BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The CT Beacon - ECPv6.18.0//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://thectbeacon.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The CT Beacon
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T230000
DTSTAMP:20260908T000844Z
CREATED:20260908T000844Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T000844Z
UID:10007506-1789151400-1789167600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Party on the Sun Patio – Zac N' Fried
DESCRIPTION:Party on the Sun Patio – Zac N’ Fried brings the music of Zac Brown Band to Mohegan Sun on Friday\, September 11\, as the Connecticut-based tribute band takes over the outdoor Sun Patio for one of the final concerts of the 2026 summer series. \nDoors open at 6:30 p.m.\, with Zac N’ Fried taking the stage at 8 p.m. Admission is free\, and the party continues until 11 p.m. with food trucks\, drinks and an open-air concert beneath the night sky. \nThe show is for guests 21 and older and is part of Mohegan Sun’s 14-week Party on the Sun Patio series\, which has filled Friday nights throughout the summer with tribute bands covering everyone from Queen and Fleetwood Mac to Bruce Springsteen and Journey. \nZac N’ Fried Brings Zac Brown Band to Connecticut\nZac N’ Fried isn’t traveling far for this particular tribute. \nThe Newtown\, Connecticut-based band was created by lead vocalist Randall John as a live tribute to Zac Brown Band\, with an emphasis on recreating both the sound of the group’s recordings and the energy of its concerts. \nJohn came to the project after more than two decades of performing for audiences with The Zoo\, a Connecticut cover band with a history stretching back to the 1990s. When he assembled Zac N’ Fried\, he selected a younger group of musicians to build a full-band tribute around Zac Brown Band’s mix of country\, Southern rock and roots music. \nIt’s a deceptively demanding catalog to reproduce. \nZac Brown Band broke nationally with Chicken Fried\, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 2008. The group followed with songs including Toes\, Highway 20 Ride\, Free\, Colder Weather\, Knee Deep and Keep Me in Mind\, establishing a sound that could move from radio country to acoustic harmonies and Southern rock without staying neatly inside one lane. \nThe real Zac Brown Band’s concerts push those boundaries even further\, frequently incorporating rock covers\, extended instrumental passages and influences far outside mainstream country. \nThat’s the experience Zac N’ Fried is built to recreate rather than simply playing a collection of Zac Brown songs. \nThe tribute has grown beyond its Connecticut home base\, performing throughout New England\, New York and farther down the East Coast. The band’s 2026 schedule has included appearances in Connecticut\, Massachusetts and New York\, with performances ranging from breweries and waterfront venues to municipal concert series and larger stages. \nThe September 11 date also marks a return to Mohegan Sun for the group. \nMeet Randall John\nAt the center of Zac N’ Fried is singer and band creator Randall John. \nJohn spent more than 20 years performing in front of live audiences before assembling the Zac Brown Band tribute. His other major musical home has been The Zoo\, a Connecticut party and cover band known for moving freely across rock\, dance and popular music. \nThat experience matters in a tribute built around Zac Brown. \nThis isn’t a catalog where standing at a microphone and mimicking a handful of radio singles necessarily captures the original act. Zac Brown Band’s live reputation comes partly from musicianship\, vocal harmonies and an ability to turn a country concert into something closer to a jam-oriented rock show. \nZac N’ Fried was assembled with that broader live experience in mind\, with John handpicking the musicians around him rather than creating a solo-frontman tribute backed by interchangeable players. \nThe result is a Connecticut band paying tribute to one of modern country’s most successful live acts while approaching the material as a band itself. \nParty on the Sun Patio\nZac N’ Fried arrives during the closing stretch of Mohegan Sun’s Party on the Sun Patio\, a Friday-night summer tradition that returned in 2026 with 14 consecutive weeks of outdoor concerts. \nThe series began June 19 and runs through September 18\, making Zac N’ Fried the second-to-last performance of the season. Beatlemania Again closes the series the following Friday. \nThe setup is closer to an outdoor summer party than a conventional theater concert. \nDoors open at 6:30 p.m.\, giving guests 90 minutes before the band begins at 8 p.m. The Sun Patio includes a bar\, food trucks\, standing and dancing areas and limited seating\, with the concert taking place outside. \nGeneral admission is free. \nSeating is first come\, first served\, and guests can bring their own chairs. Plastic Adirondack chairs are also available to rent at the Tiki Hut for $10. \nFood Trucks and Drinks\nThree food trucks are scheduled for Zac N’ Fried’s September 11 Party on the Sun Patio date: Twin Beaks Fried Chicken\, Ta’ Deliciozo and Reel Catch. \nReel Catch is Mohegan Sun’s own seafood food truck\, created around portable seafood dishes and fresh coastal flavors. The rotating truck lineup gives guests the option of having dinner at the Patio rather than leaving before the concert begins. \nDrink specials are also offered during Party on the Sun Patio. \nOutside food\, beverages and coolers aren’t allowed\, so guests planning to eat or drink during the show will need to purchase them on site. \nReserve a Fire Pit for the Show\nGeneral admission doesn’t require a ticket\, but guests looking for reserved space can book one of the Sun Patio’s fire pits. \nVIP Fire Pits cost $45 per person and include one alcoholic beverage per guest\, cocktail service and a location with prime views of the stage. Each pit requires a minimum of six guests and accommodates up to eight. Only 10 VIP pits are available. \nGeneral Fire Pits cost $30 per person and also include one alcoholic beverage per guest and cocktail service. They have the same six-person minimum and eight-person maximum. \nFire pit reservations must be checked in by 8 p.m. to guarantee the reservation. After that point\, the party is considered a no-show and its seating is no longer guaranteed. \nGuests who reserve fire pits should also know that rental Adirondack chairs can’t be brought into the fire pit areas. \nWhat Happens if It Rains?\nParty on the Sun Patio doesn’t schedule rain dates. \nIf inclement weather prevents the outdoor event from taking place\, Mohegan Sun says cancellations will be announced by 2 p.m. on the day of the event. When conditions require the show to move indoors\, bands perform at the Wolf Den. \nThat makes the September date less vulnerable to becoming a completely lost night if late-summer weather refuses to cooperate. \nParking and What to Know Before You Go\nThe most convenient parking for the Sun Patio is available in the Indian Summer Garage and Riverview Parking Garage. \nGuests must be at least 21 years old and present valid identification to enter. Seating is first come\, first served\, although personal chairs are permitted. \nCoolers and outside food and beverages aren’t allowed. \nFor purchases at the Tiki Hut\, including chair rentals and Party on the Sun Patio merchandise\, accepted payment methods include credit cards\, debit cards and Momentum Dollars. \nWith Zac N’ Fried scheduled for 8 p.m.\, arriving when doors open also gives guests time to find a spot\, grab dinner from one of the food trucks and get settled before the Zac Brown Band catalog takes over the Patio. \nDetails\nEvent: Party on the Sun Patio – Zac N’ Fried\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 6:30–11 p.m.\nDoors: 6:30 p.m.\nBand Starts: 8 p.m.\nPerformer: Zac N’ Fried\nMusic: Zac Brown Band tribute; country\, Southern rock and roots music\nVenue: Sun Patio at Mohegan Sun\nAddress: 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard\, Uncasville\, CT 06382\nAdmission: Free\nAge Requirement: 21+ with valid ID\nSeating: First come\, first served; guests may bring their own chairs\nChair Rentals: Plastic Adirondack chairs available for $10\nFood Trucks: Twin Beaks Fried Chicken\, Ta’ Deliciozo and Reel Catch\nOutside Food & Drinks: Not permitted; coolers are also prohibited\nVIP Fire Pits: $45 per person; includes one alcoholic beverage\, cocktail service and prime stage views; 6-person minimum and 8-person maximum\nGeneral Fire Pits: $30 per person; includes one alcoholic beverage and cocktail service; 6-person minimum and 8-person maximum\nFire Pit Check-In: By 8 p.m. for guaranteed seating\nParking: Indian Summer Garage and Riverview Parking Garage are the most convenient options\nWeather: No rain dates or makeup dates. Weather-related cancellations are announced by 2 p.m.; performances move to the Wolf Den when applicable\nSeries Finale: Party on the Sun Patio concludes September 18 with Beatlemania Again \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/party-on-the-sun-patio-zac-n-fried/
LOCATION:Sun Patio at the Mohegan Sun\, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd\, Uncasville\, 06382\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mohegan Sun
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Party-on-the-Sun-Patio-–-Zac-N-Fried.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T213000
DTSTAMP:20260908T002558Z
CREATED:20260908T002452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T002558Z
UID:10007507-1789153200-1789162200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:The Guardian (2006) presented by the CT Maritime Heritage Festival
DESCRIPTION:The Guardian (2006) presented by the CT Maritime Heritage Festival brings Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher’s Coast Guard rescue drama back to the big screen at New London’s Garde Arts Center on Friday\, September 11. \nThe 7 p.m. screening serves as a cinematic opening to a weekend devoted to Connecticut’s relationship with the sea. The Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival takes over the New London waterfront Saturday and Sunday with military and private vessel tours\, Coast Guard demonstrations\, living history\, maritime competitions\, children’s activities and other events. \nThat makes The Guardian an unusually appropriate choice for the night before the festival. Although its central characters are fictional\, the 2006 film was made with extensive cooperation from the U.S. Coast Guard\, used real Coast Guard personnel and equipment during production\, and drew heavily from the culture and training of the service’s Aviation Survival Technicians\, better known as rescue swimmers. \nKevin Costner Goes Into the Bering Sea\nCostner stars as Senior Chief Ben Randall\, a legendary Coast Guard rescue swimmer whose career has been built around going into the water when almost everyone else is trying to get out of it. \nAfter a catastrophic rescue mission leaves members of his crew dead\, Randall is sent away from active rescue operations and assigned to train the next generation of swimmers. \nThat’s where he encounters Jake Fischer\, played by Ashton Kutcher. \nFischer is a gifted young competitive swimmer with the physical ability to excel and an ego to match. He arrives at rescue swimmer school convinced that his speed in a pool will translate naturally into saving people at sea. \nRandall has other ideas. \nWhat follows uses a familiar mentor-and-student structure\, but places it inside a profession rarely given a starring role in a Hollywood movie. Randall pushes Fischer beyond athletic performance and toward the central idea behind the Coast Guard rescue swimmer mission: the person in the water isn’t there to win a race. He’s there because somebody else may die if he doesn’t reach them. \nThe relationship eventually moves from the training pool to the Bering Sea\, where lessons that seemed theoretical on land become matters of survival. \nHollywood Went to the Coast Guard for Help\nThe Guardian wasn’t produced with the Coast Guard merely supplying uniforms and a few helicopters for background shots. \nThe filmmakers sought the service’s cooperation before production moved forward and were given access to Coast Guard facilities\, personnel and equipment. Screenwriter Ron L. Brinkerhoff researched rescue swimmers and their culture\, while actual rescue swimmers worked as consultants during production. \nReal Coast Guard rescue swimmers\, pilots and other personnel also appear in supporting roles. \nThat involvement gave the movie something Coast Guard veterans noticed when it arrived in theaters. \nA review published in the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings praised the film not simply for its rescues but for capturing smaller details of Coast Guard life: the humor between enlisted personnel\, the strains that an around-the-clock military career can put on a marriage\, the personalities found inside a training command and even the language surrounding an aviation accident. \nThe film takes Hollywood liberties\, and some rescue procedures were dramatized. But the underlying rescue culture was taken seriously. \nEven two decades later\, Coast Guard aircrews reviewing Hollywood rescue scenes have singled out portions of The Guardian as surprisingly authentic\, including its depiction of rescue-basket procedures. \nMaking a Bering Sea in Louisiana\nCreating the movie’s violent ocean rescues presented another problem: filmmakers needed a controllable version of some of the most dangerous water on Earth. \nDirector Andrew Davis\, who had previously directed The Fugitive\, wanted the rescues to feel physical rather than relying entirely on visual effects. \nProduction built an enormous indoor wave tank in Shreveport\, Louisiana\, capable of generating the rough water needed for the rescue sequences. Sets\, including vessels in distress\, could be placed inside the tank while actors\, stunt performers\, camera crews and safety personnel worked in the water around them. \nThe production also used a ship mounted on a hydraulic gimbal to simulate a vessel being thrown around by heavy seas. \nScenes set at the Coast Guard’s Kodiak\, Alaska\, station were partly created at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina. Reproducing Alaska there reportedly required about 60\,000 pounds of ice. \nThe rescue-swimmer training pool was the natatorium at Louisiana State University Shreveport. \nThe result is a movie in which water has real physical weight. Costner and Kutcher aren’t simply performing against a digital ocean. Much of the danger surrounding them was created with enormous quantities of moving water\, practical sets and performers actually getting wet. \nHurricane Katrina Changed the Movie\nReal events overtook the production before filming was complete. \nThe Guardian was preparing to shoot in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005. A nearly completed water tank at Camp Villere was lost\, and the production eventually relocated much of its work to Shreveport. \nThe move reportedly cost millions of dollars. \nMore importantly\, Katrina changed the context of a movie about Coast Guard rescuers. \nCoast Guard crews conducted extraordinary rescue operations across the flooded Gulf Coast following Katrina. The filmmakers revised The Guardian to acknowledge the disaster\, adding references to the hurricane and incorporating actual imagery of Coast Guard helicopters conducting rescues around New Orleans into the end credits. \nA fictional story about people willing to enter dangerous conditions to save strangers suddenly had a very real example unfolding while the movie was being made. \nAndrew Davis Returns to the Action Drama\nDirector Andrew Davis came to The Guardian with considerable experience putting characters into dangerous situations. \nHis best-known film remains the 1993 thriller The Fugitive\, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Davis also directed Under Siege with Steven Seagal\, A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow\, and the 2003 adaptation of Louis Sachar’s Holes. \nWith The Guardian\, Davis shifted the action away from gunfights and pursuits and into an environment that can’t be negotiated with. \nThe ocean becomes the film’s primary antagonist. \nThe movie runs 139 minutes and mixes large-scale rescue sequences with the relationship between Randall and Fischer\, Randall’s troubled marriage and the psychological cost of a career built around repeatedly encountering people on what may be the worst day of their lives. \nSela Ward plays Randall’s wife\, Helen\, while Melissa Sagemiller and Clancy Brown round out the principal cast. \nThe movie opened nationally on September 29\, 2006 and ultimately earned nearly $95 million worldwide. \nFrom a Coast Guard Movie to a Coast Guard Weekend\nWatching The Guardian in New London gives the film a local context it wouldn’t have in most theaters. \nThe city is home to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy\, while the Thames River and New London Harbor have been tied to military\, commercial and recreational maritime activity for generations. \nThe screening leads directly into the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival on Saturday and Sunday. \nThe 2026 festival is spread between New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park\, with free transportation connecting festival locations. Visitors can tour military and private vessels\, meet the people who operate them and watch maritime skills put into practice. \nThe Coast Guard connection continues with a helicopter search-and-rescue demonstration and Sunday’s Sea-Service Showdown\, which pits Coast Guard and Navy teams against one another in a friendly competition of maritime skill\, strength and teamwork. \nElsewhere during the weekend are colonial encampments\, children’s maritime activities\, a fishing clinic\, live music\, local vendors and Saturday night’s Burning of Benedict Arnold procession. A 300-drone show over the Thames River follows Saturday evening. \nSo while Friday night’s movie tells a fictional Coast Guard story\, the weekend that follows brings some of the real people\, vessels\, skills and maritime traditions behind that story to New London’s waterfront. \nSee It in a Movie Palace\nThe screening is part of the Garde’s Real Movie Palace Experience\, which brings films back to the theater’s giant screen with 4K digital projection and surround sound. \nThe Garde opened in 1926 as a movie and vaudeville palace and celebrates its centennial in 2026. Its restored Moroccan-style interior provides a considerably different experience from watching The Guardian at home. \nMovie concessions and adult beverages will be available. \nTickets are $15 plus applicable fees\, with an important exception for the people whose service the movie celebrates: active-duty military members\, retirees and veterans are admitted free. \nDetails\nEvent: The Guardian (2006) presented by the CT Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 7 p.m.\nFilm: The Guardian\nYear: 2006\nDirector: Andrew Davis\nWriter: Ron L. Brinkerhoff\nStarring: Kevin Costner\, Ashton Kutcher\, Sela Ward\, Melissa Sagemiller and Clancy Brown\nGenre: Action/Drama\nRating: PG-13\nRuntime: 2 hours\, 19 minutes\nVenue: Garde Arts Center\nAddress: 325 State Street\, New London\, CT 06320\nAdmission: $15 plus fees\nMilitary Admission: Free for active-duty military members\, retirees and veterans\nPresentation: Giant screen\, 4K digital cinema projection and surround sound\nConcessions: Movie concessions and adult beverages available\nPresented By: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nGarde Arts Center: 860-444-7373\nConnecticut Maritime Heritage Festival: Saturday\, September 12 and Sunday\, September 13 at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/the-guardian-2006-presented-by-the-ct-maritime-heritage-festival/
LOCATION:CT
CATEGORIES:Garde Arts Center
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-Guardian-presented-by-the-CT-Maritime-Heritage-Festival.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T210000
DTSTAMP:20260908T005412Z
CREATED:20260908T005412Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T005412Z
UID:10007508-1789155000-1789160400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Almost\, Maine at the Granite Theatre
