Summer is a time of fun-filled festivals across the country. Colourful kites and hot-air balloons take to the skies, Native and folk traditions are celebrated through crafts, dance and song, and fabulous food and music festivals abound. Wherever you are, head for the fireworks on the Fourth of July.
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CRAFTSMEN’S FAIR
The League of NH Craftsmen’s annual fair is the oldest craft fair in the country, running since 1933. Held at Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, New Hampshire, it features handmade works by more than 350 juried craftspeople who meet the league’s high-quality standards. Along with beautiful crafts ranging from woodwork to glass, pottery, baskets, furniture and more, there are daily craft demonstrations, workshops and tours with a master. The Living with Craft exhibition showcases crafts in room vignettes, while the CraftWear Exhibition displays one-of-a-kind fashions and jewellery creations. A Sculpture Garden features outdoor works, and strolling performers keep everyone entertained. August.
THE NEWPORT JAZZ, FOLK AND MUSIC FESTIVALS
Best known for its elegant seaside mansions, Newport, Rhode Island, is a hot spot for summer music festivals. These ‘summer cottages’ from the Gilded Age play host to the Newport Music Festival of chamber music and gala music events in July. Fort Adams State Park is the venue for the Newport Folk Festival in late, and the famous Newport Jazz Festival, happens in early August.
SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL IN WASHINGTON, DC
Every summer around the Fourth of July, the National Mall in Washington, DC, becomes a stage for diverse, living folk traditions from around the world. Co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute and the National Park Service, the free Folklife Festival lets visitors learn about, enjoy and join in the world’s rich cultural variety through song, dance, costumes, masks, food, crafts, music, poetry, ceremonies and other traditional folk events.
MAINE’S LOBSTER FESTIVAL
The world’s largest lobster cooker prepares around 20,000lbs of delicious lobster right on the shore during the annual lobster fest in Rockland, Maine. Enjoy a lobster roll, lobster salad or a full lobster dinner in the eating tent at bargain prices. Key events include the Big Parade with ‘lobster art’ as this year’s theme, the sea goddess coronation, the lobster crate race and a cooking contest. A marine tent with touch tanks and displays, an art show, crafts tents, carnival rides, pancake breakfasts, fun runs, live music and top-name entertainment round out the fun.
THE ALABAMA JUBILEE HOT-AIR BALLOON CLASSIC
Dozens of colourful hot-air balloons take to the skies over Decatur each Memorial Day weekend in the Alabama Jubilee. Pilots come from around the country to vie for glory in the ‘hare and hound’ and ‘key grab’ balloon races. There are tethered flights and an evening balloon glow that lights up the sky. This is one of the few events where you can walk on to the field, get close to the balloons and talk to the pilots during operations. Other activities include antique car and tractor shows, an arts-and-crafts show, music, entertainment and a fireworks spectacular. May.
OKLAHOMA CITY’S RED EARTH NATIVE AMERICAN FESTIVAL
More than 1,200 Native American dancers and artists gather at this annual festival in Oklahoma City to celebrate their rich heritage and traditions. The dance competition, one of the most prestigious of its kind, is one of the few events in which you can see dancers from both Northern and Southern tribes in one place. With more than 100 tribes represented, the colour and breadth of the traditional costumes, along with a wealth of jewellery, sculpture, beadwork, basketry and other Native Arts, make this a fabulous spectacle to behold. June.
TASTE OF CHICAGO
Billed as the world’s largest outdoor food festival, Taste of Chicago is a moveable feast in every sense. Set in Grant Park overlooking Lake Michigan, it features more than 200 different dishes that showcase the city’s diverse restaurant scene. The free, five-day event also features celebrity chefs, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, live music and evening headliner concerts in the Petrillo Music Shell. July.
NORTH CAROLINA’S ROGALLO KITE FESTIVAL
Go fly a kite on the dunes of North Carolina’s Outer Banks during this annual extravaganza. The festival honours Francis Rogallo, a NASA scientist and inventor of the flexible wing, whose work gave rise to the sport of hang gliding as well as today’s power kites and stunt kites. Flight displays by Kitty Hawk Kites put his theories into action. Enjoy large kite displays, learn to make a kite, or try your hand at flying various kinds of kites. June.
ARIZONA’S NAVAJO FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND CULTURE
Navajo artists, storytellers and cultural interpreters present a variety of traditional arts and customs, from rug weaving to jewellery, painting to pottery at this annual festival in Flagstaff’s Museum of Northern Arizona. The organisers say it demonstrates the Navajo ‘Beauty Way’ of living in harmony. You can watch multi-generations of rug weavers working on upright looms, explore the tribe’s intricate language with a Navajo linguist, hike with a Navajo botanist to learn the Diné uses of local plants, and enjoy hoop dancing, ancient and modern Native music and a fashion show. August.
SACRAMENTO’S GOLD RUSH DAYS
The streets of historic Old Sacramento are covered in 200 tons of dirt as the city goes back in time to California’s gold rush heyday of the 1850s. Costumed actors stroll the streets portraying historical figures and local people, while musicians play old-time tunes on several stages. Pony Express relays, medicine and variety shows and colourful parades evoke the spirit of the times. Take a stagecoach ride or a river cruise, pan for gold, join in a gold rush baseball game, and stuff your face in a watermelon or pie eating contest. Late August – early September.
SOUTH DAKOTA’S CORN PALACE FESTIVAL
One of the most unique attractions in America’s Midwestern heartland is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. This amazing building, with its Moorish-style minarets, columns and domes, is completely covered with murals made of naturally-coloured corn, grains and native grasses, re-designed with a new theme each year. A true folk-art wonder, it is also the centrepiece of the annual Corn Palace Festival, which features carnival games, amusement park rides, agricultural exhibits, food and craft booths and top-name live entertainment. August.
THE OREGON BREWERS FESTIVAL
Celebrate a sunny summer afternoon by sipping award-winning beers on the banks of the Willamette River during Portland’s annual Oregon Brewers Festival. This is one of America’s favourite craft beer festivals, with more than 80 brewers from across the country offering about 20 styles of handcrafted brews for you to try. The Root Beer Garden serves handcrafted root beers to minors and designated drivers, and there’s live music, home-brewing demonstrations, regional foods, beer memorabilia and other displays and activities to enjoy. July.
