. See aviationmuseumofnh.org.

• The Second Congregational Church, 25 Gregg St. in Wilton, will hold its annual Summer Fair on Saturday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring crafts, food, music, kids activities, plant sales, book sales, a food auction at 1 p.m. and more, according to an email from the church. See 2ccwilton.org.

• Organized by the Merrimack Valley Military Vehicle Collectors Club, the Weare Rally will run Thursday, July 23, through Saturday, July 25, at Center Woods School (14 Center Road, Weare). The rally features military vehicle displays, scenic rides, demonstrations, food and more, according mvmvc.org.

• The Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo runs Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St., Manchester). The event features tattoo artists, contests, vendors, live music, food and performances, according to livefreeordietattoo.com, where you can find a schedule and purchase tickets.

• The Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire will hold its Local Author Book Fair on Saturday, July 25, from noon to 4 p.m., featuring more than 100 New England area authors, according manchestercraftmarket.com.

• The New Hampshire Film Festival Presents: NHFF Short Films — Best of the Fest part 1 at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St. in Manchester, on Thursday, July 30, at 7 p.m., according to an organizer email. “The lineup includes live action, documentary, and animation titles that were produced in New Hampshire, across the U.S., and across the world,” the email said. See palacetheatre.org for tickets.

• The Suncook Valley Rotary 44th Hot Air Ballroom Rotary will run Friday, July 31, through Sunday, Aug. 2, at Drake Field on Barnstead Road in Pittsfield, featuring daily night glow displays of the balloons and flights (weather permitting) as well as touch-a-truck, a 5K, a regatta and more, according to nhballoonrally.org.

• The Belknap County Fair will run Saturday, Aug. 1, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 174 Mile Hill Road in Belmont, according to bcfairnh.org.

• The New Hampshire Antiques Show, hosted by the New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association, returns to the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St., Manchester) Thursday, Aug. 6, through Saturday, Aug. 8, featuring 59 antiques dealers, according to nhada.org, where you can find details on tickets, parking and more.

• Hudson Old Home Days runs Thursday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 9, according to hudsonoldhomedays.com, where you can check for updates for this year’s events. Last year’s events and activities included carnival rides, food trucks and other vendors, live music, midway games, a craft fair and more, the website said.

• Dark Side Customs of Concord will present The Granite State Gitdown, a custom car and bike show, outside the Everett Arena in Concord on Saturday, Aug. 8, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the Everett Arena schedule. See dark-side-customs.com.

• The New Hampshire Boat Museum will host its annual Alton Bay Boat Show on Saturday, Aug. 9, from 9 a.m. to noon in the Alton Town Docks, according to a press release. See nhbm.org.

• Londonderry Old Home Day includes a day-long event Saturday, Aug. 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a parade as well as, at the Town of Londonderry Historical Society, colonial crafts, music, cannon and musket firing and more, according to londonderryhistory.org. See Facebook.com/TownofLondonderryOldHomeDay for more events and updates.

• History Alive 2026 in Hillsborough on Jones Road will feature historical reenactments of famous battles as well as daily village life (from Viking and medieval demonstrations to World War II) on Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16. See historyalivenh.org for a schedule.

• The Concord Model Railroad Show, sponsored by the Concord Model Railroad Club, will take place Sunday, Aug. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Everett Arena in Concord, according to a flyer from the club. Admission costs $2 for adults, free for kids under 15 with an adult, the flyer said. The day will feature more than 20 dealers, a food stand, raffles and more, the flyer said. See trainweb.org/cmrc.

• The Annual Hampton Beach Children’s Festival will run Monday, Aug. 17, through Friday, Aug. 21, with a lineup of performances and events each day leading up to a giant costume parade on Aug. 21, according to hamptonbeach.org/events/childrens-events.

• The Hampton Beach Comedy Festival runs Tuesday, Aug. 18, through Sunday, Aug. 23, with performances by at least five comedians each night at McGuirk’s Ocean View Hotel, according to hampton-beach-comedy-festival.weebly.com, where you can purchase tickets and see the scheduled lineups.