DESCRIPTION:Almost\, Maine at the Granite Theatre opens Friday\, September 11\, for a two-week run of John Cariani’s romantic comedy about love found\, lost and occasionally turned upside down beneath the northern lights. \nThe Granite Theatre production runs September 11–20 in downtown Westerly\, with 7:30 p.m. performances on Thursdays\, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Tickets are $30–$35. \nRather than following one couple through a conventional love story\, Almost\, Maine tells nine interconnected stories about the residents of a tiny fictional community in northern Maine. During the course of one cold Friday night\, relationships begin\, end\, stumble and take some wonderfully strange turns. \nWelcome to Almost\nAlmost isn’t technically a town. \nIn Cariani’s fictional geography\, it’s an unorganized community so far north in Maine that it’s almost in Canada. On a clear winter night\, with the aurora borealis overhead\, its residents experience a series of encounters that revolve around falling in love\, falling out of it or discovering that what they thought they understood about another person wasn’t quite right. \nThe structure is closer to a collection of short stories performed on stage than a traditional beginning-to-end narrative. \nMost of the scenes involve just two characters\, with different residents moving in and out of focus as the evening progresses. The stories stand on their own\, but the shared place\, time and themes gradually turn them into a portrait of one small community. \nCariani also gives the play a touch of magical realism. \nEmotions sometimes become physical things. Characters carry the consequences of love in ways that couldn’t happen in the real world\, yet the feelings behind those moments remain recognizable. That lets Almost\, Maine move quickly between comedy\, absurdity\, heartbreak and tenderness without becoming a conventional romantic comedy. \nA Play That Almost Disappeared\nThe story behind Almost\, Maine is nearly as unlikely as some of the stories inside it. \nJohn Cariani developed the play at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. It received its world premiere at Portland Stage Company in Maine in 2004\, where it broke box-office records. \nBy then\, Cariani was already familiar to Broadway audiences as an actor. He earned a Tony Award nomination for playing Motel the tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof and had appeared on television in Law & Order. \nAlmost\, Maine reached New York next\, opening Off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre in January 2006. \nThat production lasted only about a month. \nOrdinarily\, that might have been the end of the story. Instead\, after the play was published and became available to other theaters\, something unexpected happened. \nSmall professional theaters began producing it. Then community theaters picked it up. Colleges and high schools followed. \nAnd they kept doing it. \nFrom Short Off-Broadway Run to Thousands of Productions\nToday\, Almost\, Maine has become one of the most frequently produced contemporary American plays. \nThe play’s official site reports that more than 6\,000 theater companies in the United States have staged it\, along with more than 100 international companies. It has also repeatedly ranked among the most-produced plays in North American high schools. \nPart of the appeal is built into Cariani’s unusual structure. \nWith largely self-contained two-person scenes\, directors can distribute substantial material among an ensemble rather than building an entire production around one or two leading roles. Each vignette gives its actors a complete little story to develop. \nAudiences get something different from that structure\, too. One scene may land as broad comedy while the next turns unexpectedly bittersweet. Not every relationship works out\, and the title itself becomes something of a running idea. \nThings in Almost are frequently close. \nAlmost a town. Almost Canada. Almost together. Almost over someone. Almost happy. \nBut not quite. \nJohn Cariani Wrote About the Maine He Knew\nThe fictional setting wasn’t chosen at random. \nCariani grew up in Presque Isle in Aroostook County\, the enormous and sparsely populated region at the northern end of Maine. He has said those years shaped his affection for the landscape\, language and people that eventually found their way into Almost\, Maine. \nThe setting is intentionally remote. The cold matters. The darkness matters. So does the northern sky. \nAgainst that isolation\, the small interactions between people become bigger. A conversation on a bench\, an unexpected visitor at the door or an encounter between two neighbors can become the most important thing happening for miles. \nCariani eventually returned to the world he created in another form. In 2022\, he adapted Almost\, Maine into a novel\, expanding the interconnected stories and characters beyond what audiences see on stage. \nBut the theatrical version remains the work that made Almost into a place thousands of actors and audiences have visited. \nInside Westerly’s Historic Granite Theatre\nThe setting for this production has its own story. \nGranite Theatre occupies a restored Greek Revival building at 1 Granite Street in downtown Westerly. Long before actors performed there\, the building was a church. \nThe congregation that became the Broad Street Christian Church was organized in 1843\, and the building was completed in 1849. Its prominent classical façade and columns remain part of one of downtown Westerly’s distinctive historic structures. \nThe building eventually found a second life as a performance space\, reopening as the Granite Theatre in 2000. \nToday\, Renaissance City Theatre operates the Granite as a nonprofit theater\, presenting plays\, musicals\, family productions\, educational programs and special events throughout the year. \nIt’s also an intimate room. With roughly 140 seats\, the audience is close to the performers rather than watching from the distance of a large regional theater. That should suit a play built around small conversations and two-person encounters particularly well. \nOpening Night Begins a Seven-Performance Run\nAlmost\, Maine opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday\, September 11. \nA second evening performance follows Saturday\, September 12\, before the first Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. September 13. \nThe production returns the following Thursday and continues through Sunday\, September 20\, for seven performances in all: \n\nFriday\, September 11 at 7:30 p.m.\nSaturday\, September 12 at 7:30 p.m.\nSunday\, September 13 at 2 p.m.\nThursday\, September 17 at 7:30 p.m.\nFriday\, September 18 at 7:30 p.m.\nSaturday\, September 19 at 7:30 p.m.\nSunday\, September 20 at 2 p.m.\n\nTickets range from $30 to $35. \nAccessibility at the Granite\nBecause the Granite occupies a historic 19th-century building\, accessibility comes with some limitations. \nThe theater performance space itself is wheelchair accessible\, but the Granite notes that its lobby and restrooms are not fully accessible. \nA small number of accessible parking spaces are available behind the building and need to be reserved. The theater recommends that anyone who needs accessible parking or has mobility concerns call ahead rather than relying on availability when arriving for a performance. \nDetails\nEvent: Almost\, Maine\nPlaywright: John Cariani\nOpening Night: Friday\, September 11\, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.\nRun: September 11–20\, 2026\nEvening Performances: 7:30 p.m.\nSunday Matinees: 2 p.m.\nNumber of Performances: Seven\nGenre: Romantic comedy\nVenue: Granite Theatre\nAddress: 1 Granite Street\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nTickets: $30–$35\nBox Office: 401-596-2341\nAccessibility: Theater space is wheelchair accessible; lobby and restrooms are not fully accessible\nAccessible Parking: Limited spaces are available and should be reserved in advance \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/almost-maine-at-the-granite-theatre/2026-09-11/
LOCATION:The Granite Theater\, 1 Granite Street\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:The Granite Street Theater
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Almost-Maine-at-the-Granite-Theatre.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T213000
DTSTAMP:20260910T034128Z
CREATED:20260910T034127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T034128Z
UID:10007536-1789155000-1789162200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute
DESCRIPTION:Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute brings the music\, energy\, and sheer force of Tina Turner’s stage presence to downtown Westerly on Friday\, September 11\, with Jenn Cristy and a live band taking over the UNITED’s Black Box Auditorium. \nThe 7:30 p.m. concert isn’t designed as a Tina Turner impersonation. Cristy isn’t trying to convince the audience that Turner has somehow walked onto the stage. The production describes itself as a celebration\, built around the songs and the explosive live-performance style that made Turner one of rock music’s defining performers. \nThat means Proud Mary\, River Deep – Mountain High\, What’s Love Got to Do with It and The Best\, along with music spanning Turner’s career in rock\, soul\, R&B and pop. \nAnd Cristy brings a considerably deeper musical résumé to the job than simply being able to sing the songs. \nJenn Cristy Toured and Recorded With John Mellencamp\nBefore creating a nationally touring Tina Turner tribute\, Jenn Cristy spent part of her career onstage and in the studio with another Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. \nCristy toured and recorded with John Mellencamp as a backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. \nHer credits on Mellencamp’s 2001 album Cuttin’ Heads are unusually extensive. She played flute\, percussion\, piano\, organ and violin in addition to singing background vocals. The album also included musicians Steve Jordan and Willie Weeks and guest vocal appearances by Chuck D\, India.Arie and Trisha Yearwood. \nCristy’s work with Mellencamp took her onto national television as well\, with appearances that included Today\, Late Show with David Letterman\, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. \nShe eventually established her own career as a singer-songwriter and touring performer\, working across rock\, pop and soul and developing projects through Bloomington\, Indiana-based One Pulse Entertainment. \nThat versatility turns out to be particularly useful when the artist you’re celebrating is Tina Turner. \nThis Isn’t a Look-Alike Show\nThe distinction Cristy makes about Simply the Best is worth noting. \nIt’s not an impersonation. \nTribute shows can take several forms. Some attempt to reproduce a performer visually as closely as possible\, right down to costumes\, mannerisms and physical resemblance. Others concentrate almost entirely on recreating the original recordings. \nCristy’s show takes a third approach. \nShe’s interested in recreating what it felt like to watch Tina Turner perform. \nThat means the voice matters\, but so do movement\, personality\, interaction with the audience and the sense that the person at the center of the stage is having as much fun as everyone watching. \nCristy has said she has long felt a kinship with Turner’s music and performing style. \nIt’s easy to understand the attraction. \nBoth are singers who don’t stand still behind a microphone. \nTina Turner Was Built for the Stage\nThere are artists whose definitive work lives on records. \nTina Turner was different. \nThe records mattered\, but the stage completed them. \nHer voice could be gritty\, soulful\, vulnerable or ferocious. Then there was the physical performance: the dancing\, the hair\, the miniskirts\, the heels and the seemingly inexhaustible ability to command an arena. \nTurner didn’t simply sing rock music. \nShe performed it with an intensity that helped redefine what a female rock frontperson could look and sound like. \nThe Rock & Roll Hall of Fame describes her as an artist who shattered barriers for Black women in rock while raising the standard for generations of lead singers who followed. \nThat influence reaches from Janis Joplin and the rock performers of Turner’s early career through Prince\, Beyoncé\, Janet Jackson\, Rihanna and generations of artists who came afterward. \nCristy’s challenge Friday night isn’t simply hitting Turner’s notes. \nIt’s finding some of that electricity. \nBefore Tina Turner\, There Was Anna Mae Bullock\nThe story began far from an arena stage. \nTina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville\, Tennessee\, in 1939 and grew up in the rural South. \nHer musical career began after she encountered Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in St. Louis. Eventually she joined the act\, adopted the name Tina Turner and became the focal point of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. \nBy the 1960s\, the revue had developed a reputation as a formidable live act. \nThen came one of the great recordings of the era. \nRiver Deep – Mountain High Was Too Big to Fail\, Until It Did\nProducer Phil Spector saw something in Tina Turner that went beyond the revue. \nIn 1966\, he put her voice at the center of River Deep – Mountain High\, constructing one of the grandest examples of his famous Wall of Sound production technique around her. \nToday\, the recording is regarded as a landmark. \nAt the time\, America largely ignored it. \nThe single performed much better in Britain than in the United States\, where it failed to become the enormous hit Spector expected. \nTurner’s performance\, however\, was undeniable. \nShe had a voice capable of standing in front of an almost absurdly dense production and not disappearing inside it. \nDecades later\, River Deep – Mountain High remains part of the repertoire Cristy brings to the stage. \nAnd it represents an important part of Turner’s story. \nShe could sing over almost anything. \nThen Came Proud Mary\nIke & Tina Turner released their version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary in 1971. \nThey didn’t simply cover it. \nThey rebuilt it. \nThe arrangement famously begins slowly before exploding into the fast second half that became inseparable from Tina Turner. \nIt was a major hit and earned the duo a Grammy. \nMore than half a century later\, it’s almost impossible to imagine a Tina Turner tribute that doesn’t include it. \nThe song also captures why a live tribute to Turner works differently from a conventional greatest-hits show. \nEveryone knows what’s coming. \nThe audience knows the tempo is going to change. \nThey know the performance is about to take off. \nAnd they wait for it anyway. \nLeaving Ike Turner Meant Starting Over\nBehind the success was an abusive marriage that Turner later described publicly in painful detail. \nShe left Ike Turner in 1976. \nThe separation brought personal freedom but didn’t immediately bring career security. Turner had to rebuild. \nFor several years she performed wherever she could\, including television appearances and smaller venues\, while the music business increasingly treated her as a performer whose biggest years were behind her. \nShe was a Black woman entering her 40s in an industry particularly unforgiving of women as they aged. \nThen Tina Turner pulled off one of the most extraordinary second acts in popular music. \nPrivate Dancer Changed Everything at 44\nTurner released Private Dancer in 1984. \nShe was 44 years old. \nThe album transformed her from a veteran performer fighting to maintain a career into an international superstar. \nBetter Be Good to Me became a hit. \nThe Mark Knopfler-written Private Dancer became one of her signature recordings. \nBut the song that changed everything was What’s Love Got to Do with It. \nIt reached No. 1 in the United States and became Turner’s biggest hit. \nAt an age when the music industry routinely considered female pop stars past their commercial peak\, Turner was suddenly bigger than she had ever been. \nThe song earned three Grammy Awards\, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. \nThe comeback wasn’t nostalgia. \nIt was a new peak. \nMTV Met Its Match\nTurner’s timing was perfect in another way. \nMTV had arrived in 1981 and was transforming popular music into an increasingly visual medium. \nTurner was made for it. \nShe didn’t have to invent a camera-friendly stage personality. She’d been developing one for decades. \nVideos for songs from the Private Dancer era introduced her to an audience that may have had little memory of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. \nHer look became instantly identifiable. \nHer movement became part of the songs. \nAnd her voice worked just as well against the polished synthesizers and arena-rock production of the 1980s as it had against soul and R&B arrangements two decades earlier. \nShe had reinvented herself without ceasing to sound like Tina Turner. \nWe Don’t Need Another Hero and The Best Kept It Going\nThe comeback didn’t stop with one album. \nTurner starred as Aunty Entity opposite Mel Gibson in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and recorded We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) for the soundtrack. \nThen\, in 1989\, she released Foreign Affair. \nThat album included The Best. \nThe song wasn’t originally hers. Bonnie Tyler had recorded it first. \nBut Tina Turner took possession of it so thoroughly that most people now associate the song with her. \nIts enormous chorus\, Turner’s vocal delivery and its natural fit with an arena crowd transformed it into another signature song. \nIt also gave Cristy’s tribute its obvious name. \nAn Eight-Piece Band Recreates the Music Live\nSimply the Best isn’t built around backing tracks and a singer. \nThe touring production uses a full eight-piece live band\, allowing the arrangements to retain the punch that Turner’s music needs. \nThat’s particularly important because the catalog covers several musical eras. \nRiver Deep – Mountain High comes from the densely orchestrated soul production of the 1960s. \nProud Mary moves from slow-burning soul into full-speed rock and R&B. \nWhat’s Love Got to Do with It belongs unmistakably to the polished pop production of 1984. \nPrivate Dancer is moodier. \nWe Don’t Need Another Hero is cinematic. \nThe Best is built for an arena. \nCristy’s touring materials also reveal a broader repertoire including Nutbush City Limits\, Let’s Stay Together\, I Can’t Stand the Rain\, Better Be Good to Me and Private Dancer. \nThe show even reaches beyond Turner’s own recordings for an eclectic selection of additional favorites. \nThe common denominator isn’t one musical genre. \nIt’s energy. \nTurner’s Career Ultimately Lasted More Than 50 Years\nTina Turner eventually became one of those rare artists whose life story became almost as culturally familiar as the songs. \nShe sold out stadiums around the world. \nShe wrote autobiographies. \nAngela Bassett portrayed her in the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It. \nHer story became the stage production Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. \nThe documentary Tina revisited both her career and the complicated reality of repeatedly being asked to relive the most painful period of her life. \nAnd the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted her twice. \nIke & Tina Turner entered together in 1991. \nThirty years later\, Tina Turner was inducted again as a solo performer in 2021. \nShe died in Switzerland in 2023 at age 83. \nBy then\, the comeback that once seemed so improbable had become only one chapter in a career spanning more than half a century. \nThe UNITED Makes This One Intimate\nFriday’s Westerly performance isn’t happening in a giant arena. \nIt’s in the UNITED’s Black Box Auditorium. \nThe show is fully seated\, which makes this a more intimate version of a production that tours nationally. \nThat could work particularly well for Cristy’s approach. \nTurner’s concerts were famous for scale\, but her stage presence depended on connecting with an audience. In a smaller room\, there’s nowhere for the performer to hide and considerably less distance between the front row and the band. \nCristy has spent years touring as a performer in her own right. \nShe isn’t trying to become Tina Turner for two hours. \nShe’s taking what Turner left behind and putting it back where much of it made the most sense in the first place. \nOn a stage. \nWith a band. \nAnd with Proud Mary waiting to speed up. \nDetails\nEvent: Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 7:30 p.m.\nRunning Time: Approximately 120 minutes\nPerformer: Jenn Cristy\nProduction: Simply the Best: A Tribute to the Music of Tina Turner\nMusic: Rock / soul / R&B / pop\nBand: Full live band\nVenue: UNITED Black Box Auditorium\nAddress: 5 Canal Street\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nSeating: Fully seated performance\nTicket Policy: Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable\nAccessibility: The UNITED is wheelchair accessible; the theater recommends contacting the box office before purchasing tickets if accessible seating is needed\nBox Office: 401-388-8208\nParking: Street and public-lot parking is available in downtown Westerly \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/simply-the-best-tina-turner-tribute/
LOCATION:United Theatre\, 5 Canal Street\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:United Theater
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Simply-the-Best-–-Tina-Turner-Tribute-Brings-the-Queen-of-Rock-n-Roll-to-the-UNITED.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T223000
DTSTAMP:20260910T185939Z
CREATED:20260910T185939Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T185939Z
UID:10007545-1789155000-1789165800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Phred & Friends Jazz Trio at The Marquee
