Downtown: 4 new attractions at Market Days this week – GoodLife will be one of them!
Along with all the old favorites, Market Days promises to bring some all-new attractions when it rolls onto Main Street this year. Here are four elements that even the most die-hard attendees of Concord’s summertime street festival will be able to enjoy for the first time starting Thursday:
The South Main stage
Kate Fleming, the events and outreach coordinator for Intown Concord, said the stage that used to be located at the Pleasant Street intersection will be moved south and featured more prominently this year.
“We’re really beefing up the South Main stage with not just demos, but some really great music there,” she said. “That wasn’t really a place that a lot of bands were playing. This year, it’s kind of another music venue we’re having.”
On Thursday evening, it’ll be back-to-back-to-back performances, concluding with the Connecticut-based band Parsonsfield, at 7:30 p.m.
Touch a helicopter
On the other end of Main Street, the Touch-a-Truck display will go airborne Saturday morning when a small helicopter is added into the mix.
Franz Loew of the Pembroke-based JBI Helicopters said his company will bring a Bell 206 JetRanger copter that attendees will be able to climb into and check out.
“Everyone will be able to get up close to a helicopter,” he said. “There will be a pilot there from our company that they can ask questions about the helicopter and flying. We encourage everybody to stop by and say, ‘Hi.’ ”
Fleming said the helicopter is scheduled to land on Main Street bright and early about 6:30 a.m.
“We’ve been letting a lot of the residents know: ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ ” she said.
Kids’ footrace
The Capital City Classic 10K will be back again for a second year, and it’s adding a free race for children 2 to 8 years old.
The kids’ race starts at 9 a.m. on the front steps of the State House. Runners will be divided into three age groups for progressively longer distances, 200 yards to 600 yards.
The main event launches at 8 a.m. from City Plaza. Online registration is $35 for adults 20 and older at runnersalley.com/ccc10k. It increases $5 on the day of the race.
Nonprofit booths
Rich Woodfin, the vice president of marketing for Charter Trust Company, said his company has decided to donate its booth space this year to three nonprofits that would have otherwise participated.
For one day each, it’ll be Good Life Programs & Activities, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Audubon Society – in that order.
Susanne Kibler-Hacker of the forest society said the opportunity was perfect for her organization, which has participated in the past but stopped because of the cost and staffing time of the three-day commitment.
“What they’ve done is a really great gesture,” she said, “because it gives us the chance to participate without taking on the entire thing.”
Kibler-Hacker said her organization will promote its mission and some of the projects it’s working on, including conserving some land around Tower Hill Pond in Manchester.
Susan Greenblott of GoodLife said her organization will appear at Market Days for the first time to familiarize people with the health and wellness activities it offers for people over 50.
“Having the opportunity to be at Market Days and get that exposure in the community is a huge thing for us that we normally wouldn’t be able to afford,” she said.
For a full schedule of events, visit Intown Concord’s website at intownconcord.org/index.php/2017-market-days-festival-schedule.
Main Street will be closed to traffic from 4 a.m. Thursday to 1 p.m. Sunday for the event.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at
@NickBReid.)
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