• Candia Old Home Day kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 22, at 11 a.m. with a parade, followed by a celebration featuring a dunk tank, food vendors, music and more, according to candiaoldhomeday.com.

• The 8th Annual Family Fun Day at Field of Dreams in Salem will take place Saturday, Aug. 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to fieldofdreamsnh.org.

• The Capital Mineral Club Show will take place Saturday, Aug. 29, and Sunday, Aug. 30, at the Everett Arena in Concord, according to capitalmineralclub.org, where you can find updates on the show.

• Cruisin’ Downtown, billed as New England’s largest classic car show, will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, on Elm Street in downtown Manchester, and feature vendors, music on two stages and more, according to cruisingdowntownnh.com.

Art galleries
Find art shows, openings and other gallery happenings each week in our Arts listings. Have a summer art exhibition or other event? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Arts events

• The Craftworkers’ Guild Spring Fair Craft Shop at Oliver Kendall House (3A Meetinghouse Road in Bedford, behind the Bedford Public Library) is open through Sunday, May 24, Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. See thecraftworkersguild.org.

• The 2026 Nashua International Sculpture Symposium continues at the Picker Artists building, 3 Pine St. in Nashua, with a closing ceremony and visit to the sculptures’ installation sites on Saturday, June 6, at 1 p.m. During the symposium you can watch the sculptors work at the Pine Street site. See NashuaSculptureSymposium.org.

• NH Alt Market will be held Saturday, May 23, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Newmarket Millspace, 55 Main St., Suite 132, in Newmarket, according to nhaltmarket.com.

• The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire will hold an unveiling of a mural of Ona Judge Staines at 222 Court St. in Portsmouth on Saturday, May 23, with events starting at 11 a.m., according to blackheritagetrailnh.org, where you can find a schedule of events. “Born enslaved to George and Martha Washington at Mt. Vernon around 1773, Staines … escaped [from the family’s Philadelphia residence at the age of 22 in 1796] with the help of members of Philadelphia’s free Black community, with whom she had built relationships during earlier visits. She hid on a boat destined for Portsmouth. … Staines spent the rest of her life as a free woman in New Hampshire, where she married and had three children,” according to the website.

• The Concord Arts Market will return to Rollins Park in Concord for another season of Arts in the Park dates starting Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and running one Saturday a month through October, according to concordartsmarket.org. The Concord Arts Market will also be at Concord’s Market Days Festival in the downtown.

• “Art in Bloom Celebration” will take place Friday, June 12, through Sunday, June 14, at the Center for the Arts Members Gallery, 428 Main St. in New London. Local garden clubs and florists will create floral interpretations inspired by selected works from “Emergence,” a spring juried members exhibition at the gallery, according to a press release. See cfanh.org.

• The 4th Annual Community Arts Festival at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough will be held Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a press release. “The festival will feature dozens of crafters, artists, and community organizations in the field of this iconic destination,” the release said. The event is free to attend and will feature food trucks and a scavenger hunt, the release said. See castleintheclouds.org/event/community-arts-festival.

• Bike Night at the Currier Presented by Manchester Harley-Davidson will take place Thursday, July 9, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St. in Manchester, in conjunction with the current exhibit “Danny Lyon: The Bikeriders,” in which 16 works by photographer Danny Lyon of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club are on display through Aug. 16 at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, according to currier.org. The event encourages people to “[b]ring your motorcycle to the Currier for a fun and free night out at the museum,” according to an email from the museum. See currier.org for details.

• Uncommon Art On the Common in the village of Goffstown takes place Saturday, Aug. 1, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to goffstownmainstreet.org/uncommonart, where you can check back for updates.

• The League of NH Craftsmen’s Annual Craftsmen’s Fair will take place Saturday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, according to nhcrafts.org/annual-craftsmens-fair.