DESCRIPTION:Phred & Friends Jazz Trio at The Marquee on State Street\, New London\, Friday\, September 11\, for three hours of jazz led by New London vocalist Phred Mileski\, with Ken Fischer on keyboard and James Hunter on bass. \nThe trio performs from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the recently opened downtown New London jazz bar\, giving Mileski a particularly appropriate room for a repertoire that can move from classic jazz standards into funk and R&B. \nAnd because The Marquee opens at 3 p.m. Friday\, there’s an earlier option for anyone making a night of it: Happy Hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. \nPhred Mileski Has Sung Jazz From Connecticut to Bulgaria\nMileski is a familiar name in southeastern Connecticut’s music community\, but she’s difficult to confine to one musical category. \nHer own description of Phred & Friends is wonderfully concise: jazz\, funk and classic R&B. \nJazz\, however\, has been a major thread throughout her career. \nMileski is known for a notably wide vocal range and an improvisational approach that allows her to treat standards as something to interpret rather than simply reproduce. Her performances can move between straight-ahead jazz\, funkier arrangements and familiar American popular music. \nShe’s performed throughout Connecticut and well beyond it\, including appearances in New York and Bulgaria. \nCloser to home\, her long list of venues includes the Arts Café Mystic\, Foxwoods\, The Bee and Thistle Inn\, Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock\, Friday Night Folk in New London\, the Essex Yacht Club and the Lighthouse Inn. \nShe’s also appeared in enough different musical configurations that southeastern Connecticut audiences may have encountered her without realizing how much ground she covers. \nPhred & Friends Is Only One Side of Mileski’s Musical Life\nPhred & Friends is Mileski’s jazz-oriented project\, but her other groups reveal just how broad her musical interests are. \nSimply Phred is her eclectic solo act. \nWith Kenny & Phred\, she reworks classic rock and pop songs in a largely acoustic setting. \nThe Too-Timers\, her duo with Kipp Sturgeon\, gleefully jumps among American standards\, jazz\, folk\, country and calypso while using an assortment of instruments that can include guitar\, banjo\, ukulele\, melodica\, harmonica and percussion. \nMileski was also a member of The BeeKeepers\, an alternative-folk group with Amanda Sullivan-Schneider and Sylvie Abate. The trio concentrated on original songwriting alongside music written by women from the 1950s forward\, with Mileski contributing vocals\, piano\, accordion\, hand percussion and ukulele. \nThe BeeKeepers’ Songs from the Hive earned recognition as Best EP in the folk/singer-songwriter category from the Akademia Music Awards in 2017. \nBefore that\, Mileski performed with Sullivan-Schneider and flutist Megan Nelson in Celticity\, a chamber trio that created classical arrangements of traditional Celtic music. \nJazz is part of a much larger musical vocabulary. \nFriday’s Trio Keeps Things Intimate\nFor this performance\, Mileski pares things down. \nKen Fischer accompanies her on keyboard\, with James Hunter on bass. \nThat leaves considerable room inside the arrangements. \nWithout a large ensemble filling every measure\, a singer can interact directly with the keyboard and bass\, stretching phrases\, changing dynamics and allowing a familiar standard to develop differently from one performance to another. \nIt’s one of the reasons the jazz trio remains such an effective small-room format. \nAnd The Marquee is very much a small room. \nThe Marquee May Be New London’s Newest Music Venue\nAnyone who hasn’t heard of The Marquee on State Street can be forgiven. \nIt only opened this summer. \nThe new bar made its debut in July 2026 at 312 State Street\, in the downtown space previously occupied by DEVS\, Nico’s and Hanafin’s Public House. \nChristopher Leffert created the business with his parents\, Sean and Sayra Leffert\, combining three ideas that don’t normally occupy the same room: a classic movie palace\, a 1920s-style jazz club and a speakeasy. \nThe result is deliberately theatrical. \nClassic-film memorabilia helps establish the movie-house theme\, while a small performance stage makes live music central to the room rather than an occasional addition. \nThe main space seats a little more than 45 people. \nThere’s also a separate speakeasy area with room for approximately 20. \nFor a trio built around voice\, piano and bass\, that’s almost exactly the scale you’d want. \nClassic Movies Meet Live Jazz\nThe Marquee’s owners describe their concept as a place where classic cinema meets live jazz. \nThat pairing isn’t as arbitrary as it might initially sound. \nJazz and Hollywood grew up together during much of the 20th century. \nThe Great American Songbook that eventually became central to jazz included music written for Broadway shows and Hollywood films. Composers including George Gershwin\, Cole Porter\, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern wrote songs that later became raw material for generations of jazz musicians. \nA song could begin life in a musical\, become a pop hit and eventually turn into a jazz standard interpreted hundreds of different ways. \nThe Marquee takes some of that atmosphere and makes it literal\, surrounding live musicians with reminders of classic cinema. \nThe Bar Was Built Around Entertainment\nLive music isn’t an afterthought at The Marquee. \nIt was part of the concept before the doors opened. \nWhen the Leffert family sought approval for the business earlier this year\, plans called for live jazz and other music alongside entertainment that could eventually include comedians\, karaoke and DJs. \nThe goal was to contribute another venue to downtown New London’s existing arts district. \nThat’s a particularly interesting location for it. \nThe Garde Arts Center is only a short walk away on State Street. Hygienic Art sits nearby on Bank Street. Restaurants\, galleries and small music venues extend through the surrounding downtown blocks. \nThe Marquee is positioning itself between those worlds: somewhere to stop before a show\, somewhere to hear a show of its own and somewhere to stay afterward. \nFriday Night Starts Before the First Note\nThe music doesn’t begin until 7:30 p.m.\, but Friday’s poster points out another option. \nHappy Hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. \nThe Marquee is cocktail-forward\, with classic cocktails and its own house creations forming an important part of the concept. \nFood is available as well. \nThe venue serves traditional pub food\, specialty pizza and shareable small plates\, making it possible to arrive early for food and drinks rather than treating the room solely as a late-night bar. \nFriday hours extend until 12:30 a.m.\, so the night doesn’t have to end when the trio finishes at 10:30. \nA Local Singer in a Brand-New Jazz Room\nThere are bigger concerts happening around southeastern Connecticut this weekend. \nThis isn’t one of them. \nThat’s part of the appeal. \nPhred & Friends puts a singer with years of experience in the region into a room built specifically to make small-scale live music feel like an event. \nNo arena. \nNo enormous stage. \nNo need for elaborate production. \nJust Phred Mileski singing\, Ken Fischer at the keyboard and James Hunter on bass\, with a few dozen people close enough to hear what happens between the notes. \nFor a new venue trying to establish jazz as part of its identity on State Street\, that’s a pretty good Friday night. \nDetails\nEvent: Phred & Friends Jazz Trio\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 7:30–10:30 p.m.\nVenue: The Marquee on State Street\nAddress: 312 State Street\, New London\, CT 06320\nPerformers: Phred Mileski\, vocals; Ken Fischer\, keyboard; James Hunter\, bass\nMusic: Jazz\, funk and classic R&B\nHappy Hour: 4–6 p.m.\nFriday Venue Hours: 3 p.m.–12:30 a.m.\nSetting: Indoor jazz bar and cocktail lounge\nFood: Pub fare\, specialty pizza and shareable small plates are available\nDrinks: Classic and signature cocktails are a focus of the bar program\nVenue Phone: 860-446-6037\nSeating: The main room is an intimate space with seating for more than 45; a separate speakeasy area seats approximately 20 \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/phred-friends-jazz-trio-at-the-marquee/
LOCATION:The Marquee on State Street\, 312 State Street\, New London\, CT\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:The Marquee on State Street
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Phred-and-Friends-Jazz-Trio-at-The-Marquee.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T230000
DTSTAMP:20260908T011330Z
CREATED:20260908T011200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T011330Z
UID:10007515-1789156800-1789167600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Take It To The Bridge at the Charlestown Rathskeller 2026
DESCRIPTION:Take It To The Bridge at the Charlestown Rathskeller 2026 brings an eight-piece Rhode Island band built for the dance floor to Charlestown on Friday\, September 11. The band takes the stage from 8 to 11 p.m. with a mix of funk\, soul\, pop\, and rock & roll spanning decades. \nTickets are $10 in advance\, plus Eventbrite fees\, or $15 at the door. The Rathskeller encourages concertgoers to arrive early for dinner and drinks before heading Down Back for the show. \nFor anyone who has only encountered Take It To The Bridge at a wedding or private party\, this is a chance to see the full band in its natural public-show setting\, with horns\, multiple vocalists and a rhythm section designed to keep people moving. \nTake It To The Bridge Started With a Wedding\nTake It To The Bridge traces its beginnings to Rhode Island in 2014\, but it didn’t begin with a plan to create one of the state’s established event bands. \nFounders Greg and Christyn Marcotte met while serving in the Rhode Island National Guard in 2009 and married in 2012. A couple of years later\, friends Jill and Aquila asked them to provide the music for their wedding. \nThe Marcottes decided to build a band for the occasion. \nThey recruited musicians Greg knew through teaching and performing around Rhode Island\, including Carl and Scott. Carl recommended former bandmate Colby as lead vocalist\, only for the group to discover that Colby had independently been asked to serve as master of ceremonies at the same wedding. \nThe coincidence helped create the core of a band that stayed together after the wedding was over. \nAnother Rhode Island National Guard connection expanded the lineup in December 2016. John joined the musicians onstage during a New Year’s Eve performance at the Newport Blues Café\, and his performance led to a permanent place in the group. \nMore than a decade after that first wedding\, Take It To The Bridge remains based in Rhode Island and performs at weddings\, private functions and public shows throughout New England. \nWhat’s With the Name?\nThere’s a little music history tucked into the band’s name. \n“Take it to the bridge” is a phrase famously associated with James Brown’s Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine. Brown calls out instructions to his musicians during the performance\, including directing the band toward the song’s bridge. \nA bridge is the section of a song that breaks away from the repeated verse-and-chorus structure\, often introducing a new progression or musical idea before returning to familiar territory. \nFor Take It To The Bridge\, the name fits the band’s funk and soul roots as well as its approach to live performance: a band less interested in quietly reproducing a playlist than in creating a party around it. \nAn Eight-Piece Band With a Big Repertoire\nThe full Take It To The Bridge lineup performing at the Rathskeller is an eight-piece ensemble. \nFounders Greg and Christyn Marcotte remain part of the group\, with Greg on lead guitar and Christyn contributing trombone and vocals. The current core also includes drummer and general manager Josh DeFedele and lead vocalist Sarah Van Pelt\, along with longtime members and a network of Rhode Island professional musicians. \nThe instrumentation is one reason the band’s repertoire can move around so freely. \nTake It To The Bridge works across funk\, soul\, pop and rock & roll\, rather than limiting itself to a particular decade or artist. Its public performances draw from the same broad repertoire that has made the group a regular choice for weddings and large events. \nThat means the September 11 show isn’t a tribute concert where the audience knows precisely which catalog is coming. The appeal is the opposite: recognizable music from different eras connected by arrangements built around a live rhythm section\, vocals and horns. \nThe Rathskeller describes the result simply as a night of non-stop dancing. \nThe Full Band\, the Bridge and the Trio\nTake It To The Bridge has expanded into several configurations over the years\, which is worth knowing when looking at its local schedule. \nThe September 11 performance is the full Take It To The Bridge band\, not one of its scaled-down versions. \nThe group also operates The Bridge\, a four-piece configuration with a complete rhythm section and vocals intended for smaller rooms\, and a Take It To The Bridge Trio that strips the music down further for more intimate performances. \nIn fact\, the Trio returns to the Rathskeller just nine days after this show\, playing a free Sunday afternoon set on September 20. \nFor Friday night’s performance\, however\, the Rathskeller is getting the larger eight-piece version and the fuller funk-and-soul sound that comes with it. \nDown Back at the Rathskeller\nThe setting is a big part of the night. \nThe Charlestown Rathskeller sits back from Old Coach Road on a wooded property that feels considerably more secluded than its address suggests. \nThe restaurant itself combines a historic tavern atmosphere with a large seasonal outdoor entertainment area known as Down Back. During the warmer months\, the grounds become one of South County’s more distinctive live-music spaces\, with a stage\, outdoor seating\, lawn games and a large fire pit surrounded by trees. \nThe Rathskeller runs live music Down Back throughout the season\, generally from May into October. \nTake It To The Bridge is already familiar with the venue. The full band has made multiple Rathskeller appearances during the 2026 season\, including shows in May\, July and August before returning for the September 11 date. The Trio has its own dates on the schedule as well. \nSo this isn’t simply a touring act dropping into Charlestown for one night. It’s a band with an established relationship with the venue and its audience. \nCome Early and Make Dinner Part of the Night\nWith music beginning at 8 p.m.\, there’s plenty of time to turn the concert into dinner and a show. \nThe Rathskeller opens at noon on Fridays\, and its kitchen operates until 10 p.m. \nThe menu leans into hearty tavern food\, with burgers\, wings and fries alongside New England seafood such as clam chowder\, stuffies\, calamari and fish and chips. Entrées expand into dishes including steak frites\, linguine and clams and jägerschnitzel. \nThe Rathskeller’s fries have become something of a house signature\, while the bar offers draft beer\, wine and cocktails. \nFriday and Saturday nights run later than the kitchen. The Rathskeller remains open until 1 a.m.\, giving anyone who isn’t ready to call it a night when the band finishes at 11 somewhere to stay for another drink. \nA Friday Night Built for Dancing\nThere’s an important distinction between Take It To The Bridge and plenty of bands that play familiar songs. \nThis is an event band. \nThe musicians have spent years playing weddings and celebrations where their job isn’t simply to perform well. They have to read a room\, maintain momentum and convince people who weren’t necessarily planning to dance that sitting down suddenly seems like the less interesting option. \nThe Rathskeller gives that kind of band a fitting setting. \nCome early enough and September 11 can begin with dinner at a table in a wooded Rhode Island tavern. By 8 p.m.\, the action shifts Down Back\, the eight-piece band takes over\, and the rest of the evening belongs to funk\, soul\, pop and rock & roll. \nDetails\nEvent: Take It To The Bridge at the Charlestown Rathskeller 2026\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 8–11 p.m.\nPerformer: Take It To The Bridge\nBand: Eight-piece Rhode Island event band\nMusic: Funk\, soul\, pop and rock & roll spanning multiple decades\nVenue: The Charlestown Rathskeller\nAddress: 489A Old Coach Road\, Charlestown\, RI 02813\nAdvance Tickets: $10 plus Eventbrite fees\nDoor Price: $15\nRefunds: No refunds\nFood: Full Rathskeller restaurant menu available; kitchen open until 10 p.m.\nFriday Venue Hours: Noon–1 a.m.\nPhone: 401-792-1000\nUpcoming Return: Take It To The Bridge Trio performs a free show at the Rathskeller Sunday\, September 20 from 4–7 p.m. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/take-it-to-the-bridge-at-the-charlestown-rathskeller-2026/
LOCATION:Rathskeller\, 489A Old Coach Rd\, Charlestown\, RI\, 02813\, United States
CATEGORIES:Rathskeller
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Take-It-To-The-Bridge-at-the-Charlestown-Rathskeller-2026.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T203000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T223000
DTSTAMP:20260626T233945Z
CREATED:20260513T011926Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260626T233945Z
UID:10001497-1789158600-1789165800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center's Stargazing Nights
DESCRIPTION:Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center’s Stargazing Nights turn a quiet Friday evening in Ninigret Park into one of the most atmospheric experiences in southern New England. Hosted by Frosty Drew Observatory & Science Center\, the weekly gathering invites visitors to explore the night sky through powerful telescopes while astronomers guide guests across planets\, star clusters\, distant galaxies\, and the glowing band of the Milky Way overhead. Under some of the darkest skies in Rhode Island\, the experience feels less like a formal science program and more like stumbling into a community of people quietly obsessed with the universe. \nAs darkness settles over Ninigret Park\, visitors can expect views that change depending on the season and sky conditions\, often including Saturn’s rings\, Jupiter’s moons\, the cratered surface of the Moon\, and deep space objects rarely visible in brighter suburban areas. The observatory’s Sky Theatre and telescope stations create an immersive environment where curious first-timers mingle with amateur astronomers and longtime stargazers. There’s something strangely calming about standing in near silence while strangers take turns peering into the cosmos\, especially on clear summer nights when the Milky Way stretches visibly across the sky. \nThe observatory typically opens around 8:30 p.m. on Friday nights and remains active through at least 10:30 p.m.\, sometimes later depending on weather and viewing conditions. Because the event is weather dependent\, updates are posted on the day of the event before 3 p.m. Organizers also note that Ninigret Park’s dark sky rules prohibit white light use after dusk in order to protect night vision and sensitive astronomical equipment\, giving the entire area an almost surreal glow of dim red lights and shadowy pathways. Tickets for Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center’s Stargazing Nights can be purchased by clicking the event link below. \nWhen ticket sales open\, a link to purchase / acquire tickets will be added to the “Cost” field on the event page. Once event capacity is reached\, these fields will be listed as “Sold Out“\, and we will be unable to allow entry to any more guests. \nRules and Suggestions:\n• Guests should avoid using white flashlights\, phone flashlights\, or bright screens after dusk\n• Red light flashlights are encouraged to preserve night vision\n• Bug spray is highly recommended during warmer months due to mosquitoes and insects near the wildlife refuge\n• Weather conditions may affect visibility or event operations\n• Children ages 5 and older require tickets\n• Arriving early is recommended for the best viewing opportunities and parking access \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/frosty-drew-observatory-and-science-centers-stargazing-nights/2026-09-11/
LOCATION:Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center\, 61-62 Park Lane\, Charlestown\, RI\, 02813\, United States
CATEGORIES:Frosty Drew Observatory and Science Center
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Frosty-Drew-Observatory-and-Science-Centers-Stargazing-Nights.jpeg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T120000
DTSTAMP:20260511T024639Z
CREATED:20260508T022649Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260511T024639Z
UID:10000897-1789203600-1789214400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Stonington Village Farmers Market
DESCRIPTION:Stonington Village Farmers Market has become one of the defining Saturday morning traditions along the Connecticut shoreline\, bringing together local farms\, food vendors\, artisans\, musicians\, and neighbors inside and outside the historic Velvet Mill. Running year-round since becoming a permanent seasonal fixture in 2008\, the market transforms with the seasons\, moving outdoors during the warmer months and indoors during late fall and winter while continuing to serve as a gathering place for the community. \nThe market offers far more than produce stands. Visitors can browse locally grown vegetables and fruits\, cheeses\, baked goods\, meats\, seafood\, maple syrup\, flowers\, mushrooms\, prepared foods\, and handmade crafts while live music plays in the background. The atmosphere feels distinctly coastal New England\, blending small-town community energy with the creativity and food culture that defines Stonington Village. Families\, dog owners\, and longtime locals mingle throughout the morning while vendors showcase everything from handmade soaps and pottery to organic kombucha and Mediterranean cuisine. \nWhat makes the Stonington Village Farmers Market stand out is how deeply connected it feels to the rhythm of the region itself. Some visitors arrive early for greenhouse spinach or fresh seafood before it sells out\, while others come simply to wander with coffee in hand and reconnect with neighbors. Between the local farmers\, prepared food vendors\, musicians\, and rotating artisan booths\, the market has evolved into more than a shopping destination. It has become a weekly community ritual that reflects the character\, creativity\, and agricultural roots of southeastern Connecticut. \nParticipating Vendors & Farms \n\nAPIS VERDI\nBroad Brook Acres\nDavis Farm\nISSA Catering\nJon Fish\nSeacoast Mushrooms\nSugar Maple Farms\nSweet Acre Farm\nWakin’ Up Waggin’\n18th Century Purity Farm\nStonyledge Farm and Studio Farm Products\nSummer Hill Catering\nCato Corner Farm\nTreatzles\nFiber + Mud\nYALLA\n\nSponsors & Organizers \n\nStonington Village Improvement Association (SVIA)\nVelvet Mill\n\n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/stonington-village-farmers-market-3/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Velvet Mill\, 22 Bayview Ave\, Stonington\, CT\, 06378\, United States
CATEGORIES:Velvet Mill
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Stonington-Village-Farmers-Market-at-the-Velvet-Mill.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T180000
DTSTAMP:20260901T212201Z
CREATED:20260901T212201Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260901T212201Z
UID:10007314-1789203600-1789236000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill 2026: Complete Guide
