Category: Outdoors

125 years of town festivities

Londonderry celebrates Old Home Day with four days of events

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

The 125th Annual Town of Londonderry Old Home Day starts on Wednesday, Aug. 14, and goes until Saturday, Aug. 17.

“Old Home Day started in New Hampshire in 1899 by Gov. Frank Rollins. It was designed to bring New Hampshire’s, as he puts it, ‘sons and daughters back to the state,’ who had moved elsewhere. It was an effort to revitalize tourism and celebrate the smaller communities in New Hampshire amidst what was a population decline,” said Kirsten Hildonen, Administrative Support Coordinator for Londonderry, who is leading the event along with colleague Doug Cole.

“Forty-four different towns celebrated Old Home Day that first year in 1899 and Londonderry was one of them and we’ve been doing it every year,” Hildonen said.

‘Days’ may be more accurate, but the spirit of the event is the same.

“It’s gone back and forth, historically, between Old Home Day and Old Home Week. What we’ve really landed on is a four-day celebration in Londonderry.”

After 125 years, what’s new?

“One of the unique things about our Old Home Day celebration is that it’s not the same every day. Each day is a different event, different celebration. So it’s not four days of the same thing, it’s four very different days with very different activities,” Hildonen said. Each day is an experience.

“One of the big events on Wednesday that’s always a big hit is our Senior Bingo and BBQ … the seniors are served by the police officers, our town leaders call bingo and it’s free. We usually give out 220 tickets,” she said.

Music is always a great time in Londonderry.

“That evening on Wednesday is one of our most popular Concerts on the Common. It’s the Studio Two Beatles tribute band. It starts at 7 p.m. and last year we had almost 1,000 people attend, ” she said. More music occurs on Thursday. That concert “is run by our Londonderry School District Music Director … and that starts at 7. [It’s a ] bunch of different local bands competing to see who comes out on top.”

Slightly before the Beatles tribute is a very colorful race.

“We started a color run for families, kids, people of all ages. That’s going to be held at 5:30 p.m., at the LAFA Field. There is pre-registration up on our rec program website for that event,” she said. The cost is $15 per person but caps at $45 per family. “Everybody throws color at everybody. Everybody is encouraged to wear a white T-shirt.”

“The biggest event, Friday — this is the one I think people outside of Londonderry will have a ton of interest in — is our food truck festival and fireworks on Friday night. We get about 25 food trucks together. We open it up at 6 p.m. and people can stake out their place for fireworks that night. We have such an awesome variety this year, really excited about the different trucks we have…. There’s something for literally every taste,” Hildonen said. The food trucks close down at 9 p.m. Around 15 minutes later, or when it gets dark, is a long bout of fireworks.

“About a 25-minute firework celebration so it’s pretty big and pretty huge,” she said.

“The big kickoff to the day [Saturday] is our Old Home Day Parade down Mammoth Road, which starts at 10:15 and runs from Central Fire Station down to Mack’s Apples,” Hildonen said.

The day is filled with more activities than the age of the event.
“We have a bunch of different local businesses, local organizations, churches, town committees, everybody, so many different people, they rent booths on the Common and they have games and activities … something interactive for families and kids to do. There’ll be all kinds of raffles, both free and paid, all kinds of people selling food.”

On top of a Touch-a-Truck there are even more fun activities for kids.

“We have a Kids Zone in our town forest with carnival games and prizes and that’s a fundraiser for the Londonderry Athletic and Field Association, LAFA is going to be running that this year,”she said.

125th annual Old Home Day in Londonderry
Wednesday, Aug. 14, to Saturday, Aug. 17
Free admission
londonderrynh.gov/oldhomeday
The Color Run: Thursday, Aug. 15, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at LAFA Fields, registration at LondonderryNH.MyRec.com

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 24/08/08

Family fun for whenever

Screen time

• O’neil Cinemas Brickyard Square (24 Calef Highway, Epping, oneilcinemas.com) runs a summer kids series that started on Monday, June 24, with shows on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. The screening for their last week is Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (PG, 2018) on Monday, Aug. 12, and Wednesday, Aug. 14.

• On Monday, Aug. 12, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) will be screened as part of the Prescott Park Arts Festival Movie Nights in Prescott Park in Portsmouth. Suggested donation is $5 per person and there’s an 8:30 p.m. start time. Concessions will be available for sale.