• The 73rd Greeley Park Art Show will take place Saturday, Aug. 29, and Sunday, Aug. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Greeley Park in Nashua, 100 Concord St., according to a post on the Nashua Area Artists Association Facebook page.

Movies!
Find listings of specialty movie screenings and movie series this summer in the film listings, which appear in the Pop section most weeks, including on page 28 in this week’s issue.

Spectator sports

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester continue their run against the Hartford Yard Goats through Sunday, May 24, with games at 6:03 p.m. on May 21 and May 22 and 1:05 p.m. on May 23 and May 24. Catch after-show fireworks on Friday, May 22. Regular season games continue through Sunday, Sept. 13. See milb.com/new-hampshire for tickets.

• The Nashua Silver Knights, members of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, will host their home opener at Holman Stadium (67 Amherst St., Nashua) on Wednesday, May 27, against the Vermont Lake Monsters at 10:30 a.m. followed by a game Saturday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m. against the Lowell Spinners. The first post-game fireworks will take place at the game on Friday, June 5, at 6:03 p.m. against the Worcester Bravehearts. Their last home game of the regular season will be on Friday, Aug. 7, at 6:03 p.m. against the Norwich Sea Unicorns. See nashuasilverknights.com.

• NH Roller Derby continues its season with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 30, at 4 p.m. at JFK Coliseum, 303 Beech St. in Manchester, according to nhrollerderby.com. Up next, a doubleheader on Saturday, June 27, at 4 p.m. and the Granite Skate Invitational on Saturday, July 18, and Sunday, July 19, according to NH Roller Derby’s Facebook page, where you can find updates on their events.

• The 2026 New Hampshire Soap Box Derby Local Championship will be held on Sunday, May 31, at 120 Broadway in Dover — check-ins begin at 7:45 a.m., with competitions (between drivers ages 7 to 20) starting at 10 a.m. Spectators can cheer on the races for free. See nh.soapboxderby.org

• The Special Olympics New Hampshire State Summer Games take place Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13, at the University of New Hampshire (105 Main St., Durham). The games include competition in athletics, bocce, equestrian, powerlifting, unified sprint triathlons and swimming, according to sonh.org.

Day at the museum
Looking for a few hours of local history and culture? Check out “Granite State Curiosities,” our May 14 cover story on local museums. Find the issue in the digital library at hippopress.com. The story starts on page 8.

Nature events

• The NH Audubon and the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire are partnering on a Black Birders Week 2026 Tour on Saturday, May 30, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in Portsmouth, according to nhaudubon.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way in Auburn, nhaudubon.org) will hold Garden Tours on Tuesday, June 2, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 6, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.; RSVP on the website to attend.

• The summer Free Fishing Day in New Hampshire takes place on Saturday, June 6, when residents and nonresidents can “fish any inland water — or saltwater — in New Hampshire” without a fishing license, according to wildlife.nh.gov, which noted that season dates and other fishing regulations still apply.

• The NH Audubon’s McLane Center, 84 Silk Farm Road in Concord, will hold a Pollinator Fest & Native Plant Sale on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. featuring local artisans, pollinator groups, food trucks, live music and more, according to nhaudubon.org.

• The 37th Annual Pocket Gardens of Portsmouth Tour, a fundraiser for South Church, will take place Friday, June 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to southchurch-uu.org/what-we-offer/pocket-garden-tour. “This year’s tour returns to the historic South End neighborhood and features 10 private gardens and the Goodwin Garden at Strawbery Banke Museum. Along the route you will find musicians, artists, and refreshments,” the website said.

• The Palace Theatre’s Red, White and Bloom Garden Tour 2026 takes place Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a self-guided tour of public and private gardens throughout Manchester, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye celebrates World Oceans Day on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with “hands-on games, educational activities, naturalist-led tide pooling sessions, food trucks, and more,” according to seacoastsciencecenter.org, where you can purchase tickets for the event.