DESCRIPTION:B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill is now open for the 2026 season\, beginning another fall of fresh-pressed sweet cider\, cider donuts\, traditional hard cider\, apple wine and one of the most unusual pieces of working history in Connecticut. \nThe family-owned Old Mystic landmark opened for the season September 1 and is currently scheduled to operate seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 129 North Stonington Road. \nBut calling Clyde’s a cider shop doesn’t quite explain why generations of families make a trip here every fall. \nThe mill has been family-owned since 1881. Fourth\, fifth and sixth generations of the family still work in the business. Apples are still crushed and pressed using historic machinery powered by steam. Visitors can watch the machinery operate\, descend into the cellar for traditional hard cider tastings\, sample apple wines in a converted grist mill and leave with a bag of cider donuts. \nClyde’s calls itself the oldest steam-powered cider mill in the United States. \nMore precisely\, it is the last operating steam-powered cider mill in the country\, according to the mill\, and its historic cider-making machinery has been recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. \nIt isn’t a reproduction of an old cider mill. \nIt’s the real thing. \nA Mystic Fall Tradition Since 1881\nThe story begins with Benjamin F. Clyde. \nIn 1881\, Clyde began producing cider from apples he had pressed at other local mills. He eventually rented a press before purchasing his own mill in 1897. \nThe equipment that followed would become the heart of the operation visitors still come to see. \nClyde purchased a screw press manufactured by Boomer & Boschert of Syracuse\, New York. The company also supplied the apple grater\, elevator and cider pump\, along with plans for the mill building. \nThe machinery was installed in 1898. \nAt the time\, cider mills were hardly unusual in rural America. \nThey served much the same role for apple growers that grist mills did for farmers growing grain. Orchards could bring surplus apples to a centrally located mill\, where the fruit could be processed and pressed into juice. Some of that juice could then be fermented into hard cider. \nMost of those community mills disappeared. \nClyde’s didn’t. \nThe Steam-Powered Mill Is Still Working\nThat’s what makes a visit different from touring a preserved historic building. \nThe machinery still has a job. \nApples enter the cider-making system and are elevated to a grinder\, where they’re reduced to pulp. That pulp is prepared for pressing\, and the historic screw press applies the tremendous pressure needed to extract the juice. \nThe technology was impressive for its era. \nAccording to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers\, the all-steel screw press could apply pressure at three speeds and represented one of the last generations of screw presses before hydraulic presses became widespread during the 20th century. \nASME designated B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1994\, recognizing the machinery as a rare survivor of an industry that was once common throughout America’s apple-growing regions. \nMore than a century after the equipment was installed\, Clyde’s still uses the mill to make cider. \nWhen Can You Watch Clyde’s Press Cider?\nVisitors don’t have to settle for looking at the machinery. \nClyde’s runs it during the season. \nThe mill’s typical pressing schedule is: \nTuesday and Thursday: 10 a.m.–noon\nSaturday and Sunday: 10 a.m.–noon \nThe schedule can vary because Clyde’s presses according to production needs\, so the machinery isn’t guaranteed to be running continuously throughout those periods. \nEven when the press isn’t operating\, visitors are welcome to look inside the historic press building. \nFor anyone specifically interested in seeing the steam-powered machinery at work\, a pressing morning is the best time to plan a visit. \nHow Clyde’s Makes Sweet Cider\nFresh sweet cider is the product that started everything. \nClyde’s purchases its apples from small orchards rather than operating a pick-your-own orchard of its own. The apples are processed at the mill and pressed into cider using the historic equipment. \nThe finished sweet cider is flash pasteurized on the property. \nVisitors can buy cider to take home or drink it while visiting\, and seasonal cider drinks have become part of the experience alongside the mill’s baked goods. \nThat combination has helped turn what was originally a working agricultural business into a fall destination. \nYou can come to learn how a 19th-century cider press works. \nYou can also come because you want cider and a donut. \nNeither is the wrong reason. \nAbout Those Clyde’s Cider Donuts\nFor plenty of visitors\, the steam engine has competition. \nClyde’s cider donuts have become almost as closely associated with the mill as the cider itself. \nThe store sells its well-known cider donuts along with other baked goods and seasonal treats. The selection can vary\, but the broader shop also carries jarred products\, honey from local beekeepers\, candied apples made by the family and other locally produced goods. \nIt’s part bakery\, part country store and part historic attraction. \nAnd on a busy fall weekend\, the line is evidence that plenty of people know exactly what they came for. \nThen There Is the Cider Downstairs\nThe word “cider” gets considerably more complicated at Clyde’s. \nSweet cider is only part of the story. \nClyde’s also makes traditional hard cider using a process very different from the sweeter\, carbonated canned ciders that have become common in supermarkets and bars. \nThe hard cider begins with apple juice and ferments before aging in oak whiskey barrels. \nThe process from juice to finished hard cider typically takes about a year. \nAfter fermentation and aging\, the hard cider receives relatively little filtration before being sold. That preserves more of the raw\, oaky character produced by the barrel. \nThe result is considerably stronger than many commercial hard ciders. \nClyde’s hard ciders and apple wines generally contain 12 to 14 percent alcohol. \nHard Cider vs. Apple Wine: What’s the Difference?\nThis is one of the more interesting parts of Clyde’s operation because the two products begin in essentially the same place. \nBoth the hard cider and apple wine start as fermented apple juice aged in oak whiskey barrels. \nWhat happens afterward separates them. \nClyde’s hard cider is only lightly filtered to remove sediment. That leaves it with a bolder flavor\, more pronounced oak character and more bite. \nThe apple wine receives considerably more filtration. \nThat additional processing produces a smoother\, somewhat sweeter product that is also shelf stable before opening. \nSo someone expecting Clyde’s hard cider to taste like a modern canned hard cider may be surprised. \nThis is closer to an older cider-making tradition. \nWhat’s in the Hard Cider Cellar?\nThe hard cider cellar sits underneath the press building. \nThat’s where visitors can taste Clyde’s traditional hard ciders and where the product has been made for generations. \nAvailability changes throughout the season\, but Clyde’s 2026 lineup includes several recurring varieties. \nThe Original is the starting point. It’s dry\, without added fruit flavors competing with the oak character of the barrel. \nLucky Lion is also dry and crisp\, with a character Clyde’s says some drinkers compare to Scotch. \nBlackout goes even further in that direction. It’s Clyde’s most popular hard cider and wine flavor\, with strong oak notes that the mill describes as almost reminiscent of whiskey. \nThen things get fruitier. \nBoomerang combines apple and cranberry for a tart\, sweeter cider. \nGoodfella adds blackberry and lands on the sweeter end of the lineup. \nYellow Jacket combines apple and orange\, producing some sweetness with a citrus bite. \nCherry Bomb adds another fruit-driven option. \nBecause Clyde’s rotates its hard ciders\, individual varieties can change during the season. \nThe Apple Wine List Goes Much Further\nThe wine side of the operation offers even more variety. \nClyde’s currently lists 14 apple wines\, ranging from dry expressions of apple to much sweeter fruit combinations. \nApple Wine is the driest of the wine lineup. \nSpiced Apple uses mulling spices for a distinctly fall-oriented version. \nSpider Cider combines sweetness with pumpkin spices and can be warmed or used in a hot toddy. \nStrawberry Bliss is the sweetest wine in the lineup\, combining apple and strawberry. \nBlueberry Spinner combines apple and blueberry. \nApple Raspberry leans sweet but tart. \nCider House Blend combines apple\, orange and cranberry. \nSeveral of the hard cider varieties\, including Original\, Lucky Lion\, Blackout\, Boomerang\, Goodfella and Yellow Jacket\, are also produced as wines. \nThe distinction comes back to filtration. \nSame roots. \nDifferent finish. \nYes\, You Can Taste Them for Free\nClyde’s offers separate hard cider and wine tastings throughout its season. \nAnd the tastings are free. \nNo purchase is required and no reservation is necessary. \nVisitors can sample up to four hard ciders and up to four wines at their respective tasting locations. \nHard cider tastings take place in the cellar beneath the press building. \nWine tastings are held in the tasting room\, which has its own connection to the property’s history: the building is a converted grist mill once used to produce johnnycake meal. \nTastings are first-come\, first-served. \nCurrent tasting hours are: \nMonday–Saturday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.\nSunday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. \nEveryone participating in a tasting must show a valid ID\, regardless of age or appearance. Clyde’s does not accept expired IDs or photographs of identification. \nConnecticut alcohol rules also mean Clyde’s cannot sell its hard cider or wine before 10 a.m. on Sundays. \nA Few Clyde’s Flavors to Know Before You Taste\nIf you don’t know where to start\, the tasting bottles are generally arranged from driest to sweetest\, and the staff can help narrow the choices. \nFor something dry: Original or Apple Wine. \nFor strong oak character: Blackout. \nFor dry and crisp: Lucky Lion. \nFor tart cranberry: Boomerang. \nFor something sweeter: Goodfella. \nFor fall spice: Spiced Apple or Spider Cider. \nFor very sweet fruit: Strawberry Bliss or Blueberry Spinner. \nOne warning for anyone accustomed to mass-market hard cider: remember the alcohol content. \nAt 12 to 14 percent ABV\, Clyde’s hard cider is much closer to wine strength than a typical bottle or can of commercial cider. \nCan You Bring Back a Clyde’s Growler?\nYes. \nClyde’s sells 64-ounce growlers of hard cider and offers growler refills. \nThere are a couple of important rules. \nClyde’s refills growlers rather than exchanging them\, so customers should clean their growler before bringing it back. The mill can only refill glass growlers that have a stamped or imprinted 64-ounce measurement. \nWine cannot be used for growler fills. \nThe refill program is for hard cider. \nHard cider should also be kept cool after purchase. Clyde’s recommends refrigeration. \nThere’s More Than Cider\nThe tasting room also contains Clyde’s gift shop\, with merchandise and locally made products that can include handmade earrings\, postcards and art prints. \nElsewhere at the mill\, visitors can browse honey produced by local beekeepers\, jarred foods\, family-made candied apples\, baked goods and other seasonal products. \nThat makes it possible to spend considerably more time at Clyde’s than simply buying a gallon of cider and heading home. \nWatch the press. \nGet cider and donuts. \nExplore the store. \nGo downstairs for a hard cider tasting. \nVisit the wine tasting room. \nBrowse the gift shop. \nIt’s effectively several different experiences spread across the historic property. \nIs B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill Good for Kids?\nYes. \nClyde’s welcomes children of all ages. \nThe working mill is also an opportunity to show kids a piece of machinery doing the job it was actually designed to do more than a century ago. \nThere is no alcohol involved in the regular sweet cider\, and the bakery\, cider and mill demonstration make Clyde’s an easy family fall stop. \nJust don’t confuse the two kinds of cider. \nThe traditional hard cider and apple wines are 12 to 14 percent alcohol and are strictly for adults 21 and older. \nCan You Pick Apples at Clyde’s?\nNo. \nThis is one of the most useful things to know before making the trip. \nB.F. Clyde’s is a cider mill\, not a pick-your-own orchard. \nThe mill purchases apples from small orchards and uses them to produce its cider. \nIf apple picking is part of your fall plans\, you’ll need to visit an orchard separately. \nCan You Bring a Dog?\nYes\, with restrictions. \nLeashed pets are permitted on the grounds. \nThey aren’t allowed inside the buildings or on the porch\, and visitors need to bring whatever they need to clean up after their pets. \nParking Can Be the Hardest Part of a Fall Visit\nClyde’s popularity comes with one predictable problem. \nIt gets busy. \nThe main parking lot can fill during peak periods\, particularly on fall weekends. \nClyde’s asks visitors to try the main lot first and to respect posted no-parking areas and neighboring properties if parking along nearby roads. \nAn auxiliary lot is available at 49 North Stonington Road. It’s approximately four-tenths of a mile from the mill\, so visitors using it should expect a walk. \nIf your schedule is flexible\, a weekday visit can make the entire experience easier. \nIf you’re coming specifically to see the press operate\, Tuesday or Thursday morning offers the combination of a weekday visit and a scheduled pressing window. \nClyde’s Isn’t a Museum\, and That’s the Point\nThere are plenty of places where historic machinery survives behind ropes. \nClyde’s is different. \nBenjamin Clyde started making cider in 1881. \nHe acquired his own mill in the 1890s. \nThe equipment installed in 1898 survived the arrival of hydraulic presses\, mass food production\, supermarkets\, interstate highways and more than a century of changes in how Americans buy their food. \nThe family survived with it. \nToday\, fourth\, fifth and sixth generations are involved in the operation. \nEvery September\, the doors open again. \nApples arrive. \nThe steam-powered machinery starts moving. \nFresh cider begins flowing. \nAnd people line up for cider donuts. \nThat’s why B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill is more than another place to add to a Connecticut fall checklist. It’s a piece of New England’s agricultural and industrial history that never stopped doing its job. \n2026 Visitor Guide\nAttraction: B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill\n2026 Season Opening: September 1\, 2026\nCurrent Hours: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.\, seven days a week\nLocation: 129 North Stonington Road\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nAdmission: Free\nChildren: Welcome\nPets: Leashed pets allowed on the grounds; not inside buildings or on the porch\nApple Picking: No\nSweet Cider: Available\nCider Donuts and Baked Goods: Available\nHard Cider: Available for adults 21+\nApple Wine: Available for adults 21+\nAlcohol Content: Hard cider and wine are generally 12–14% ABV\nTastings: Free; no reservation required\nHard Cider Tastings: Cellar beneath the press building\nWine Tastings: Tasting room\nTasting Hours: Monday–Saturday\, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday\, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.\nTypical Pressing Schedule: Tuesday\, Thursday\, Saturday and Sunday\, 10 a.m.–noon\nParking: Main lot plus auxiliary parking at 49 North Stonington Road\nThanksgiving: Closed\nShipping: Not available\nPreorders/Call-Ahead Orders: Not available \nHard Cider Menu\nAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers History \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/b-f-clydes-cider-mill-2026-complete-guide/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill\, 129 North Stonington Road\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/BF-Clydes-Cider-Mill-2026-Complete-Guide.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T123000
DTSTAMP:20260910T030843Z
CREATED:20260910T030843Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T030843Z
UID:10007535-1789207200-1789216200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Fall Foraging with Amelia South at DPNC
DESCRIPTION:Fall Foraging with Amelia South at DPNC takes participants off the grocery-store produce aisle and onto the trails of Mystic on Saturday\, September 12\, for a hands-on introduction to identifying and sustainably harvesting wild foods and useful plants. \nThe adult program runs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and is led by Amelia South\, a Connecticut clinical herbalist\, longtime forager\, and founder of Black Sun Farm in Killingly. \nRather than presenting foraging as simply finding something in the woods that happens to be edible\, South teaches identification\, responsible harvesting\, and the larger skill of learning to recognize the plants growing around us. \nIt’s a skill she’s been developing for about two decades. \nAmelia South Started Foraging in 2006\nSouth describes herself as a clinical herbalist\, foraging instructor\, author\, and founder of Black Sun Farm and the No-BS Herbalist. \nHer relationship with wild food began in 2006\, when she started intentionally foraging. Her interest expanded into herbalism and natural health several years later\, and she began growing food\, preparing herbal products and studying how plants traditionally have been used as both food and medicine. \nToday\, she teaches classes and guided foraging walks around Connecticut. \nSouth received her Clinical Herbalist certification through Heart of Herbs Herbal School in July 2026 and has also studied health sciences. She says she has spent nearly 20 years learning about plants\, food and the human body. \nThat experience is important for a subject where confidence can become dangerous very quickly. \nKnowing that a plant is “probably” something isn’t good enough if you’re planning to eat it. \nForaging Begins With Identification\nOne of the first lessons of responsible foraging is also the least exciting: \nIf you aren’t certain what something is\, don’t eat it. \nPlants and mushrooms can have look-alikes\, and visual similarities that appear insignificant to a beginner can separate an edible species from one that can cause illness. \nSouth’s other foraging programs have specifically addressed how to distinguish edible and medicinal species from potential look-alikes\, moving from instruction into the field so participants can practice identification with actual plants. \nSaturday’s DPNC program puts that lesson directly on the landscape. \nInstead of looking at photographs or specimens on a table\, participants will walk the Nature Center trails and learn to recognize herbs and other edible plants where they actually grow. \nThat means paying attention to more than a flower. \nLeaves\, stems\, bark\, growth patterns\, habitat\, scent\, texture and season can all provide clues. \nOver time\, the goal is to stop seeing an anonymous wall of green. \nFall Changes What’s Available\nA September foraging walk is a very different experience from one held in April or June. \nPlants change through the seasons. \nSpring often emphasizes young greens\, shoots and flowers. By late summer and early fall\, the landscape begins shifting toward fruits\, berries\, nuts\, seeds and roots\, while some familiar plants become easier to identify because they’ve reached a mature stage. \nExactly what participants find Saturday will depend on what is growing along the trails that morning. \nThat’s part of foraging. \nThere is no supermarket inventory sheet guaranteeing that a particular wild food will be waiting on a particular shelf. \nWeather\, habitat\, recent rainfall\, wildlife and the timing of an individual plant all affect what appears. \nA good foraging walk therefore teaches something more transferable than where to find one specific plant. \nIt teaches how to look. \nSustainable Harvesting Means Knowing What to Leave Behind\nFinding an edible plant doesn’t automatically mean it should be picked. \nDPNC specifically describes Saturday’s program as teaching participants how to sustainably harvest wild herbs and other edibles. \nThat’s an important part of modern foraging. \nA responsible harvester considers how abundant a plant is\, which portion is being removed\, whether harvesting will kill it\, how much should be left for reproduction and what role the plant plays in the surrounding ecosystem. \nRoots present an obvious example. Harvesting a few leaves may allow a perennial plant to continue growing. Digging up its root can remove the entire plant. \nSeeds\, berries and nuts are also food for wildlife and part of the plant’s reproductive cycle. \nRare or threatened species shouldn’t become dinner simply because someone has learned to identify them. \nSouth has spoken publicly about approaching wildcrafting with the needs of the plant in mind rather than simply harvesting whenever something can be sold or used. \nThe lesson is straightforward: knowing what you can harvest is only half the skill. \nYou also need to know whether you should. \nSouth Has Taught People to Find Food in Their Own Backyards\nOne of the appealing things about foraging is that it doesn’t necessarily require traveling deep into wilderness. \nAt a June 2026 Wild Ones program in Fairfield County\, South spent nearly two hours walking a four-acre property and identifying edible and traditionally medicinal plants growing there. \nParticipants eventually used some of what they encountered in hands-on demonstrations\, including preparing eggs with sorrel and chickweed and making syrup using shagbark hickory bark. \nThe experience illustrated something beginners frequently discover. \nOnce someone teaches you what to recognize\, plants that previously registered as “weeds” or background vegetation begin acquiring names. \nThe landscape hasn’t changed. \nYour ability to read it has. \nA Nature Center Is a Natural Classroom\nDenison Pequotsepos Nature Center provides an unusually good setting for that kind of lesson. \nDPNC’s protected lands contain forests\, wetlands\, meadows\, ponds and streams\, giving visitors access