• Cinemark Rockingham Park (15 Mall Road, Salem, cinemark.com) is screening kid-friendly films on Wednesdays at 10 a.m and will be screening the last installment of the series with Paddington 2 (PG, 2017) on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

Fests and fairs

• The Town of Windham Recreation Department will host a Food Truck Festival and Car Show on the grounds of Windham High School (64 London Bridge Road, Windham) on Sunday, Aug. 11. In addition to yummy eats from local food trucks, there will be music and games of cornhole. For details contact the Windham Recreation office at 965-1208 or [email protected].

• Don’t miss the 16th annual Hampton Beach Children’s Festival, Monday, Aug. 12, through Friday, Aug. 16. The event includes ice cream, dancing, balloons, storytelling, a magic show and a costume parade. All activities are free and open to the public. Visit hamptonbeach.org/events/ childrens-events for details as they become available.

• Hudson’s Old Home Days return Thursday, Aug. 8, to Sunday, Aug. 11, on the grounds of the Hill House (211 Derry Road, Hudson). There will be carnival games, live music, cow pie bingo, fireworks, food and more. Event times are Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. See hudsonoldhomedays.com.

Sports

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Double-A minor-league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball, are in the middle of a home series with the Erie SeaWolves, a Detroit Tigers affiliate, that runs until Sunday, Aug. 12. Highlights of the series include a Sitcom Night on Thursday, Aug. 8, and a celebration of the ’90s on Saturday, Aug. 10, where attendees who bring in Beanie Babies get in free and the first 1,000 fans through the gates will receive a clear fanny pack. Fireworks are scheduled for after the game on Saturday. Games Thursday through Saturday are at 6:35 p.m. and Sunday’s game is at 1:35 p.m. See milb.com/new-hampshire.

Puppets and costumes

• Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center (26 Main St., Peterborough, 924-4555, mariposamuseum.org) is a museum of art and artifacts from around the world that includes hands-on exhibits with costumes, puppets, instruments and more for children to explore. One of their current exhibitions is “Tradition and Revolution in Indian Shadow Puppetry,” put on in collaboration with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut and curated by Rahul Koonathara, celebrating the spectacular South Indian shadow puppet traditions of Tolu, Bommalatta and Tholpavakoothu, according to their website. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for kids ages 3 through 16 but is free for members.

A blooming festival

Sunflower Bloom Festival offers fields of gold

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

The Sunflower Bloom Festival runs from Saturday, Aug. 10, to Sunday, Aug. 18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and to 7 p.m. on weekdays at Sunfox Farm in Concord.

“This is our second year in Concord but our sixth time doing the festival,” said Amber Pollock, owner of Sunfox Farm, who runs the farm with CEO and manager Greg Pollock. “It’s a whole-day outdoor visit-the-farm kind of experience.”

How does one get there? “We have free parking at NHTI and we have a free shuttle bus to the field. For handicap parking, it would be at 6 Loudon Road,” Pollock said.

Everyone is invited.

“It’s a family fun atmosphere. Everybody gets to come out. We have live music every day, food trucks, an artisan craft fair, 20 acres of sunflowers and plenty of opportunities to take all your pictures.”

There are ample prime photo and selfie spots. “We got an old truck to sit on, we’ve got an old tractor, there are paths through the field with some viewing decks.”

Time is of the essence.

“The flowers bloom for about 10 days so we got that short window. We try to make the most of it.”

How can participants make the most of the festival?

“Each weekend we have probably about 20 different craft vendors or artisan vendors. We’ve got music all day on the weekends. Food trucks all day.”

For a more low-key experience, some time during the week is best.

“It’s smaller-scale during the week and definitely more active on the weekends.”

Any day is a good day to walk amongst the sunflowers.

“One new thing that we have this year is this elevated bridge along the path in the flowers, so that’s something new that we’re excited for people to be able to experience and kind of gets them up over the flowers, which is pretty cool.”

This is a field of sunflowers, not a library, so there will be music.

“We have a really full music lineup this year. We work with the New Hampshire Music Collective and they’ve been amazing making sure that there’s live music all day, which is exciting.”

Amber’s most treasured experience at the festival are the flowers themselves.