• Heritage in Bloom: A Garden Tour held by the Garden Club of Deerfield will take place Saturday, June 27, from 3 to 7 p.m. and feature “a self-guided tour through the gardens of historic homes and properties throughout Deerfield. Guests will have the opportunity to explore beautifully maintained landscapes rooted in the town’s rich agricultural and cultural history while enjoying the magic of a New England summer evening during the golden hour. More than a traditional garden tour, Heritage in Bloom offers a thoughtfully curated experience where music, art, and nature come together. Throughout the gardens, visitors will discover local musicians, artists, and special touches …,” according to a club press release. See givebutter.com/heritage-in-bloom for tickets.

• New Hampshire Audubon’s McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road in Concord) will hold Pollinator Garden Tours on Thursday, July 9, from 4 to 6 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. according to nhaudubon.org, where you can RSVP to attend.

• The Granite VNA Hospice Home & Garden Tour will take place Wednesday, July 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to granitevna.org/ways-to-give/hospice-home-garden-tour, where tickets will be on sale in late May. “This year’s tour features a wonderful mix of homes on or near the waterfront of Lake Winnipesaukee, from sprawling estates to charming cottages, open-air retreats to rustic getaways,” the website said.

• The Second Annual Five Sense Tour at Tiffany Gardens, a fundraiser for Community Caregivers of Greater Derry, will take place Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the private Tiffany Gardens, a one-acre residential garden with more than 20 garden beds, according to comcaregivers.org/garden-tour, where you can purchase tickets.

• New Hampshire Audubon’s McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road in Concord) will hold the Capital Area Butterfly Survey on Saturday, July 25, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to nhaudubon.org, where you can register to participate.

Concerts
Find ticketed shows this summer for rock, country, pop and more in our Concerts listing, which runs weekly in our Nite section. Look for classical, classical pops, folk and more in the Classical Music listings, which appear each week in our Arts section. Have a show schedule on the summer schedule? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Music festivals

• Synthfest 2026, an evening of live electronic music, will take place Saturday, May 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. in Rollins Park Gazebo in Concord, according to boseyjoe.com/synthfest. The lineup includes Bosey Joe, Green Leader and Hyponova, according to the website.

• The Granite State 2026 Blues Challenge will take place Sunday, May 31, at noon at the Brickhouse Restaurant and Brewery, 241 Union Square in Milford, according to granitestateblues.org.

• Halcyon Music Festival, which “brings world-class musicians and talented young professionals to live, work, and perform together … to create a community where chamber music will be explored and presented at the highest artistic level,” will offer six concerts Thursday, June 11, through Saturday, June 20, at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, according to halcyonmusicfestival.org, where you can purchase tickets including ticket packages for multiple concerts. Shows are “In the Americas” on June 11, featuring the music of Schubert, Beach, Villa-Lobos and Barber; “Otherworldy” on June 12, featuring the music of Mozart, Ives and Beethoven; “All’Ongarese” on June 13, featuring the music of Foote, Haydn, Schulhoff and Brahms; “Breath of Inspiration” on June 18, featuring the music of Williams, Brahms and Price; “Music of the Sea” on June 19, featuring the music of Fauré, Shostakovich and Herrmann, and “Pinnacles” on June 20, featuring the music of Mozart, Bernstein and Mendelssohn.

• Northlands Music and Arts Festival will take place Friday, June 19, through Sunday, June 21, at the Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey, according to northlandslive.com, where you can purchase passes to the festival for three days or one day and find information about camping and parking. You can also find the lineup of bands on each day on the website as well as information on food, craft and art vendors, health and wellness activities and kids’ activities.