to multiple southeastern Connecticut habitats within the same trail system. \nMore than 10 miles of trails connect the Nature Center and surrounding protected lands\, including Coogan Farm. \nIndividual routes around the Nature Center pass through markedly different environments. The Meadow Loop includes boardwalks and wetland habitat\, while other trails enter forest\, follow Pequotsepos Brook or pass old granite quarry areas and glacial terrain. \nThat habitat diversity matters to a forager because plants aren’t randomly distributed. \nSome prefer wet ground. \nOthers thrive along disturbed edges. \nSome need open sunlight. \nOthers belong beneath a forest canopy. \nLearning where a plant is likely to grow can eventually become as useful as memorizing what its leaves look like. \nDPNC Has Been Teaching People to Read This Landscape for Decades\nThe foraging walk also fits the broader purpose of Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center. \nThe Mystic nonprofit operates a nature sanctuary\, natural history museum\, wildlife rehabilitation program and environmental education center. \nIts grounds support native wildlife and a substantial bird population\, while the Nature Center cares for non-releasable birds of prey and other animal ambassadors used in education programs. \nDPNC’s programming ranges from birding and wildlife programs to pond exploration\, gardening\, mushroom events\, forest bathing and guided hikes. \nForaging adds another way of understanding the same environment. \nA botanist might look at a plant and think about taxonomy. \nA wildlife biologist might consider what eats it. \nA gardener might think about whether it belongs in a landscape. \nA forager asks another question: \nWhat relationship have people had with this plant? \nForaging Is Part Natural History\, Part Human History\nLong before supermarkets\, refrigeration and year-round produce shipments\, knowing the local landscape wasn’t a hobby. \nIt was knowledge connected directly to food and survival. \nPeople learned when particular plants emerged\, which parts were edible\, when nuts ripened\, where berries grew and which plants could be preserved for later use. \nIndigenous communities developed sophisticated plant knowledge over generations. European settlers arrived with their own traditions and encountered an unfamiliar North American landscape. Later immigrant communities brought additional food and herbal traditions. \nModern foraging draws from many of those histories\, although responsible instruction also requires recognizing that traditional use isn’t the same thing as scientific proof of a medical benefit. \nThat’s especially important when the conversation moves from food into herbal medicine. \nA plant can have a long history of traditional use without being a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. \nFor Saturday’s hike\, the practical starting point is much simpler. \nLearn what’s growing here. \nLearn how to identify it. \nLearn what people have done with it. \nAnd learn how to leave enough behind. \nDon’t Expect a Walk Through a Manicured Garden\nThis is a trail-based outdoor program. \nDPNC’s trails move through natural terrain that can include roots\, rocks\, damp areas and uneven surfaces. September can also mean mosquitoes and ticks remain active. \nClosed-toe walking or hiking shoes make sense\, along with clothing appropriate for the weather. Long pants can provide some protection from ticks and vegetation\, and participants may want water and insect repellent. \nBecause the purpose is identifying plants in their natural habitats\, expect periods of stopping\, looking closely and moving off the pace of an ordinary recreational hike. \nThis isn’t about covering miles. \nA productive foraging walk can spend 15 minutes moving a very short distance because once you begin looking closely\, there can be an extraordinary amount happening in a few yards of trail. \nThe Goal Isn’t to Become a Forager in 2½ Hours\nNobody should leave a single class believing they can safely identify every edible plant in Connecticut. \nThat’s not what makes an introductory foraging walk valuable. \nThe useful first step is learning how identification works. \nLook closely. \nNotice habitat. \nLearn the characteristics that distinguish one species from another. \nUnderstand that common names aren’t enough. \nKnow when a look-alike exists. \nDon’t consume something because an app identified it from a photograph. \nAnd understand that harvesting carries responsibilities beyond whether a plant is technically edible. \nSouth has been intentionally foraging since 2006. \nSaturday morning offers 2½ hours with someone who has spent two decades noticing things most of us walk past. \nAfterward\, the same Mystic trail may look considerably less anonymous. \nDetails\nEvent: Fall Foraging with Amelia South at Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.\nInstructor: Amelia South\nProgram: Guided fall foraging and plant-identification hike\nAges: Adults\nVenue: Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center\nAddress: 109 Pequotsepos Road\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nDPNC Members: $29.75\nNonmembers: $35\nRegistration: Advance registration is required\nSetting: Outdoors on the Nature Center trails\nWhat to Expect: Identification of wild herbs and other edible plants with instruction in sustainable harvesting\nRecommended: Weather-appropriate clothing\, sturdy walking shoes\, water and insect/tick protection\nPhone: 860-536-1216 \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo register\, click the Event Registration link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/fall-foraging-with-amelia-south-at-dpnc/
LOCATION:Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center\, 109 Pequotsepos Road\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Fall-Foraging-with-Amelia-South-at-DPNC.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T130000
DTSTAMP:20260624T031304Z
CREATED:20260624T030727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260624T031304Z
UID:10006248-1789207200-1789218000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Waterford Farmers Market
DESCRIPTION:The Waterford Farmers Market returns for the 2026 season\, bringing local food\, handmade goods\, and community spirit to the Waterford Community Center every Saturday from June 20 through October 24. Shoppers can browse a rotating selection of vendors offering fresh produce\, baked goods\, meats\, honey\, flowers\, artisan crafts\, specialty foods\, and other locally made products. \nWhether you’re picking up ingredients for the week\, searching for unique gifts\, or simply enjoying a Saturday morning outing\, the market offers a chance to support local farmers\, makers\, and small businesses. New vendors and seasonal offerings appear throughout the season\, making each visit a little different from the last. \nEvent Details \nDates: Saturdays\, June 20 – October 24\, 2026\nTime: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM\nLocation: Waterford Community Center\, 24 Rope Ferry Road\, Waterford\, CT \nVendors May Include: \n\nFresh fruits and vegetables\nLocal meats and seafood\nBaked goods and breads\nHoney and specialty foods\nFlowers and plants\nArtisan crafts and handmade goods\nLocal artists and makers\n\nAdmission: Free \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/waterford-farmers-market/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Waterford Community Center\, 24 Rope Ferry Rd\, Waterford\, 06385\, United States
CATEGORIES:Waterford Community Center
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Waterford-Farmers-Market-Saturdays-June-20-October-24-10am-1pm-Waterford-Community-Center-24-Rope-Ferry-Road-Waterford.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T130000
DTSTAMP:20260910T024634Z
CREATED:20260910T024634Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T024634Z
UID:10007534-1789207200-1789218000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Polymer Clay Fashion Jewelry Making Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Polymer Clay Fashion Jewelry Making Workshop turns the jewelry people wear into the artwork they make Saturday\, September 12\, at Mystic Museum of Art. \nLed by artist-educator Carol Mann\, the three-hour hands-on workshop introduces participants to polymer clay through techniques including gilding\, imprinting\, stamping\, inclusions\, and cane making. Along the way\, students will experiment with color\, pattern\, and texture before learning the finishing techniques and jewelry findings needed to turn their creations into wearable pieces. \nThe workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is part of the programming surrounding MMoA’s summer exhibition\, LUXE CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways. \nPolymer Clay Is Not the Clay You Remember From Art Class\nDespite the name\, polymer clay isn’t geological clay dug from the earth. \nIt’s a moldable synthetic material that remains workable until it is cured with heat. That makes it particularly useful for small-scale decorative work. Artists can roll it\, layer it\, texture it\, stamp it and combine colors before curing the finished design. \nFor jewelry makers\, that flexibility opens up an enormous range of possibilities. \nA piece can mimic stone or other materials. Colors can be layered into patterns that continue through the clay. Metallic elements can be applied to surfaces. Texture can be pressed directly into a piece. Different components can then become earrings\, pendants\, beads or other wearable objects. \nSaturday’s workshop is designed to introduce several of those approaches rather than concentrate on a single project. \nFrom Gilding to Millefleur Canes\nAmong the techniques Mann will introduce is gilding\, which can give polymer clay a metallic surface or accent. \nParticipants will also work with inclusions\, adding other materials to clay to change its visual appearance\, and experiment with imprinting and stamping to create surface textures and patterns. \nOne of the more distinctive techniques is cane making. \nA polymer-clay cane is constructed so a design runs through the length of a cylinder or other shape. When thin slices are cut from it\, the pattern appears repeatedly. \nThe concept has a long decorative-art relative in millefiori glass\, the centuries-old technique associated particularly with Venetian glassmaking in which patterned glass rods are sliced to reveal repeated designs. \nPolymer clay allows artists to explore a similar principle without a glass furnace. \nThe museum describes the workshop as including “millefleur canes\,” giving participants an opportunity to see how a complex-looking decorative pattern can actually be built from relatively simple components. \nThe Final Step Turns Art Into Something Wearable\nCreating the decorative clay is only part of the process. \nMann will also cover basic finishing and the use of jewelry findings\, the small functional components that allow an artistic object to become jewelry. \nDepending on the piece\, findings can include hooks\, posts\, jump rings\, clasps\, pins and other hardware connecting decorative elements to something that can actually be worn. \nThat’s an important distinction in a workshop connected to an exhibition about textiles and fashion. \nThe finished work isn’t simply a miniature sculpture. \nIt becomes part of what someone wears. \nThe Workshop Comes Directly Out of LUXE CT\nThe timing isn’t accidental. \nLUXE CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways is Mystic Museum of Art’s major summer 2026 exhibition\, running from June 26 through October 11. \nThe exhibition looks at textiles in Connecticut from the precolonial period through contemporary fashion\, using southeastern Connecticut’s once-significant velvet industry as one of its starting points. \nBut the show isn’t simply about fabric. \nIt’s about what people make\, how they make it\, who performs the labor and how materials can communicate wealth\, identity\, culture and changing ideas about luxury. \nObjects in the exhibition include beadwork\, embroidery\, quilts\, velvet and fashion\, combining historical material with contemporary work. \nMMoA assembled the exhibition in partnership with Historic Stonington\, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center\, Mystic Seaport Museum and members of Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Connecticut Region. \nFrom Southeastern Connecticut Mills to Contemporary Fashion\nOne of the strengths of LUXE CT is the distance it covers. \nTextiles that might once have been understood primarily as household objects or industrial products are placed in conversation with contemporary fashion. \nThat gives the exhibition room to explore something as seemingly simple as a piece of fabric from several directions. \nWho made it? \nWhere did the material come from? \nWas it produced by hand or in a mill? \nWas it utilitarian or luxurious? \nWhat did the design communicate about the person or community that created it? \nAnd who decided it was valuable? \nThose questions become particularly interesting in southeastern Connecticut\, where textile production once provided jobs to generations of workers and immigrant families. \nThe exhibition connects those histories of labor and industrial production with cultural traditions that long predate the mills. \nConnecticut Fashion Doesn’t End With the Mills\nThe exhibition then carries the story into contemporary fashion through designers with Connecticut connections. \nAmong them is Christian Siriano\, who grew up in nearby Annapolis\, Maryland\, attended the American InterContinental University in London and became nationally known after winning Project Runway in 2008. His fashion house has since dressed figures ranging from actors and musicians to political leaders\, while Siriano has become particularly known for challenging the fashion industry’s restrictive approach to body size and inclusivity. \nAlso represented is New York-based designer Peter Som\, whose Connecticut connections are part of the exhibition’s contemporary story and whose career has included his own collections as well as work across fashion\, lifestyle and design. \nThe exhibition also features emerging designers Xarea Lockhart and Toriana Sauro\, giving visitors a look at how a new generation is thinking about clothing\, materials and identity. \nTogether\, the historic and contemporary pieces make the case that fashion doesn’t sit apart from history. \nIt records it. \nA Series of Workshops Turns the Exhibition Into a Studio\nThe polymer clay session is part of a larger series of LUXE CT-inspired workshops running alongside the exhibition. \nOn September 19\, the museum turns to felt collage. \nSeptember 26 brings an introduction to sewing workshop with featured designer Toriana Sauro. \nYoung artists ages 10 to 14 can explore embroidery September 27. \nOctober workshops move into marbled textile sketchbook covers\, relief printing on silk scarves and linocut printing on T-shirts. \nThe idea is a useful one: after seeing what generations of artists\, craftspeople\, textile workers and designers have done with materials\, visitors can go upstairs to the studio and start manipulating materials themselves. \nSaturday’s jewelry workshop provides one of the most approachable entry points. \nNo kiln\, metalsmithing bench or previous jewelry-making career is required. \nCarol Mann Leads the Workshop\nArtist educator Carol Mann is a familiar instructor within Mystic Museum of Art’s studio program. \nHer teaching at MMoA extends across media rather than being confined to jewelry. She leads courses in watercolor and mixed-media work and teaches younger artists as well\, including classes that combine clay\, fiber\, paper and wax. \nThat teaching background is useful for a workshop built around experimentation. \nParticipants aren’t simply following instructions to reproduce one identical piece. The museum’s description emphasizes learning techniques and then combining color\, texture and pattern into distinctive designs. \nThe goal is individual work. \nIf everyone leaves with exactly the same jewelry\, something has probably gone wrong. \nThe Material Is Supplied\, But There’s an Additional Fee\nParticipants don’t need to arrive with a jewelry-making toolbox. \nMystic Museum of Art says all materials are supplied for the workshop. \nThere is\, however\, an additional $8 materials fee\, payable directly to the instructor. That’s separate from registration\, which costs $60 for museum members and $70 for nonmembers. \nIt’s worth accounting for that when deciding whether to register: the actual total is $68 for members or $78 for nonmembers once the materials fee is included. \nThe workshop is listed as an adult studio program and runs for three hours. \nYou Can See the Exhibition That Inspired It\nThere’s also an opportunity to connect the studio experience directly to its source material. \nLUXE CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways remains on view through October 11. \nSpecial exhibition admission is $12 general admission and $10 for New London County residents\, seniors 65 and older and students with ID. Admission is free for Mystic Museum of Art members\, visitors 17 and younger and military members and veterans. \nThat means someone coming for Saturday’s workshop can approach the day from both directions. \nLook at how other people have transformed fabric\, thread\, beads and other materials into objects carrying cultural and personal meaning. \nThen sit down at a table and start making something. \nThe scale may be smaller. \nThe basic impulse isn’t very different. \nDetails\nEvent: Polymer Clay Fashion Jewelry Making Workshop: LUXE CT-Inspired Studio Workshop\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 10 a.m.–1 p.m.\nInstructor: Artist educator Carol Mann\nVenue: Mystic Museum of Art\nAddress: 9 Water Street\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nProgram: Adult studio workshop / mixed media / jewelry making\nMember Registration: $60\nNonmember Registration: $70\nMaterials Fee: Additional $8\, payable to the instructor\nMaterials: All materials are supplied\nTechniques: Gilding\, inclusions\, imprinting\, stamping\, cane making\, color and texture work\, finishing and jewelry findings\nRelated Exhibition: LUXE CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways\, on view through October 11\nMuseum Phone: 860-536-7601 \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo register for the workshop\, click the Event Registration link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/polymer-clay-fashion-jewelry-making-workshop/
LOCATION:Mystic Museum of Art\, 9 Water Street\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Museum of Art
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Polymer-Clay-Fashion-Jewelry-Making-Workshop.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T140000
DTSTAMP:20260908T014013Z
CREATED:20260908T013802Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T014013Z
UID:10007516-1789207200-1789221600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Southeastern Connecticut Out Of The Darkness Walk