“The flowers blooming every year is probably our favorite thing to see.”

So how does the seed turn into the sunflower?

“From the time that we put it in the ground it takes somewhere between 60 and 70 days until it flowers.Then, mid-October, another 30 to 40 days after that is when we would harvest them so that’s when they’re ready to take the seeds out of.”

Sunfox farm produces sunflower seed oil.

“We grow one type. We grow a black-seed high-oleic sunflower and we grow it to produce sunflower oil. We go through the whole process ourselves. We do all the growing, the harvesting, the processing and the bottling.”

These types of seeds contain properties that make them healthier for consumption.

“That’s kind of the point of the farm is to create food, and we have this cool byproduct where we can have people in the community come out and see it.”

“We press all of the seeds for oil. The seeds that we grow aren’t what you would eat or what you would see at a baseball game. Those are a different type of seed. The ones that we grow are specific for oil.” But the flowers look the same.

What drew Amber to sunflowers?

“Yellow is my favorite color, so there’s that, but also it’s just a really resilient crop and it makes a really delicious product if it’s local and unrefined. It’s a cool thing that we get to grow that creates something beautiful but also creates this healthy, local food option for people.”

These beautiful plants get quite tall.

“Once they’re blooming they’ll be somewhere between 6 and 8 feet tall. So they’re not like the mammoth, giant sunflowers that get to be 14 feet or anything like that, but they do tower over you. You can kind of get lost in them.”

Make it a day or even a week at the Sunflower Festival at Sunfox Farm.

“During the summer we think it’s really great to be able to find things outside. Our prices are pretty low so it’s a good activity for the entire family. There’s stuff you can do all day here and it’s 20 acres of flowers, so it’s something that a lot of people in New Hampshire haven’t seen before.”

Sunflower Bloom Festival 2024
Fields adjacent to 6 Loudon Road in Concord
Saturday, Aug. 10, to Sunday, Aug. 18
Weekends 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., weekdays 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tickets $12, free for children 10 and younger
sunfoxfarm.org

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 24/08/01

Family fun for whenever

Fairs

• The Belknap County Fair is set to return on Saturday, Aug. 3, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sunday, Aug. 4, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 174 Mile Hill Road in Belmont. The fair features live entertainment, food, exhibits and animal shows. Admission at the gate is $10 for adults, $5 for ages 65 and older, police, fire and EMS personnel, and free for kids under 10 and for military service members. Visit bcfairnh.org.

• The 2024 Sunflower Festival at Coppal House Farm (118 N. River Road, Lee, nhsunflower.com) runs daily through Sunday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. See the website for admission prices. See the blooming fields and then enjoy live music, an artisan craft fair, food and more.

Theater

• The Palace Youth Theatre Summer Camp presents Jungle Book, Kids, on Friday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org). The student actors are in grades 2 through 12. Tickets start at $12.

• Camp Encore! presents Descendants, the Musical, on Saturday, Aug. 3, and Sunday, Aug. 4, at 1 p.m. at the Wilcox Main Stage in Prescott Park (105 Marcy St., Portsmouth). Based on the popular Disney Channel Original Movies, Disney’s Descendants: The Musical is a brand-new musical with comedy, adventure, Disney characters and hit songs from the films. Tickets start at $5; reservations can be made at portsmouthnhtickets.com.

• High in a tower, surprises await as a fair maiden longs for a friend, an old crone longs for an understanding daughter, and a seagull longs for some crackers in the Impact Touring Children’s Theatre’s performance of Rapunzel on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 10 a.m. at the BNH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com). This is a free performance. Seating for this show is mostly on the open floor. Patrons are encouraged to bring blankets.

Treats

• Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center (928 White Oaks Road, Laconia, prescottfarm.org) presents a tasty and educational program, “Homemade Dairy and Non-Dairy Ice Cream,” on Saturday, Aug. 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Learn about how to make ice cream. This program is open to youth and adults. The cost is $15 for members and $30 for nonmembers.

Movies

• The Nashua Summer Fun program has a “Pic in the Park” scheduled for Friday, Aug. 2, at dusk when The Marvels (PG-13, 2023) will screen at the Greeley Park Bandshell (100 Concord St., Nashua). See nashuanh.gov.