• The New Hampshire Music Festival runs Tuesday, July 7, through Thursday, July 30, with four chamber music concerts and four orchestra concerts all at the Plymouth State University Silver Center for the Arts in Plymouth, according to nhmf.org, where you can purchase tickets to individual shows or the season. This summer’s theme is “A Musical Traverse,” described as “ a sweeping journey across cultures, centuries, and sound worlds. … [O]ur musicians will explore music that moves from intimate reflection to dazzling spectacle, tracing pathways between American voices and treasured international masterworks.
As we mark the United States of America’s 250th anniversary, this season proudly celebrates the richness and diversity of American artistry, placing it in vibrant conversation with music from around the globe,” the website says.

• The Kinfolk Music & Arts Festival, described as “A day where reggae drifts into roots, jam bands run into songwriters, and by the end of the day it somehow all makes perfect sense,” will take place Saturday, July 25, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Ragged Mountain Resort in Danbury, according to raggedmountainresort.com/event-overview, where you can purchase tickets. In addition to a lineup of musicians (which you can see on the website, with a headliner to be announced June 22), the day will feature 65 artisan booths, interactive activities and demos, family fun, food trucks, a beer garden and more, according to a press release about the event.

• The Granite State Blues Festival will take place Saturday, Aug. 1. Check back at granitestateblues.org for updates on this year.

• The Mountain Music & Arts Festival 2026 will take place Friday, Aug. 7, and Saturday, Aug. 8, at Melody Mountain Farm in Warren, according to a post on the farm’s Facebook page. See melodymountainfarm.com for tickets and information on camping. The festival will feature headliners Dead Ahead and The Rins as well as a lineup of other bands and artists, food and other local vendors, the post said.

• Continuum Arts Collective will present Revel in the Meadow 2026 at Dover Elks Field, 282 Durham Road in Dover, on Saturday, Aug. 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to continuumarts.org, where you can purchase tickets. The day will include two music stages, art activities for kids, more than 20 artisans and headlining acts “A Band of Brothers: An Allman Brothers Tribute, Seacoast Last Waltz Band, Ramble on Rose Band, Terrafunk, and Lightheaded Collective,” the website said.

• The NH Irish Festival takes place at the Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, on Saturday, Aug. 22, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and is slated to feature Screaming Orphans, The Spain Brothers, The Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki Trio and Rory Makem, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Keene Music Fest will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, according to facebook.com/KeeneMusicFestival, where you can find updates.

Comedy
Find spots to get laughs each week this summer in our Comedy This Week listing, which runs weekly in our Nite section. Have a comedy show on the summer schedule? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Outdoor theater

• The Powerhouse Theatre Collaborative will hold their Play Festival Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31, at Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center, 928 White Oaks Road in Laconia, according to powerhousenh.org.

• The Prescott Park Arts Festival’s outdoor production in Portsmouth this summer is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which will run June 19 through Aug. 9, with performances most Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m., with some matinee performances, according to prescottpark.org, where you can reserve blanket or table space.

• Theatre Kapow will present William Shakespeare’s As You Like It for this summer’s Shakespeare on the Green at Saint Anselm College in Manchester from Thursday, July 23, through Saturday, July 25, and Thursday, July 30, through Saturday, Aug. 1. See tickets.anselm.edu for updates.

• Nashua Theatre Guild will present William Shakespeare’s The Tempest Friday, July 31, through Saturday, Aug. 8, with shows Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m. in Greeley Park in Nashua, according to nashuatheatreguild.org.

• Advice to the Players will present Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet at Quimby Park in Sandwich at 5 p.m. on July 31, Aug. 1, Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 and at the Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough at 4:45 p.m. on Aug. 2 and Aug. 5-7, according to advicetotheplayers.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Prescott Park Arts Festival’s Camp Encore student performers will present Mean Girls Jr.Saturday, Aug. 1, and Sunday, Aug. 2, at 1 p.m. and Willy Wonka Kids on Saturday, Aug. 8, and Sunday, Aug. 9, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to prescottpark.org, where you can reserve blanket or table space.

