With many worthy concerts, plays, exhibits, and festivals to choose from this weekend, we’ve crammed lots of events into our weekly top five. Here’s what we came up with.
Stratham Fair
The Stratham Fair opened Thursday afternoon and continues through the weekend at Stratham Hill Park. Established in 1967, it features entertainment for all ages, 4H activities and exhibits, rides, games, music, magic acts, food booths, and more. Gates open at 10 a.m. from Friday to Sunday, July 20-22, with the midway open noon to 10 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and kids, free for children under 6 (ride tickets sold separately). Learn more here.
Concerts!
Three acclaimed national acts hit Seacoast venues this weekend. Legendary Canadian alt-country band Cowboy Junkies will play The Music Hall in Portsmouth on Friday, July 20, at 8 p.m. ($32-$42). Folk icon Gillian Welch, alongside partner David Rawlings, will be at Prescott Park in Portsmouth on Saturday, July 21, at 7 p.m. ($8-$10 suggested donation). Blues-rock groups Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and Beth Hart Band hit the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Sunday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m. ($29-$69).
Late-night theater
Two Portsmouth theaters are open late this summer. “Death Comes to the Food Court,” an original tragic-comic play by Lawrence Hennessey, runs at The Players’ Ring July 20-29. Show times are 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 9 p.m. on Sundays; tickets are $15. The Mad Men of Oopsy Daisy Inc. direct a midnight staging of “The Rocky Horror Show” at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre every Friday and Saturday from July 20-28 and Aug. 17-25. Tickets are $20-$25.
Food, Field and Frolic
Vernon Family Farm in Newfields is introducing a new event this summer featuring live entertainment, family activities, and fresh food and drink. The first ever Food, Field and Frolic takes place Sunday, July 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Billed as “a special day that celebrates kids and family,” highlights include sing-alongs, a puppet show, hayrides, a kids’ field fun run, hay bale courses, arts and crafts, baby chicks, games, and more. Admission is $10; learn more here.
The Geometry of Abstraction
Though they had never previously met, artists Tim Gilbert and Barbara Mata have created a remarkably harmonious two-person show at The Art Center in Dover. Gilbert, an oil painter, and Mata, a mixed-media artist, took inspiration from nature, the seasons, and man-made structures in their collaborative exhibit, “The Geometry of Abstraction.” An artist reception with light refreshments takes place Sunday, July 22, from 3-6 p.m.; the show runs through July 28. For more information, click here.
For a full calendar of local events, click here.