DESCRIPTION:Southeastern Connecticut Out Of The Darkness Walk brings hundreds of people together at McCook Point Park in Niantic on Saturday\, September 12\, for a morning centered on remembrance\, support\, and a shared determination to prevent suicide. \nOrganized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Connecticut Chapter\, the annual community walk welcomes people who have lost someone to suicide\, those with their own lived experience\, friends and family members\, mental health professionals\, and anyone who wants to support suicide prevention. \nCheck-in begins at 10 a.m.\, followed by the event at 11 a.m. Participation is free\, although advance registration is encouraged. The walk itself is noncompetitive and will cover between one and three miles\, with organizers posting the final Niantic route as Walk Day approaches. \nMore Than a Fundraising Walk\nOut of the Darkness Walks take place in hundreds of communities around the country each year\, but AFSP deliberately designed them to be more than charity walks. \nFor many participants\, the reason for showing up is deeply personal. \nSome walk in memory of a child\, parent\, sibling\, spouse\, friend or coworker lost to suicide. Others have survived a suicide attempt or experienced suicidal thoughts themselves. Some come to support someone they love\, while others simply believe mental health and suicide prevention deserve more attention. \nThe result is an event where people who might never otherwise meet discover that they share an experience. \nThat idea is built into the name. Out of the Darkness is about bringing suicide into the open\, replacing silence and stigma with conversation and making it easier for people to seek help before reaching a crisis. \nThe Niantic event includes an opening ceremony\, activities focused on hope and healing\, resource tables and AFSP’s Honor Bead program. \nThe Meaning Behind the Honor Beads\nOne of the most recognizable parts of an Out of the Darkness Walk is also one of its quietest. \nParticipants receive complimentary Honor Beads\, with different colors representing the reason a person is walking. \nWhite represents the loss of a child. Red represents the loss of a spouse or partner. Gold represents the loss of a parent. Orange represents the loss of a sibling\, while purple represents the loss of another relative or friend. \nOther colors speak to different experiences. Teal represents someone who has struggled personally or attempted suicide. Green represents a personal struggle or attempt\, while blue shows general support for suicide prevention. Silver represents the loss of a first responder or member of the military. \nParticipants may wear more than one strand. \nThe beads create a kind of visual language throughout the walk. Someone who has difficulty approaching a stranger and explaining why they’re there may notice another person wearing the same color and immediately understand that they share something significant. \nFor an event dealing with experiences that can be difficult to put into words\, that recognition can matter. \nWhy AFSP Walks\nThe American Foundation for Suicide Prevention was established in 1987 by a group that included researchers and families who had lost loved ones to suicide. \nIts work now stretches across scientific research\, public education\, advocacy\, community programs and support for people affected by suicide loss. \nThe Out of the Darkness program has become one of the organization’s most visible efforts. AFSP reported nearly 600 Community and Campus Walks and more than 220\,000 participants in its 2025 annual reporting. \nThe money raised through the walks helps fund research into suicide and its prevention\, educational programs in schools and workplaces\, advocacy for public policies related to mental health and suicide prevention\, and programs supporting people who have experienced suicide loss. \nFunds raised through the Southeastern Connecticut Walk specifically help support AFSP programs and work across Connecticut. \nWalking During Suicide Prevention Week\nThis year’s Niantic walk falls at a particularly meaningful point on the calendar. \nSeptember is National Suicide Prevention Month\, and September 6–12 is National Suicide Prevention Week in 2026. World Suicide Prevention Day takes place Thursday\, September 10\, just two days before the Southeastern Connecticut walk. \nAFSP is using the month to encourage people to talk more openly about suicide prevention\, learn how to recognize when someone may need help and become involved in their own communities. \nThe September 12 gathering at McCook Point Park puts that national effort into a distinctly local setting. \nPeople aren’t simply sharing a social media post or wearing a ribbon. They’re physically showing up beside neighbors who may be carrying grief\, supporting someone who’s struggling or dealing with experiences of their own. \nFundraising Is Encouraged\, But It Isn’t Required\nThere is no registration fee or fundraising minimum to participate in the Southeastern Connecticut Out of the Darkness Walk. \nPeople can register individually\, join an existing team or create a team of their own. Each registered participant receives a personal fundraising page that can be customized with a photograph and the story behind why they’re walking. \nAFSP also offers incentives for participants who choose to fundraise. \nAnyone who individually raises at least $150 by September 12 earns the official 2026 Out of the Darkness Walk T-shirt at the event. Participants who raise more than $250 qualify for an additional recognition gift sent after Walk Day. \nBut raising money isn’t a condition of joining the community. \nSomeone who simply needs to be there can walk. \nDonations to the Southeastern Connecticut event remain open through December 31\, 2026. \nMcCook Point Provides a Waterfront Setting\nThe walk takes place at McCook Point Park\, overlooking Long Island Sound in Niantic. \nThe East Lyme town park encompasses McCook Point and the adjoining McCook Beach\, with lawns\, walking areas and views across Niantic Bay and Long Island Sound. Its combination of open green space and waterfront makes it particularly well suited to an event that includes gathering\, remembrance and a community walk. \nParticipants should plan to arrive before the 11 a.m. start if they need to check in. Registration opens at 10 a.m.\, providing time for walkers to gather\, visit resource tables and take part in activities before the formal program begins. \nThe exact 2026 walking route has not yet been announced. AFSP says Community Walk routes generally range from one to three miles and are noncompetitive. \nThere is no pressure to finish first. That’s not what this walk is about. \nA Place for People Who “Get It”\nPerhaps the most important part of an Out of the Darkness Walk happens outside the mileage and fundraising totals. \nAFSP describes the walks as places where people can find others who “get it.” \nSuicide loss can leave families and friends carrying questions and grief that are difficult to explain to people who haven’t experienced it. People who have survived their own suicidal crisis may face a different kind of isolation\, including fear about how others will react if they talk about what happened. \nAt McCook Point Park\, those experiences don’t have to be hidden. \nSome participants will arrive carrying photographs or wearing shirts honoring someone they’ve lost. Others will wear Honor Beads that quietly tell their story. Teams may walk together under the name of a person they’re remembering. \nAnd some people may simply walk. \nAll of them belong there. \nDetails\nEvent: Southeastern Connecticut Out Of The Darkness Walk\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nCheck-In: 10 a.m.\nEvent Start: 11 a.m.\nEvent Hours: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.\nLocation: McCook Point Park\nAddress: 12 Atlantic Street\, Niantic\, CT 06357\nOrganizer: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention\, Connecticut Chapter\nAdmission: Free\nRegistration: Advance registration is encouraged\nWalk Length: Between 1 and 3 miles; final 2026 route to be announced\nFormat: Noncompetitive community walk\nProgram: Opening ceremony\, hope and healing activities\, resource tables and complimentary Honor Beads\nFundraising: Encouraged but not required to participate\nWalk T-Shirt: Participants who individually raise at least $150 by September 12 receive the official Out of the Darkness Walk shirt at the event\nDonations: Accepted through December 31\, 2026\nEvent Contact: Natasha Mozden\nPhone: 860-917-8831\nEmail: natashamozden@gmail.com \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo register for the walk or make a donation\, click the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n\nIf you or someone you know is in crisis\, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.\nReference:\nAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention – Connecticut Chapter \nAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention – Out of the Darkness Walks \nAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention – Honor Beads
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/southeastern-connecticut-out-of-the-darkness-walk/
LOCATION:McCook Point Park\, 8-10 Atlantic Street\, Niantic\, 06357\, United States
CATEGORIES:McCook Point Park
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Southeastern-Connecticut-Out-Of-The-Darkness-Walk.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T160000
DTSTAMP:20260911T023917Z
CREATED:20260907T020111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T023917Z
UID:10007490-1789207200-1789228800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Stonington Borough Art Walk
DESCRIPTION:Stonington Borough Art Walk returns Saturday\, September 12\, turning the heart of the seaside village into an open-air gallery filled with painters\, photographers\, potters\, sculptors\, jewelers\, textile artists\, and other makers from around the region. \nThe free event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, with artists stretching from the entrance to the Borough through its Water Street shopping district and toward Cannon Square. Water Street will close to vehicle traffic for the event\, allowing visitors to walk between artist tents\, shops\, restaurants and other activities throughout the village. \nThis year’s Art Walk also shares the Borough with Porchfest\, a new live music event presented by La Grua Center from noon to 4 p.m. The two events take place simultaneously but are separate programs\, giving visitors the option of moving between visual art and live music throughout the afternoon. \nAn Art Show That Takes Over the Borough\nThe Art Walk has grown considerably since its creation\, developing from a local arts event into one of Stonington Borough’s major annual gatherings. \nOrganizers expect more than 60 artists for 2026\, with exhibitors working across a broad range of media. The event’s artist selection includes ceramics and pottery\, illustration\, jewelry\, mixed media\, painting\, photography\, printmaking\, sculpture\, textiles and woodworking. \nRather than concentrating everyone in a field or conventional festival grounds\, the Art Walk uses the Borough itself. \nArtist tents and tables begin near the head of Water Street and continue through the commercial district toward Cannon Square. Shops\, courtyards and other spaces along the route become part of the event as visitors make their way south through the village. \nThe format creates something closer to a walking arts district for the day\, with the existing Borough businesses remaining part of the experience rather than sitting outside a separate festival enclosure. \nA Curated Show With Artists Selected for the Event\nThe artists aren’t simply vendors who reserve spaces. \nThe Art Walk uses a juried selection process\, with applications reviewed by a committee that includes artists and members of the Stonington Borough Merchants Association. Organizers consider the quality\, creativity and originality of applicants’ work. \nAbout 125 artists typically apply\, according to the event’s 2026 artist information\, with approximately 60 selected to participate. \nThat approach is intended to keep the emphasis on original fine art and craft while maintaining a mix of artistic styles and media. \nThe resulting show ranges from traditional painting and watercolor to photography\, textiles\, sculpture\, woodwork\, acrylics and other forms of handmade work. \nVisitors can meet the artists directly\, learn about their work and purchase original pieces throughout the day. \nFrom Water Street to Cannon Square\nStonington Borough provides an unusually compact setting for an event built around walking. \nThe artist trail begins near the upper end of Water Street and continues toward Cannon Square\, carrying visitors through much of the village’s commercial center. \nWater Street between High and Church streets has been approved for event use from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, along with portions of Wadawanuck Square. \nThat means a street normally shared with cars becomes pedestrian territory for much of the day. \nThe Art Walk has traditionally extended beyond the booths as well. Borough merchants\, cultural organizations and nonprofits have participated in past years with exhibits\, tours\, tastings\, pop-ups\, children’s activities\, scavenger hunts and performances. \nThe exact mix changes from year to year\, but the idea has remained consistent: the Art Walk is meant to involve the larger Borough rather than function solely as a line of artist booths. \nEight Years of Art in Stonington Borough\nThe 2026 event is being presented as the eighth annual Stonington Borough Art Walk. \nThe show is organized by the Stonington Borough Merchants Association and supported in collaboration with the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce. \nOver its relatively short history\, the Art Walk has attracted artists and visitors from beyond southeastern Connecticut\, with organizers drawing exhibitors and audiences from elsewhere in New England and the Northeast. \nIts setting is a large part of the appeal. \nArt tents occupy a village of historic houses\, small shops\, galleries and restaurants surrounded on three sides by water. Visitors can follow the show down Water Street toward Cannon Square and the southern end of the Borough\, then retrace the route through a completely different collection of booths and businesses. \nBecause artists remain with their exhibits during public hours\, the event also provides an opportunity to talk directly with the people who created the work rather than simply browse finished pieces in a gallery. \nPorchfest Adds Live Music to the Afternoon\nThis year brings an important addition to September 12 in Stonington Borough. \nPorchfest\, presented by La Grua Center\, will place musicians at locations around the Borough from noon to 4 p.m. \nPerformers representing multiple musical genres will be stationed at several locations stretching from the Viaduct near the entrance to Stonington Borough toward Cannon Square. \nAlthough Porchfest and the Art Walk are taking place together and complement one another\, they are separate events. Visitors coming primarily for the Art Walk will encounter live music as they move around the Borough\, while those attending Porchfest can browse the artists between performances. \nThe CT Beacon is covering Porchfest separately with its own event guide and performance information. \nA Full Afternoon in the Borough\nWith Art Walk beginning at 10 a.m. and Porchfest joining it at noon\, September 12 is shaping up as an unusually busy Saturday in the Borough. \nVisitors can arrive in the morning to browse the artists before the music begins\, or come during the afternoon when both events are underway. \nThe Art Walk itself remains free to the public. \nOrganizers have also designated Sunday\, September 13 as the inclement-weather date should conditions prevent the outdoor event from taking place Saturday. \nFor six hours\, the usual trip down Water Street becomes something different: dozens of individual galleries assembled for a single day\, with the artists themselves waiting beneath the tents. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Stonington Borough Art Walk 2026\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.\nLocation: Stonington Borough\, Connecticut\nArt Walk Route: Water Street through Cannon Square\nArtists: More than 60 participating artists and makers\nArt: Ceramics and pottery\, illustration\, jewelry\, mixed media\, painting\, photography\, printmaking\, sculpture\, textiles\, woodworking and more\nAdmission: Free\nAlso Happening: Porchfest\, noon–4 p.m.\, presented separately by La Grua Center\nRain Date: Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nOrganizer: Stonington Borough Merchants Association \nParking:  \n\nShuttle service for Art Walk/Porch Fest 2026 will run throughout the day\, making it easier to park outside Stonington Borough and enjoy both events without having to move your car.\nShuttles will pick up and drop off passengers at Owens Field and the Stonington Community Center\, with continuous service throughout the event.\nThe free shuttle service is provided with support from the Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce\, Stonington Borough\, La Grua Center and the Stonington Village Improvement Association.\n\nAdditional Public Parking: \n\nStonington Town Dock: Public lot available near the waterfront.\nWayland’s Wharf: Public lot located just behind Water Street.\nDuBois Beach / East Lawn Lot: Located at Stonington Point at the southern end of the Borough.\n\n  \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n\n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/stonington-borough-art-walk/
LOCATION:Stonington Borough\, Water Street\, Stonington\, 06355\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Stonington-Borough-Art-Walk-b.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T180000
DTSTAMP:20260910T231719Z
CREATED:20260905T031609Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T231719Z
UID:10007475-1789207200-1789236000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:From Sails to Stars: Mystic Seaport Celebrates 60 Years of Star Trek
DESCRIPTION:From Sails to Stars: Mystic Seaport Celebrates 60 Years of Star Trek on Saturday\, September 12\, for a full day connecting two very different eras of exploration: mariners navigating Earth’s oceans and the fictional crews who have spent six decades exploring the final frontier. \nThe celebration includes special planetarium programs\, guest speakers\, a space-themed photo opportunity\, and a screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Visitors are encouraged to arrive in costume or fan apparel as Mystic Seaport marks the 60th anniversary of a television series that turned ships\, captains\, navigation and exploration into a vision of humanity’s future. \nThe entire celebration is included with general Museum admission. \nStar Trek Turns 60\nThe original Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8\, 1966\, making Mystic Seaport’s September 12 celebration almost exactly 60 years after American audiences first boarded the USS Enterprise. \nThe original series lasted only three seasons\, but its influence proved far greater than its initial ratings suggested. \nSyndication introduced Kirk\, Spock\, McCoy and the Enterprise to new audiences. Feature films followed. Then came Star Trek: The Next Generation\, Deep Space Nine\, Voyager and Enterprise\, followed by a new generation of series including Discovery\, Picard\, Lower Decks\, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds. \nSix decades later\, Star Trek has become one of popular culture’s most enduring visions of exploration. \nThat’s where Mystic Seaport Museum enters the story. \nFrom Sails to Stars\nAt first glance\, a Star Trek celebration might seem like an unusual fit for a museum filled with wooden ships\, maritime artifacts and stories of 19th-century sailors. \nThe Museum is leaning directly into that contrast. \nLong before electronic navigation and GPS\, mariners crossed oceans using the sky. \nCelestial navigation relies on observations of the sun\, moon\, planets and stars to determine a vessel’s position. A navigator using instruments such as a sextant could measure the altitude of a celestial body above the horizon and use that information\, along with accurate time and navigational tables\, to calculate a ship’s position. \nFor sailors far from land\, the night sky wasn’t simply something to look at. \nIt was part of the navigation system. \nThe Star Trek universe takes that ancient relationship between navigation and the heavens and pushes it into the future. Instead of sailors using stars to cross an ocean\, Starfleet crews travel between them. \nSpecial programs at Mystic Seaport Museum’s Treworgy Planetarium will explore that connection during the anniversary celebration. \nThe Wrath of Khan Meets Moby-Dick\nOne of the day’s highlights is a screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\, the 1982 film widely regarded as one of the defining entries in the franchise. \nThe choice has a particularly strong connection to Mystic Seaport Museum. \nThe Wrath of Khan isn’t simply a science-fiction adventure. Its story deliberately draws on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. \nRicardo Montalbán’s Khan Noonien Singh becomes an Ahab-like figure\, allowing his desire for revenge against James T. Kirk to consume virtually everything else. The film makes its literary inspiration increasingly explicit as Khan’s pursuit of Kirk moves toward its conclusion. \nThat makes Mystic Seaport an unusually appropriate place to revisit the film. \nHerman Melville sailed aboard the whaleship Acushnet beginning in 1841\, experiences that became part of the maritime world behind Moby-Dick. That same year\, the whaleship Charles W. Morgan was launched from New Bedford. \nToday\, the Morgan survives at Mystic Seaport Museum as the world’s last remaining wooden whaleship from the American whaling fleet. \nA 19th-century novel about a captain pursuing a white whale eventually helped shape a 20th-century movie about a genetically engineered man pursuing a starship captain. \nFrom the deck of a whaleship to the bridge of the Enterprise\, the distance isn’t quite as great as it first appears. \nA Day for Star Trek Fans\nThe Museum is encouraging fans to become part of the celebration rather than simply watch it. \nVisitors can attend wearing Star Trek costumes and fan apparel\, although full-face masks are not permitted. \nA space-themed photo opportunity will provide another place to embrace the science-fiction side of the day\, while the planetarium and speaker programs dig deeper into the science\, history and culture connecting maritime and space exploration. \nSome portions of the celebration have limited capacity. \nThe Museum says seating for lectures and the film screening will be first-come\, first-served\, so visitors particularly interested in those programs should keep that in mind when planning the day. \nRobb Pearlman Brings Star Trek Trivia to the Performance Stage\nThe day’s programming also includes an appearance by #1 New York Times bestselling author and Trekspurt Robb Pearlman at 1:30 p.m. on the Performance Stage. \nPearlman has written more than 90 books\, including a substantial collection devoted to Star Trek. His Mystic program combines a conversation about his work with a live trivia competition inspired by his new Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck. \nHe’ll also have books and trivia decks available for signing. \nWe’re giving Pearlman’s appearance its own CT Beacon event page\, including more about his unusual career writing about Star Trek and what fans can expect from the trivia showdown. \nSee our complete guide: Star Trek Trivia With Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport Museum. \nExploration Before Starfleet\nThere’s a larger idea behind From Sails to Stars that fits Mystic Seaport particularly well. \nThe people represented throughout the Museum’s collections lived in a world in which the ocean could still contain enormous unknowns. \nSailors departed familiar shores without satellites\, radio communication or electronic charts. They relied on their ships\, instruments\, knowledge of the natural world and observations of the sky. \nStar Trek took that same human impulse and imagined where it might eventually lead. \nIts most famous opening wasn’t about conquering space. \nIt was about exploring it. \nThat makes the 60th anniversary more than an excuse to put Starfleet uniforms among the square-riggers. Mystic Seaport is using science fiction to look at something maritime history and Star Trek have shared from the beginning: the desire to find out what’s beyond the horizon. \nEvent Details\nEvent: From Sails to Stars: A STAR TREK 60th Anniversary Celebration\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nVenue: Mystic Seaport Museum\nAddress: 75 Greenmanville Avenue\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nProgramming: Guest speakers\, planetarium shows\, space-themed photo opportunity and film screening\nFilm: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\nSpecial Program: Robb Pearlman conversation and Star Trek trivia at 1:30 p.m.\nCostumes: Star Trek costumes and fan apparel encouraged; full-face masks are not permitted\nAdmission: Included with general Museum admission\nCapacity: Screening and lectures have limited capacity; admission is first-come\, first-served \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase Museum admission\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/from-sails-to-stars-mystic-seaport-celebrates-60-years-of-star-trek/