Summer fun for kids
Looking for more fun to keep the kids busy this summer? Check out our Feb. 26 round-up of summer day camps; you can find that issue in the digital library at hippopress.com. And be sure to pick up our Kid’s Guide to Summer issue, slated to come out in early June. Have an event for the kids this summer? Send it to adiaz@hippopress.com.

Summer playhouse theater

• The New London Barn Playhouse, 84 Main St. in New London, will feature shows Friday, May 29 through Sunday, Sept. 6, with most productions running about two weeks, according to nlbarn.org/summer-season, where you can see the full schedule and purchase tickets. The season begins with Man of La Mancha in concert May 29-31, the New London Playhouse Straw Hat Revue on June 3-7 and Million Dollar Quartet June 10-21, the website said.

• The Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle in Meredith, has seven professional company shows on the schedule through the end of 2026 with five running this summer: Come From Away (June 11-27), The Complete History of America (July 3-11), The Odd Couple (July 17-25), Wait Until Dark (July 31-Aug. 8) and The 39 Steps (Aug. 14-23), according to winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Andy’s Summer Playhouse, 582 Isaac Frye Highway in Wilton, features productions and workshops for kid and teen performers, according to andyssummerplayhouse.org, where you can find the schedule of productions to which audiences can purchase tickets. First up is Welcome to the Hilltop, a night of plays by young artists on Saturday, June 27, at 7 p.m., followed by A Staged Reading Through the Greenhouse Initiative: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on Friday, July 3, at 7 p.m., the website said.

More theater
Find more theatrical productions this summer in our theater listings, which run each week in our Arts section. Have a show hitting the stage? Let us know at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Food events

• The Friends of the Library of Windham will hold the 41st annual Strawberry Festival & Book Fair on Saturday, May 30, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Windham High School, according to facebook.com/FlowWindham. In addition to strawberry shortcake, the day will feature other food vendors, entertainment, raffles, a children’s bike parade at 1 p.m. and more, according to the post and to flowwindham.org.

• Sip and Sun Brew Fest will take place Saturday, May 30, from noon to 4 p.m. at Mel’s Funway Park in Litchfield, featuring tastings from local breweries, live music from The Slakas, food trucks and more, according to melsfunwaypark.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Palace Theatre’s annual Kitchen Tour will take place Sunday, May 31, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring a self-guided tour of kitchens in southern New Hampshire, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets (a lunch is included).

• The Taste of Downtown Nashua is slated for Wednesday, June 3, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., according to downtownnashua.org/taste-of-downtown, where you can check back for updates and to purchase tickets.

• The NH Herbal Network will hold its annual Herb & Garden Day on Saturday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Society for the Protection of NH Forests in Concord, featuring workshops and a vendors market, according to nhherbalnetwork.org/herbday, where you can purchase tickets

• Hampstead Congregational Church, 61 Main St. in Hampstead, will hold a Strawberry Festival featuring crafters, raffles, a bake sale and strawberry shortcake on Saturday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to hampsteaducc.org.

• The Rhubarb Festival takes place in Sawyer Memorial Park, 148 Route 202 in Bennington, on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring “[c]raft fair, vendors, food trucks, children’s activities, petting zoo, story walk, music, plants, baked goods, jams, beverages and more,” according to townofbennington.com/rhubarb-festival.

• 97.5 WOKQ Chowder Festival Summer Kick Off will take place Saturday, June 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Prescott Park in Portsmouth featuring live music, lawn games and chowder, according to prescottpark.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• The NH Bacon & Beer Festival will take place Saturday, June 6, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in Arms Park in Manchester, according to nhbaconbeer.com, where you can purchase tickets. A fundraiser for High Hopes Foundation, the festival will feature live music from The Slakas, bacon creations from more than 20 restaurants, vendors selling additional food and samples from local brewers, the website said.