• The Milford Drive-In Theater (531 Elm St., Milford) has two screens for movie screenings Wednesday through Sunday. Movies start at 8:45 p.m. with the box office opening at 7:15 p.m. but opening at 6:45 p.m.on Friday and Saturday nights, according to their website. Each screen shows two movies. Starting Friday, Aug. 2,Despicable Me 4(PG, 2024) is the opening film on Screen 2, followed by Twisters (PG-13, 2024). Tickets are $33 per car (up to six people) and $6 for each additional person. Visit milforddrivein.com or call 660-6711.

Waltz of the balloons

See crafts take to the sky — and the river — at the Hot Air Balloon Rally

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

Get ready for the 42nd Annual Hot Air Balloon Rally in Pittsfield, which will showcase 10 hot air balloons for the festivities from Friday, Aug. 2, all the way through Sunday, Aug. 4.

“The money that we raise through our vendors, donors, and buying things from the Rotary food tent and T-shirts, all that money goes back into the communities that we serve,” said Fallon Reed, President of the Suncook Valley Rotary Club and Chair of the Balloon Rally. These communities include Barnstead, Chichester and Pittsfield.

The shindig launches on Friday at 3 p.m. and there will be carnival rides and live music. Dusty Gray and The Bulkheads are two different bands slated to perform on Friday.

Hot air balloons will be launched.

“Certainly all of our launches are weather-dependent, so if the winds and everything cooperate we’ll have our first launch. The balloons will be on the field about 5:30. They do their pilots’ meetings to look at weather conditions and make a determination if they are able to launch,” Reed said.

Smaller and chiller balloons will be available through Mr. Joe and his Silly Solutions Balloon Entertainment. “The gentleman coming down to do that does these things down at Fenway so we’re excited to have him. He came a couple years ago.”

The night sky is the perfect backdrop for the hot air balloons.

“At dusk, we’ll have what we call our Night Glow and so that’s where the balloons inflate on the field and they change the … combination of oxygen to propane or however they make it work … the balloons essentially light up. They look like fireflies on the field. Big ol’ fireflies. It’s a great thing and they do a little show there.”

Saturday starts early with the Rotary Pancake and Egg Breakfast at 6 a.m. and a possible launch of hot air balloons, depending on the weather.

“We also have a free sunrise yoga that our local yoga business Powerful You Yoga puts on … so you can see the balloons and be a part of all that.”

A giant touch-a-truck event occurs later that Saturday morning involving the Home of the Brave RC Balloon, a smaller hot air balloon controlled by hand.

“This year, this is a new activity for us, but during touch-a-truck, if folks want to bring a teddy bear or a stuffie, we’re doing teddy bear tethering so they can put their stuffie in the basket and it can go up on a little tethered flight, maybe 30 or so feet in the air, so we’re excited to have that,” she said. Another fun kid event is the Brushes and Balloons paint event at the Rotary Tent.

That’s not all.

“We have our annual Craft Fair which is sponsored by the Pittsfield Historical Society. They are full of crafters and vendors to sell various things. That’s always a good time.”

Anything that Floats River Raft Regatta Race is another rally favorite.

“Folks can make their own raft or vessel out of anything they can find around their house, it just can’t be a regular boat or have an engine and then they race in the river to a certain point and then come back to the shore and the first three teams that win, win a cash prize and bragging rights for the next year.”

There are also helicopter rides and performances by the Granite State Disc Dogs as well as a hot air balloon pilot meet and greet.

“Folks will be able to meet them. They have trading cards they’ll be handing out so they can collect those, check out the baskets, meet the pilots … get an opportunity to ask them all kinds of questions about hot air balloons, which is great.”

Remember to bring your spare change to the Hot Air Balloon Rally.

“And my favorite thing for this year … we got a penny press machine with balloon images and we partnered with the library in town, the Josiah Carpenter Library. During the Balloon Rally the penny press machine will be at the field, but the other days of the year it will be at the library so folks can bring their quarters and a penny and pick your design and get some pressed pennies…. My daughter loves them so we’re very excited about that this year,” Reed said.

There is also the possibility of doing ‘tethering’ in the Re/Max balloon in the evening hours, where brave participants can experience the hot air balloon in action.

