Category: Q&A

Market Days Festival returns to Concord

Intown Concord executive director Jessica Martin talked about the 47th annual Market Days, a three-day street festival in Concord happening Thursday, Aug. 19, through Saturday, Aug. 21.

How is Intown approaching Market Days this year?

Now that things are back open after being closed for more than a year, this is kind of like our ‘welcome back’ to downtown. … We’ve decided to go back to the basics and keep it classic with things that have worked and been successful in the past. Good food, good music and fun activities — that’s what we’re really trying to focus on.

What’s on the agenda?

We have over 120 different types of vendors attending, with a mix of food, retail and nonprofits … as well as the Concord Arts Market, and the farmers market on Saturday morning as normal. … For kids and families, we have a KidZone, which will be directly in front of the Statehouse stairs. … The library is doing a storytime for kids. … We have a great kids musician, Mr. Aaron, coming. … We have free activities all three days, including workout classes [like] yoga, Zumba and jazzercise; dance demonstrations; all kinds of arts and crafts; face painting; … a touch-a-truck; … and a beer garden. We have a dog training show and a splash zone for dogs. … There are three stages with more than 30 hours of music and entertainment: the Binnie Media Performance Stage, which is the main stage, on South Main Street near Red River; the Homegrown Stage in Bicentennial Square, which features all local talent and musicians; and a variety of different performances happening in Eagle Square, including Tandy’s Idol, which is a singing competition similar to American Idol. … Also on the main stage on Friday, we have our outdoor movie, which is American Graffiti.

What safety precautions are being put in place?

Market Days is usually held in June, and we plan to go back to having it in June. That is, overwhelmingly, the month that people like to have it … but we moved it to August this year because we thought that would allow more time for people to get vaccinated and feel more comfortable being in a larger group. Obviously, the new delta variant has posed some questions for us, but the city hasn’t decided to put a mask mandate back in place or anything, so we’re just encouraging people who attend, especially those who aren’t vaccinated, to protect themselves by wearing a mask, and to social distance whenever possible. We’ll have quite a few hand sanitizer stations around for people as well.

What kind of turnout are you expecting?

We’re thinking it could be anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people. Everyone we’ve talked to is really excited for it. We think it’s probably going to be one of the highest turnouts ever for Market Days, especially if the weather is good, because people are so anxious to get out and resume going to events.

Why did Intown feel it was important to only postpone rather than skip the event this year?

… After how much small businesses have struggled through this last year, we think [Market Days] is really important … as a revenue-driver and [it] really helps to boost our local economy, especially for downtown businesses, but also for the greater Concord area. … It’s also about morale [for the community]. Market Days has been a part of the community going on its 47th year. People have memories about coming to Market Days from when they were little kids. It really makes things start to feel like there’s some sense of normalcy again.

What’s the best way for people to plan out their day?

This is our first year having a Market Days website — we wanted to make sure that people are really clear about what’s going on and when it’s going on, so they can find a map of activities and all of the entertainment schedules there.

Market Days Festival

Where: Various locations on and off Main Street in downtown Concord
When: Thursday, Aug. 19, through Saturday, Aug. 21, with festivities from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day
Cost: Admission and most activities are free
Covid protocol: Masks are not required but are strongly encouraged, especially for attendees who have not been vaccinated. Social distancing should be practiced as much as possible. Hand sanitizing stations will be available.
More info: Visit marketdaysfestival.com for a map of activities and schedule of entertainment and special events. See facebook.com/intownconcord for updates. For all other questions, call Intown at 226-2150.

Featured photo: Jessica Martin. Courtesy photo.

Nature Conservancy builds universally accessible trail

Construction is now underway to make the trails at the Cedar Swamp Preserve in Manchester universally accessible. Mark Zankel, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire, which is overseeing the project, talked about the changes that are being made to the property.

Why did you choose the Cedar Swamp Preserve for this project?

We want people to be able to experience the joy of spending time in nature, and that’s not necessarily easy to do when you live in the most densely populated part of the state … so Manchester was an obvious choice … and the Cedar Swamp Preserve [was chosen] because it’s in such close proximity to downtown.

How did you determine what barriers needed to be addressed?

Manchester is the largest city … and the most diverse population in our state, so we realized we had work to do to understand what barriers people faced to access nature. We’ve spent the better part of the past year doing a number of listening sessions and engagement events with groups that haven’t always had a table with us … [like] NAACP of Greater Manchester, the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire, a number of LGBTQ+ groups and AARP, to ask them what would make this place more welcoming and inclusive and accessible. … What we learned is that the barriers are not just physical; they can also be geographical, cultural and psychological.

How are you addressing those barriers to make the trail universally accessible?

We have well-defined guidance on how to build a trail that’s accessible to individuals with physical disabilities … in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. … We’re doing a crushed stone surface … with a topcoat of more finely packed crushed stone, which creates a surface that wheelchairs can go on without sinking too deep or getting stuck. … We’re widening the trail to allow [space] for two wheelchairs and for people who may have a support animal. Then, there’s the topography; the trail system … has rocks and roots and inclines at various degrees, so we’re working on winding the trail around that hilly topography so that [no part of the trail] is too steep. … We’ve gone from having only one or two benches to six benches … and are making them visible so that people can see how far it is to the next resting spot. … A lot of people in Manchester don’t have cars, so we’ve been working with the city to put a bus stop there to help break down that transportation barrier. … We’ve also translated out interpretive materials into Spanish … which is the second most spoken language in the Manchester area.

Where are you in the construction process right now?

We’ve done the trail plan … and initial expansion. Now, [the construction crew] is out there, literally going foot by foot with their heavy equipment, moving dirt and rocks and laying down the base of the trail. … We’re hoping and planning to open the trail by mid- to late October, with some kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony.

How do you find a balance between altering nature to make it more accessible and your greater mission of preserving it?

The Nature Conservancy has a lot of background and experience in managing conservation land in a way that allows for human uses and activities but is still compatible with conservation values … and [conscious of] the reasons why we’re protecting the property in the first place. … We’re charting a pathway [that requires] as little digging and moving things around as possible. … We’re also being really careful with the fill we’re bringing in to make sure that it doesn’t have the seeds of invasive species in it. … You can’t do this with no impact, but this is a small part of the overall cedar swamp system — 100 or so acres out of 640 acres — so there’s still a vast amount of property that doesn’t have any built infrastructure, where nature can really thrive. … We feel like it’s an acceptable level of impact for the benefit of getting people out there.

Will there be more of these?

I think there’s a strong interest in making conservation areas more accessible. … The New Hampshire conservation community has been thinking hard about this and trying to take action … so I think we will see more of these going forward. We’d love to do more, but we’re going to live into this one first. … These are big projects and not easy to do … so we really want to learn more about how the property gets used and how we can ensure that the people we’re building it for are able to use it.

Featured photo: Mark Zankel. Courtesy photo.