• Applecrest Farm Orchards, 133 Exeter Road in Hampton Falls, has a series of festivals throughout the summer and into the fall on select weekends, kicking it off with a Strawberry Festival on Saturdays, June 13 and June 20, and Sundays, June 14 and June 21, according to applecrest.com. Other festivals include a Blueberry Celebration July 12, a Blueberry Festival July 25-26, Blueberry & Peach Celebration Aug. 2, Peach Festival Aug. 15-16, Fall Harvest Kick-Off Aug. 29-30 and Labor Day weekend Sept. 5-7.

• Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 68 N. State St. in Concord, will have a meal to go featuring gyro, fries and a Greek salad for pick-up on Sunday, June 14, according to a post on the church’s Facebook page. Call 225-2961 or go to holytrinitynh.org for details on ordering.

• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Portsmouth (at 40 Andrew Jarvis Drive) will hold its annual Greek Festival Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. featuring food service, music, a kids’ corner, Greek dancing, church tours and more, according to stnicholasgreekfestival.com, where you can find the schedule of events.

• The New London Parks and Recreation Department will hold its ninth annual Strawberry Fest on Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the town green featuring strawberries and strawberry shortcake for sale (cash or check only), as well as other food and vendors and entertainment, according to newlondon.nh.gov/recreation and a post on the department’s Facebook page.

• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 1160 Bridge St. in Manchester, will hold its Lamb BBQ and Food Festival on Saturday, June 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a church email. Check back on the church’s socials or at stnicholasgreekchurch.com for updates.

• Susie Q’s Bakery in Deerfield will hold Cakefest 2026 at the Old Town Hall in Deerfield on Saturday, June 27, from 1 to 3 p.m., according to susieqscakery.com/cake-fest-2026. “Bring a cake, share a cake,” the website said. “[E]ach guest will get 7 minutes to wander on the cake walk to gather their slices of cakes.” See the website to purchase tickets and for additional details about participating in the event.

• Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm in Warner will hold a Lavender Garden Party on Saturday, June 27, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. featuring farm-to-table dishes and lavender cocktails and beverages, according to pumpkinblossomfarm.com, where you can purchase tickets to the event.

• The New Hampshire Beer Trail Festival takes place Saturday, June 27, noon to 4 p.m. at Tuckerman Brewery in Conway featuring more than 40 breweries with more than 100 craft beers as well as live music, food trucks, local vendors and makers, sales of the Beer Trail Guidebook and more, according to nhbrewers.org, where you can purchase tickets.

• Heritage Harvest Project will hold Farm-a-Cue, “a day of celebration, education, and delicious local food at Tuckaway Farm in Lee,” on Sunday, June 28, from noon to 5 p.m., according to heritageharvestproject.org, where you can purchase tickets. The day will include samples of dishes with local ingredients, information about heritage crops, an opportunity to meet farmers and food producers, local craft beer and beverage tastings (with purchase of drink bracelet) and family-friendly activities, the website said.

• The Southern New Hampshire Food Truck Festival will take place Saturday, Aug. 1, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Hampshire Dome on Emerson Road in Milford and feature food trucks, live music, a craft market and a kids’ zone, according to gnefoodtruckfest.com (tickets available for purchase at the gate).

• The New England Hot Sauce Fest will be held Saturday, Aug. 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth featuring hot sauce samples, food trucks, beer, contests, bounce houses and more to benefit Blue Ocean Society and Seacoast Science Center, according to newenglandhotsaucefest.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival is held toward the end of August at Our Lady of the Cedars Church, 140 Mitchell St. in Manchester. Check back at bestfestnh.com for updates on this year’s event.

• Granite State PoutineFest will take place Saturday, Aug. 29, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 603 Brewery in Londonderry, according to poutinefest.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The Gluten Never Ever Expo will be held Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Hampshire Dome on Emerson Road in Milford and will feature 100 booths, food trucks, workshops, live music, a kids’ zone and more, according to glutennevereverexpo.com .

Beach stuff
Looking for more events on the Seacoast? Check out the seasonal publication Seacoast Scene at seacoastscene.net, where you can find current and previous issues.

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