“They only go up a set amount…. I actually went up for the second time last weekend with my daughter, so it was her first time going up, she’s 8 and she loved it…. It’s an amazing experience. You truly feel like, ‘if I could float on a cloud, that’s how I would describe it.’”

If the ground is closer to comfort, there’s even the Victory Workers 4-H Cow Chip Bingo, which is exactly how it sounds.

“Folks can buy tickets with random numbers on it. We have a couple cows that come down onto a gridded area and where the cow drops their patty is whoever wins. There’s a $500 cash prize.”

Float on over to this spectacular event.

“Hot air balloons are not necessarily something you see every day…. It’s a great kind of low-key, fun fair. Hang out, lots of great things to do for kids and families, and spend time together. Everyone enjoys it.”

Hot Air Balloon Rally
Where: Drake Field in Pittsfield
When: Friday, Aug. 2, to Sunday, Aug. 4
Admission: free
More: nhballoonrally.org

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 24/07/25

Family fun for whenever

On stage

• The Palace Youth Theatre Summer Camp presents Newsies, Jr.on Friday, July 26, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 27, at 11 a.m. at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org). The student actors are in grades 2 through 12. Tickets start at $12.

• Catch Rock of Ages, Youth Edition on Friday, July 26, and Saturday, July 27, at 7 p.m. at the Chubb Theatre (44 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com). Set on L.A.’s famous Sunset Strip in 1987, Rock of Ages tells the story of Drew, a city boy from South Detroit, and Sherrie, a small-town girl, who have both traveled to L.A. to chase their dreams of making it big and falling in love. Tickets are $18.75 for adults, $15.75 for students and seniors.

On screen

• Downtown Summer Series Movie Nights feature screenings in Manchester’s Veterans Park (723 Elm St.). Concessions are available for purchase.Monsters, Inc.(G, 2001) will be screened on Wednesday, July 31, at dusk.

• Movie Night Mondays On the Beach at Hampton Beach feature screenings at dusk on the large screen next to the playground, weather permitting (rain date is Tuesday). Admission is free. On Monday, July 29, the film to be screened is Mummies (PG, 2023)

Insects

• Head to Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center (928 White Oaks Road, Laconia, prescottfarm.org) for Fireflies Light Up the Sky on Saturday, July 27, from 7 to 8 p.m. to learn about fireflies and see them in action. This is for ages 12 and older. The cost is $15 for nonmembers.

• The second annual Capital Area New Hampshire Butterfly Survey will take place on Saturday, July 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at NH Audubon’s McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road, Concord) to gather long-term butterfly data to understand the changing ranges of butterfly species over time and support statewide conservation efforts. Visit nhaudubon.org.

Cooking

• On Wednesday, July 31, from 1 to 3 p.m. the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) will host an event called “Culinary Explorers: No Cook Recipes In-Person,” for those in grades K-5, according to their website. Participants will use all five senses to create a culinary masterpiece while practicing kitchen safety, working on chef vocabulary and fine motor skills, and trying new foods. There will be two “no-cook” dishes created during this program, which is billed as “vegetarian and nut-free.” Visit nashualibrary.org

Frolic in the fields

• The 2024 Sunflower Festival at Coppal House Farm (118 N. River Road, Lee, nhsunflower.com) takes place Saturday, July 27, through Sunday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (plus a special sunrise session on July 28). See the website for admission prices. Visit the blooming fields and then enjoy live music, an artisan craft fair, food and more.

Magic

• The Manchester Public Library on Thursday, July 25, from 6 to 7 p.m. will host magician BJ Hickman, who has been reviewed as “a master of the double-take and one who connects with wonderful audience rapport,” for their “Family Fare” program at the library, according to the website. Hickman is credited with being “the magician who keeps getting invited back,” and is a member of The International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) and went on to become an “Order of Merlin-Shield,” according to their website. His one-man magic show is suitable for audiences of all ages to enjoy, according to their website. In the event of rain the program will be held in the library auditorium. For more information contact Mary Gallant at 624-6550, ext. 7611, or visit manchester.lib.nh.us.

Meet the author

• Children’s author Celia Botto will visit Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester, bookerymht.com) on Saturday, July 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to talk about her upcoming book When Ayden Paints the Sky, illustrated by Samantha Lane Fiddy. All ages are welcome.

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