LOCATION:Mystic Seaport\, 75 Greenmanville Ave\, Mystic\, CT\, \,06355-1946\,\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Seaport
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/From-Sails-to-Stars-Mystic-Seaport-Celebrates-60-Years-of-Star-Trek-b.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T213000
DTSTAMP:20260910T173727Z
CREATED:20260910T173727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T173727Z
UID:10007541-1789207200-1789248600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Three Special Thames River Cruises
DESCRIPTION:Three Special Thames River Cruises give Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival visitors three very different ways to experience New London and Groton from the water September 12 and 13\, from free transportation between festival sites to narrated history cruises and a Saturday night trip beneath a 300-drone light show. \nThames River Heritage Park is expanding its normal role during festival weekend with free Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruises Saturday and Sunday\, four free 45-minute historic boat tours Sunday\, and a special Saturday night Drone Show Cruise that heads downriver toward New London Ledge Light before returning to the harbor for the festival’s nighttime spectacle. \nTogether\, the trips also demonstrate what makes Thames River Heritage Park a little unusual. \nIt isn’t one park. \nIt’s a network of historic and cultural sites spread along both shores of the Thames River\, with the river itself serving as the connection between them. \nAnd for one weekend\, much of that connection is free. \n1. Ride the Thames for Free All Weekend\nThe most useful cruise of the weekend may also be the simplest. \nThames River Heritage Park’s Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise will be completely free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday\, with the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival sponsoring the service. \nNormally\, an adult Harbor Cruise ticket costs $15. \nDuring the festival\, visitors can simply use the boats to move among three major locations: \nFort Trumbull State Park in New London \nCity Pier in downtown New London \nThames River Landing in Groton \nThere is an important change from the Heritage Park’s regular summer schedule. \nDuring festival weekend\, there will be no fixed departure or arrival times. The boats will travel continuously among the three landings\, and boarding will be first-come\, first-served. \nThat makes the service part transportation and part attraction. \nSomeone attending the festival at Fort Trumbull can board a boat\, cross the harbor to Groton\, get off to explore and later catch another boat back to downtown New London. \nOr visitors can simply stay aboard and see the harbor from the water. \nThe Boats Have a Navy History of Their Own\nEven the vessels carrying festival visitors are pieces of maritime history. \nThames River Heritage Park operates refurbished former U.S. Navy liberty boats. \nUtility boats like these weren’t designed as sightseeing vessels. They transported sailors between larger Navy ships and shore\, including taking crews ashore for “liberty\,” the Navy term for authorized time away from a ship. \nOne of the Heritage Park boats was assigned to the USS La Salle\, which served as flagship for Commander Middle East Force beginning in 1988. \nAnother was assigned to the USS Hunley\, a submarine tender that supported the Navy’s Polaris ballistic-missile submarine fleet. \nNow\, instead of carrying sailors ashore\, the old Navy boats carry visitors through the same harbor that remains home to one of America’s most important naval communities. \nIt’s particularly fitting in 2026. \nThe United States is celebrating the Navy’s 250th anniversary\, while the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London is celebrating its 150th. \nA River Where American Naval History Is Still Happening\nThe scenery from the boat isn’t simply historic. \nThe Thames remains a working military and commercial river. \nThe U.S. Coast Guard Academy occupies the New London shoreline farther upriver. \nAcross the Thames in Groton is Naval Submarine Base New London\, the Navy’s primary East Coast submarine base and a place so closely associated with undersea warfare that Groton calls itself the Submarine Capital of the World. \nNearby is the historic USS Nautilus\, the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine. \nDownriver\, Fort Trumbull stands near the entrance to New London Harbor\, while ferries\, fishing boats\, recreational craft\, commercial traffic and military vessels continue using the water around it. \nBut the history stretches much farther back. \nNew London became one of America’s major whaling ports during the 19th century. \nThe river witnessed colonial trade\, privateering and the American Revolution. \nIndigenous people had lived along and traveled these waters for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. \nThe Heritage Park’s weekend cruises approach those overlapping histories in very different ways. \n2. Sunday Brings Four Free 45-Minute History Cruises\nSunday offers the best deal for visitors who want more than transportation. \nThames River Heritage Park will operate four free narrated historic boat tours from City Pier in New London. \nThese aren’t the regular Hop On\, Hop Off rides. \nEach is a 45-minute mini-tour led by a Heritage Park docent\, concentrating on a particular part of the region’s history. \nNormally\, Thames River Heritage Park’s full historic boat tours cost $35 for adults. \nThe four festival mini-tours are free\, sponsored by the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\, and available first-come\, first-served. \nTwo different subjects alternate throughout the afternoon. \n11 a.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nThe first departure introduces stories that were often missing from traditional accounts of New London’s history. \nBlack Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told draws from Thames River Heritage Park’s larger tour of the same name\, which explores approximately 400 years of local history through the experiences and contributions of the region’s Black community. \nThat history begins long before the Civil War. \nSlavery existed in colonial Connecticut. \nEnslaved people lived and worked in New London and Groton\, including within households whose surviving homes and documents are now used to interpret colonial life. \nBlack sailors worked from New London’s waterfront. \nThe city’s history intersects with abolition\, education\, military service and the long struggle for civil rights. \nAnd one of the most consequential events in American history arrived in New London Harbor aboard a ship in 1839. \nThe schooner La Amistad was seized off Long Island after captive Africans aboard the vessel revolted against the men illegally transporting them into slavery. \nThe ship was brought to New London. \nThe legal battle that followed eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court\, where former President John Quincy Adams helped argue the Africans’ case. \nThe Court ruled in their favor in 1841. \nIt is one of the most internationally significant stories connected to the New London waterfront\, but it is only one part of the Black history preserved along the Thames. \nDeparture: Sunday at 11 a.m. from City Pier \nNoon — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nAt noon\, the perspective shifts much farther back. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot’s Story focuses on the Indigenous history of the region and the people who lived here long before New London or Groton existed. \nThe Pequot homeland historically encompassed portions of southeastern Connecticut. \nThe waterways of the region weren’t barriers separating communities. They were transportation corridors and sources of food\, trade and communication. \nThen European colonization transformed the landscape. \nTensions over land\, trade and political power culminated in the Pequot War of 1636–1637\, one of the defining conflicts of early colonial New England. \nThe war devastated the Pequot population\, but it did not eliminate the Pequot people. \nThat distinction matters. \nFor generations\, popular histories often treated Native nations as if they disappeared when a particular colonial-era chapter ended. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is very much a living community today\, headquartered just a few miles from the Thames River. \nThe tour offers a chance to look at familiar southeastern Connecticut shoreline through a story that began thousands of years before the forts\, submarines and whaling ships. \nDeparture: Sunday at noon from City Pier \n1 p.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames\nThe Black heritage mini-tour receives a second departure at 1 p.m. \nThat gives visitors who spend the morning elsewhere at the festival another opportunity to take the 45-minute narrated cruise. \nDeparture: Sunday at 1 p.m. from City Pier \n2 p.m. — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nThe final free history cruise of the weekend repeats the Mashantucket Pequot program at 2 p.m. \nAll four tours depart from City Pier in downtown New London\, not from the other Hop On\, Hop Off landings. \nAnd because they’re free and first-come\, first-served\, arriving early makes sense. \nDeparture: Sunday at 2 p.m. from City Pier \n3. Saturday Night Goes From History to 300 Drones\nSaturday’s third special cruise is completely different. \nAfter the daytime festival winds down and the sun disappears\, Thames River Heritage Park heads back onto the water for its Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival Drone Show Cruise. \nThe evening begins with a trip down the Thames River. \nWeather and marine traffic permitting\, the boat will continue beyond New London Harbor toward New London Ledge Light\, the distinctive lighthouse sitting near the mouth of the Thames. \nThen it turns around. \nThe boat returns to position itself for a front-row view of the festival’s 300-drone light show over the New London waterfront. \nInstead of watching from the shore\, passengers watch from the water beneath the display. \nNew London Ledge Light Is Worth the Trip by Itself\nEven before the drones appear\, the cruise has an unusual destination. \nNew London Ledge Light stands at the entrance to the Thames River\, where New London Harbor opens toward Long Island Sound. \nCompleted in 1909\, it doesn’t resemble the stereotypical round New England lighthouse. \nInstead\, the three-story brick building looks almost like a substantial waterfront home that somebody inexplicably placed in the middle of the water and then put a lantern on top. \nLocal tradition has also supplied the lighthouse with its own ghost. \nFor decades\, stories have circulated about “Ernie\,” the supposed spirit of an early keeper said to haunt the lighthouse. \nThe legend has become part of Ledge Light’s identity\, although the more elaborate details attached to Ernie are folklore rather than established history. \nFrom the Drone Show Cruise\, passengers get a nighttime maritime trip toward one of the region’s most recognizable navigational landmarks before returning to the festival. \nThen 300 Drones Take Over the Sky\nThe show waiting back in New London Harbor is part of the America’s Navy 250 Celebration. \nThree hundred illuminated drones will fly coordinated patterns over the waterfront\, synchronized with music. \nThe planned display celebrates 250 years of the United States Navy\, using the drones to form patriotic imagery and naval symbols above the harbor. \nIt’s a striking place to do it. \nNew London’s relationship with the Navy stretches back to the Revolutionary era\, while the Groton side of the Thames became one of the most important submarine-building and submarine-operating centers in the world. \nFrom the cruise boat\, passengers will be watching a 21st-century aerial light show about American naval history while floating in the middle of a river where much of that history actually happened. \nOne Timing Detail Is Worth Watching\nThames River Heritage Park currently has two slightly different departure times published for the Drone Show Cruise. \nThe dedicated festival-weekend schedule lists departure at 7:55 p.m. \nA more recent Heritage Park event announcement lists 7:45 p.m. \nBecause this is a ticketed trip and the difference could result in someone literally missing the boat\, passengers should use the departure time shown on their ticket confirmation and verify it with Thames River Heritage Park before Saturday. \nThe Heritage Park also notes that only a small number of seats remained when it published its latest festival information. \nPassengers may bring snacks and drinks aboard\, but glass is prohibited\, and there is no restroom on the boat. \nThe trip to Ledge Light is also conditional on weather and boat traffic. \nThese Aren’t ADA-Accessible Tour Boats\nThere’s another important practical consideration for all three experiences. \nThe Heritage Park’s refurbished Navy boats are not ADA compliant. \nPassengers must be capable of walking up and down four stairs and boarding the vessel independently with only minimal courtesy assistance from the crew. \nThey must also be capable of disembarking without assistance if an emergency requires it. \nThe boats do not have restrooms. \nThe Heritage Park encourages passengers who require assistance to travel with a companion\, but the captain ultimately determines whether a passenger can safely board. \nThat’s particularly important information for anyone considering the cruises as an easy alternative to walking around the festival. \nFor some visitors\, they may not be. \nThe Free Harbor Cruise Can Change How You Do the Festival\nFor visitors who can board safely\, the free Hop On\, Hop Off service creates an interesting possibility. \nDon’t think of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival as one event site. \nThink of the Thames as its main street. \nStart at Fort Trumbull. \nBoard an old Navy liberty boat. \nCross to Groton. \nCome back to City Pier. \nExplore downtown New London. \nOn Sunday\, trade the transportation ride for a narrated mini-tour and learn the stories of Black residents or the Mashantucket Pequot people who shaped the region. \nAnd Saturday night\, those with Drone Show Cruise tickets can return to the river after dark\, head toward Ledge Light and finish beneath 300 points of light moving across the sky. \nFor most of the year\, the Thames separates New London from Groton. \nFor Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival weekend\, Thames River Heritage Park turns it into the thing connecting everything together. \nDetails\nEvent: Three Special Thames River Cruises at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nPresented By: Thames River Heritage Park\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDates: Saturday\, September 12 and Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nLocation: Thames River\, New London and Groton \nHop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise\nDates: Saturday and Sunday\nTime: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.\nAdmission: Free during festival weekend\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nSchedule: Continuous loop with no fixed departure or arrival times during the festival\nStops: Fort Trumbull State Park\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton \nFree Historic Boat Tours\nDate: Sunday\, September 13\nLength: Approximately 45 minutes each\nAdmission: Free\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nDeparture Location: City Pier\, New London\n11 a.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nNoon: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\n1 p.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\n2 p.m.: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story \nDrone Show Cruise\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\nDeparture: Heritage Park currently publishes both 7:45 and 7:55 p.m.; passengers should follow their ticket confirmation and verify the departure time before arriving\nRoute: Down the Thames River and\, weather and boat traffic permitting\, out to New London Ledge Light before returning for the drone show\nDrone Show: 300-drone display synchronized to music as part of America’s Navy 250 Celebration\nTickets: Advance ticket purchase required; Heritage Park reports limited availability\nFood and Drink: Snacks and drinks may be brought aboard; no glass\nRestrooms: None aboard \nAccessibility: Heritage Park’s former Navy utility boats are not ADA compliant. Passengers must be able to negotiate four stairs and independently board and disembark with minimal courtesy assistance.\nBoat Operations: 860-407-5655\nWeather: Boat operations and the Ledge Light portion of the evening cruise are weather-dependent; check with Thames River Heritage Park for current operating information. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/three-special-thames-river-cruises/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:CT
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Three-Special-Thames-River-Cruises.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T220000
DTSTAMP:20260910T180326Z
CREATED:20260817T041105Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T180326Z
UID:10007210-1789207200-1789250400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival 2026 Guide
DESCRIPTION:Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival 2026 Guide brings two days of ships\, Coast Guard demonstrations\, living history\, family activities\, music and maritime traditions to New London on Saturday and Sunday\, September 12 and 13. \nSpread between New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park\, the festival turns much of the city’s waterfront into a celebration of Connecticut’s relationship with the sea. Visitors can tour military and historic vessels\, watch Coast Guard crews in action\, explore living-history encampments\, hear live music and take part in activities for children. \nThis year’s festival also arrives during a significant anniversary year for New London. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is celebrating its 150th anniversary\, and several festival events recognize the milestone\, including the release of a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp. \nThen Saturday night takes a decidedly different turn. \nA procession through downtown New London culminates in the traditional Burning of Benedict Arnold\, followed shortly afterward by a 300-drone light show over the Thames River. \nAdmission to the festival is free\, and free water taxis and shuttle buses will connect its two main locations throughout the weekend. \nTwo Festival Locations\, One Waterfront Celebration\nThe festival takes place simultaneously at New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park. \nDon’t worry about choosing one. \nVisitors can park near either location and use the festival’s free Thames River Heritage Park water taxi or shuttle buses to travel between them. That makes it possible to tour vessels downtown\, catch activities at Fort Trumbull and return to Waterfront Park without repeatedly moving your car. \nMost weekend activities run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday\, although several special events take place outside those hours. \nShips and Vessels You Can Explore\nOne of the festival’s biggest attractions is the opportunity to get close to working military vessels\, historic ships and maritime training vessels. \nUSCGC Eagle\nThe unmistakable USCGC Eagle is scheduled to be part of the festival. \nThe 295-foot\, three-masted barque serves as the Coast Guard’s sail-training ship\, giving Coast Guard Academy cadets practical experience at sea. Originally built in Germany as Horst Wessel\, Eagle was taken by the United States as a war reparation following World War II. \nToday\, the tall ship is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in the U.S. military\, alongside USS Constitution. \nAmistad\nThe schooner Amistad recreates the type of Baltimore Clipper believed to resemble La Amistad\, the vessel at the center of the historic 1839 revolt by enslaved Africans. \nThe modern ship was created as a floating classroom\, using the story of the Amistad uprising and its connection to Connecticut to teach history while traveling from port to port. \nDenis Sullivan\nThe three-masted Denis Sullivan is a wooden schooner modeled after the Great Lakes sailing vessels of the 19th century. \nOriginally based in Milwaukee\, the vessel offers visitors another opportunity to experience traditional sailing ship design up close. \nT/V Shuman\nThe 65-foot Training Vessel Shuman gives U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets hands-on experience with navigation\, ship handling and seamanship. \nOriginally constructed as a survey vessel for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\, it now serves as a working classroom on the Thames River. \nCoast Guard Response Boats\nVisitors will also be able to see some considerably faster Coast Guard equipment. \nStation New London’s 45-foot Response Boat-Medium can exceed 40 knots and operates in seas up to 12 feet. It is used for missions including search and rescue\, maritime security and law enforcement. \nThe smaller 29-foot Response Boat-Small II can reach more than 45 knots and is designed for fast response in coastal and shallow-water environments. \nNaval Submarine Base Harbor Security Boats\nThe Navy will also be represented by Naval Submarine Base New London’s Harbor Security Boats. \nThe 27-foot vessels patrol waters surrounding the submarine base. Powered by twin outboards producing a combined 450 horsepower\, they can reach approximately 40 knots. \nKings Point\nBuilt in 2014\, Kings Point is a 3\,000-horsepower twin-screw tug constructed by Chesapeake Shipbuilding for the Vane Brothers Company. \nEnviro-Lab II / Project Oceanology\nGroton-based Project Oceanology brings marine science into the mix aboard Enviro-Lab II. \nProject O introduces thousands of students and adults each year to marine science through hands-on exploration of the ocean and Long Island Sound. \nSaturday: Coast Guard Action\, Music and a Big Night on the Waterfront\nSaturday begins with the festival’s Opening Ceremony at 10 a.m. \nThroughout the day\, visitors can explore vendors\, tour vessels and visit the Project Oceanology touch tank. \nFamilies have several activities of their own\, including free face painting\, costume making and a children’s walking parade featuring mermaids and privateers. \nAt noon\, Steve Elci joins the Little Mermaid and the Wayfinder for a children’s sing-along. \nThings get considerably louder at 1:30 p.m. \nCoast Guard Search and Rescue Demonstration\nA U.S. Coast Guard MH-60T helicopter is scheduled to conduct a search-and-rescue demonstration. \nThese aircraft operate from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod and are used throughout New England for search and rescue\, maritime law enforcement\, environmental protection and homeland security missions. \nSeeing one operate over New London’s harbor should be one of the weekend’s standout demonstrations. \nTactical Boat Operations\nAlso beginning at 1:30 p.m.\, crews from U.S. Coast Guard Station New London will demonstrate tactical boat maneuvers during a simulated security-zone intrusion. \nThe demonstration recreates techniques Coast Guard crews use to protect ports and critical infrastructure and intercept vessels that don’t comply with security orders. \nThe commanding officer of Station New London will narrate the demonstration. \nSaturday Night: Benedict Arnold Burns Again\nOne of New London’s strangest and most enduring traditions returns Saturday evening. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, the March of the Traitor begins its procession along Bank Street toward Waterfront Park. \nThe event commemorates Benedict Arnold’s infamous September 1781 attack on New London and Groton after the Connecticut-born Revolutionary War general defected to the British. \nFlock Theatre brings the history to life with period costumes\, music\, fifes and drums before the procession reaches the waterfront. \nAt approximately 8 p.m.\, an effigy of Benedict Arnold is burned. \nVisitors are encouraged to join the procession\, and period clothing is welcome. \nThen Look Up: 300 Drones Over the Thames\nDon’t leave after Benedict Arnold meets his fiery fate. \nAt approximately 8:15 p.m. Saturday\, a fleet of 300 synchronized drones is scheduled to take to the sky over the New London waterfront. \nThe drones will create illuminated shapes and images above the Thames River through choreographed formations accompanied by music. \nThe show can be viewed from the New London waterfront. \nPersonal drones are prohibited during the festival. \nSunday: Fishing\, Maritime Skills and More Music\nSunday begins another full day of free vessel tours\, vendors\, authors and the Project Oceanology touch tank from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. \nAt 11 a.m.\, Submarine Veterans will conduct a Tolling of the Boats\, a remembrance ceremony honoring submarines and submariners lost at sea. \nFamilies can also head to Fort Trumbull for Breezeline’s Reel Time with Kids Fishing Clinic from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. \nChildren can learn casting\, reeling and fishing safety in a hands-on setting. No registration is required\, equipment is provided\, and participating children can receive a free fishing pole while supplies last. \nNavy vs. Coast Guard: Sea-Service Showdown\nAt noon Sunday\, attention shifts to Waterfront Park for a little interservice rivalry. \nThe Sea-Service Showdown Maritime Skills Challenge pits Navy and Coast Guard participants against each other in a friendly competition involving maritime skills\, strength and teamwork. \nThe competition runs from noon to 2 p.m. \nCome prepared to pick a side. \nSunday’s festival concludes with reggae from Tambulaytay\, performing from 2 to 5 p.m. \nLiving History at Fort Trumbull\nFort Trumbull provides an appropriate backdrop for another part of the weekend. \nAmerican and British colonial reenactors will establish 18th-century encampments Saturday and Sunday\, complete with canvas tents\, camp kitchens and open fires. \nVisitors can walk through the camps\, speak with reenactors and see demonstrations of marching formations\, military drills and everyday life during the Revolutionary era. \nIt adds something the ship tours can’t: instead of simply looking at Connecticut’s maritime past\, you can walk through a piece of it. \nU.S. Coast Guard Academy 150th Anniversary Stamp\nThe U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s 150th anniversary will also be commemorated during the festival with a special U.S. Postal Service stamp presentation and availability. \nThe stamp recognizes the Academy’s history in New London and features Coast Guard imagery\, including Eagle. \nThe commemorative stamp will be available during festival hours Saturday and Sunday. \nFriday Prelude: Pirates and The Guardian\nAlthough the main festival takes place Saturday and Sunday\, activities begin Friday\, September 11. \nAt 8:30 a.m.\, New London will hold a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. \nAt 5 p.m.\, the New London Privateers & Buccaneers take over City Pier with a celebration of pirate lore\, including a pirate-map scavenger hunt and an adult costume contest. \nAt 7 p.m.\, the Garde Arts Center presents The Guardian\, the 2006 Coast Guard rescue-swimmer drama starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. \nSaturday Schedule\n10 a.m. — Opening Ceremony\n10 a.m.–5 p.m. — Vendors\, Free Boat Tours and Project O Touch Tank\n10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. — Free Face Painting\n10–11:30 a.m. — Make a Free Parade Costume\n10 a.m.–5 p.m. — U.S. Coast Guard Academy 150th Anniversary Stamp\n11:30 a.m. — Mermaid & Privateer Children’s Walking Parade\nNoon–1 p.m. — Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci\, Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder\n1:30 p.m. — U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Helicopter Demonstration\n1:30 p.m. — USCG Tactical Boat Operations Demonstration\n2 p.m. – 7 p..m. –  Songs of the Sea 2026 at Parade Plaza\n2 p.m. — Community Drum Circle\n3 p.m. — Red Lion\n6 p.m. — Mass Conn Fusion\n7 p.m. – Post Songs of the Sea Shanty Pub Sing at the Oasis\n7:30 p.m. — March of the Traitor: Benedict Arnold Procession\n8–8:15 p.m. — Burning of Benedict Arnold\nApproximately 8:15 p.m. — 300-Drone Light Show \nSunday Schedule\n10 a.m.–5 p.m. — Vendors\, Authors\, Free Boat Tours and Project O Touch Tank\n10 a.m.–5 p.m. — U.S. Coast Guard Academy 150th Anniversary Stamp\n11 a.m. — Sub Vets Tolling of the Boats\n11 a.m.–2 p.m. — Breezeline’s Reel Time with Kids Fishing Clinic at Fort Trumbull\nNoon–2 p.m. — Sea-Service Showdown Maritime Skills Challenge at Waterfront Park\n2–5 p.m. — Tambulaytay \nGetting Around the Festival\nThis is worth explaining prominently because the festival is essentially one event with two campuses. \nFree transportation connects Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull throughout the weekend. \nVisitors can ride the Thames River Heritage Park water taxi between locations or use the festival’s free shuttle buses. \nThat means there’s little reason to drive back and forth. Park once\, then use the boats and buses. \nWhere to Park\nFor Waterfront Park\, visitors have several options. \nWaterfront metered lot:\n13 Tilley Street\nNew London\, CT \nWater Street parking garage:\n160 Water Street\nNew London\, CT \nOn-street parking is also available in downtown New London. \nFor Fort Trumbull State Park: \n90 Walbach Street\nNew London\, CT \nStreet parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood. The Fort Trumbull parking lot itself is reserved for handicapped parking during the festival. \nComing by Train or Ferry\nThis is one of those rare regional festivals where leaving the car home is genuinely practical. \nNew London Union Station\, at 27 Water Street\, is within walking distance of Waterfront Park and is served by Amtrak. \nVisitors can also arrive in New London aboard Cross Sound Ferry from Long Island\, Block Island Ferry or Fishers Island Ferry. The ferry terminals are within walking distance of the festival. \nPrivate boaters can reserve overnight dockage or moorings at New London Waterfront Park. \nEvent Details\nConnecticut Maritime Heritage Festival 2026 \nDates: Saturday\, September 12 & Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nMain Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.\nLocations: New London Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park\nWaterfront Park: 2 State Street\, New London\, CT\nFort Trumbull: 90 Walbach Street\, New London\, CT\nAdmission: Free\nTransportation Between Venues: Free water taxi and shuttle bus \nMore information\, schedule updates and vessel information are available at the Event Website link below.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/connecticut-maritime-heritage-festival-2026-guide/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:CT
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Connecticut-Maritime-Heritage-Festival-2026-Guide.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T220000
DTSTAMP:20260911T013455Z
CREATED:20260907T164234Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T013455Z
UID:10007503-1789207200-1789250400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:TreeTrails Adventures Rosh Hashanah Weekend Celebration
DESCRIPTION:TreeTrails Adventures Rosh Hashanah Weekend Celebration offers three days of climbing\, ziplining\, grilling\, and time with family and friends in Mystic from Friday\, September 11 through Sunday\, September 13. The special weekend coincides with the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and the Hebrew calendar year\, giving families an unconventional outdoor option for spending part of the holiday together. \nTreeTrails is setting aside space for families and groups to gather and grill between adventures in the trees. Groups of 10 or more can also receive special rates by booking in advance. \nThe celebration begins Friday at 4 p.m. and continues until 10 p.m. Saturday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.\, followed by a final day Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. \nCelebrate the Jewish New Year Outdoors\nRosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Friday\, September 11\, 2026\, and continues through nightfall on Sunday\, September 13\, putting the TreeTrails weekend directly alongside this year’s holiday. \nRosh Hashanah means “head of the year” in Hebrew and marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar year. It opens the High Holy Days\, a period that culminates with Yom Kippur. \nTraditional observances include synagogue services and the sounding of the shofar\, along with festive meals shared with family and friends. Apples dipped in honey are among the holiday’s most familiar traditions\, symbolizing hopes for a sweet year ahead. \nTreeTrails isn’t presenting the weekend as a religious service or organized observance. Instead\, the park is offering its outdoor space as a place where families and friends can gather during the holiday weekend\, bring food\, grill and spend time together while taking advantage of the park’s regular aerial adventures. \nClimb and Zip Through the Mystic Woods\nTreeTrails Adventures Mystic is an aerial adventure park spread across roughly nine wooded acres a few minutes from downtown Mystic. \nIts Main Park is designed for climbers ages 7 through adult\, with five aerial trails that increase in difficulty from beginner through expert. \nThe courses combine approximately 70 challenges constructed from wood\, rope and cable\, including suspended bridges\, ladders\, balancing obstacles and other elements connecting platforms throughout the woods. \nThen there are the zip lines. Eighteen of them are incorporated into the Main Park trails. \nThe easiest courses remain roughly 12 feet above the ground\, while the most challenging sections can take climbers as high as 55 feet into the trees. Trails are color-coded by difficulty\, beginning with Yellow courses and progressing through Green\, Blue and Black. \nFirst-time visitors don’t simply get clipped into a harness and sent 50 feet into the air. Every participant receives equipment and safety instruction followed by time on a practice course. First-time guests begin on a Yellow or Green trail before moving on to more difficult challenges. \nThe experience is largely self-guided after that. Climbers can choose trails based on their comfort and ability rather than following everyone through one predetermined course. \nKidTrails Gives Younger Children Their Own Adventure\nChildren don’t have to wait until they’re big enough for the Main Park. \nKidTrails is a separate aerial adventure area designed specifically for ages 4 to 7. Instead of simply putting small children onto adult-sized obstacles\, TreeTrails scales the experience down for younger climbers. \nIts two trails contain 24 challenges\, including bridges and other aerial obstacles similar in concept to those found in the Main Park. They’re positioned only a few feet above the ground\, allowing a parent or guardian to walk alongside while the child navigates the course. \nAdult supervision is required in KidTrails\, with one adult permitted to supervise up to two children. \nThat separation gives families with children of different ages options during the Rosh Hashanah weekend rather than limiting the climbing experience to older kids and adults. \nSeptember Nights Bring Glow in the Park\nFriday and Saturday have another wrinkle once daylight begins disappearing. \nTreeTrails continues its Glow in the Park nighttime climbing program on Thursdays\, Fridays and Saturdays throughout September. \nAs darkness settles into the woods\, colorful lights illuminate the aerial park while music plays below. Climbers receive glow accessories to wear as they move through the courses\, turning the same bridges\, obstacles and zip lines into a different experience after sunset. \nBoth the Main Park and KidTrails participate in Glow in the Park\, so the nighttime experience isn’t limited to older climbers. \nAdvance reservations are particularly worthwhile for nighttime climbs because Glow in the Park is one of TreeTrails’ more popular programs. Glow tickets for the Main Park start at $66 when purchased in advance. \nThe most difficult trails begin closing 45 minutes before the park itself closes\, allowing climbers already in the trees enough time to finish their courses. \nBring Food\, Grill and Gather Between Climbs\nThe Rosh Hashanah weekend puts additional emphasis on gathering rather than simply arriving\, climbing and heading home. \nTreeTrails says it has ample space available for families and friends to grill and spend time together at the park. Guests can bring their own food\, making it possible to turn a climbing reservation into a longer family outing or holiday get-together. \nSnacks and nonalcoholic drinks are also available for purchase at the park. \nOutside alcoholic beverages aren’t permitted. \nFamilies planning a larger Rosh Hashanah gathering have another option. TreeTrails offers special pricing for groups of 10 or more\, although those arrangements should be made with the group sales team in advance rather than waiting until arrival. \nWhat to Know Before You Climb\nTreeTrails recommends making reservations in advance\, particularly for popular nighttime sessions. Walk-ins are accepted when space is available\, but same-day admission costs more and visitors may have to wait for an available climbing time. \nClimbers should arrive about 15 minutes before their reservation to check in and prepare for the adventure. TreeTrails suggests allowing roughly three hours for the overall visit\, including check-in\, harnessing\, the safety briefing and approximately two hours of climbing. \nClosed-toe\, fully enclosed shoes are required. Sneakers or hiking shoes are good choices; sandals\, flip-flops and Crocs aren’t permitted on the courses. Long hair must be tied back\, and loose clothing or objects that could become caught in ropes or cables should be secured. \nMain Park climbers must weigh more than 45 pounds and less than 265 pounds and meet a minimum reach requirement of 65 inches. Age restrictions also apply to some of the more difficult trails. \nWeather can affect operations. TreeTrails may evacuate the aerial courses during unsafe conditions such as lightning or high winds. When weather forces the park to stop climbing\, guests may be offered a rain check or an opportunity to reschedule. \nA Different Kind of Rosh Hashanah Gathering\nThe weekend isn’t intended to replace the religious traditions of Rosh Hashanah. There’s no announced worship service\, shofar ceremony or formal holiday program at TreeTrails. \nWhat the park is providing is the setting. \nFamilies can bring food\, gather around a grill\, spend an afternoon together and\, for those who want the adventure\, climb into the canopy and zip between the trees. \nWith the celebration running throughout all three days of Rosh Hashanah weekend\, families can choose the part of the holiday that fits their own plans rather than attending at a single scheduled time. \nDetails\nEvent: TreeTrails Adventures Rosh Hashanah Weekend Celebration\nDates: Friday\, September 11–Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nFriday Hours: 4–10 p.m.\nSaturday Hours: 10 a.m.–10 p.m.\nSunday Hours: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.\nLocation: TreeTrails Adventures Mystic\nAddress: 715 Noank Ledyard Road\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nMain Park: Ages 7 through adult\nKidTrails: Ages 4–7\nMain Park Advance Admission: $69\nKidTrails Advance Admission: $23\nGlow in the Park: Available Friday and Saturday nights; Main Park advance tickets start at $66\nGroup Rates: Special rates are available for groups of 10 or more; advance arrangements are required\nFood: Guests may bring their own food; snacks and drinks are available for purchase\nGrilling: Space is available for grilling and family gatherings\nAlcohol: Outside alcoholic beverages are prohibited\nReservations: Advance reservations are strongly recommended; walk-ins are accepted subject to availability at higher same-day prices\nClimbing Time: Approximately two hours; TreeTrails recommends allowing about three hours for the complete experience\nArrival: Approximately 15 minutes before the reserved climbing time\nFootwear: Fully enclosed\, closed-toe shoes required; Crocs\, sandals and flip-flops are not permitted\nMain Park Weight Requirement: More than 45 pounds and less than 265 pounds\nWeather: Courses may close during lightning\, high winds or other unsafe conditions\nGroup Reservations: 570-534-7515\nGeneral Information: 860-980-3874 \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/treetrails-adventures-rosh-hashanah-weekend-celebration/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:CT
CATEGORIES:TreeTrails Adventures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/TreeTrails-Adventures-Rosh-Hashanah-Weekend-Celebration.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T140000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022654Z
CREATED:20260907T030609Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022654Z
UID:10007492-1789209000-1789221600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Groton City Brew Run & Food Trucks
DESCRIPTION:Groton City Brew Run returns to Eastern Point Beach on Saturday\, September 12\, combining a waterfront 5K run and walk with a post-race beer garden\, live music\, food trucks\, and craft beverages from breweries and producers across Southern New England. \nNow in its sixth year\, the event begins with a free kids run at 10:30 a.m.\, followed by the 5K run and walk at 11 a.m. The Brew Garden opens at 11:30 a.m. and continues until 2 p.m.\, with Acoustic Marshpit returning to provide live music. \nThe 2026 Brew Run benefits The Riverfront Children’s Center and is hosted by the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce\, Groton Utilities and Kelley’s Pace. \nFrom a Local 5K to a Groton Tradition\nThe Groton City Brew Run began in 2021 with a fairly simple combination: go for a run and have a beer afterward. \nSix years later\, the event has grown into one of the City of Groton’s signature late-summer gatherings. \nNearly 600 people participated in 2025\, according to the City of Groton\, marking the first time the event surpassed 500 runners and walkers. \nThe location is a significant part of its appeal. \nThe race starts and finishes at Eastern Point Beach\, where the Thames River meets Long Island Sound. With Shore Avenue reopened following two years of construction\, organizers say the 2026 course returns to a scenic finish with water views. \nRunners and walkers share a single mass start at 11 a.m. \nYou Don’t Have to Run to Join the Brewfest\nDespite the name\, the Groton City Brew Run isn’t limited to runners. \nParticipants can register for the 5K run or walk\, combine the race with admission to the Brew Garden\, or skip the race entirely and purchase Brew Garden admission. \nThe post-race festivities begin at 11:30 a.m.\, when Eastern Point Beach shifts from race course to beer festival. \nThe current 2026 lineup includes 18 breweries\, distilleries and beverage producers\, bringing together a particularly strong collection of Connecticut and Rhode Island names. \nBeer’d Brewing Company\, which operates The Silo in Groton and The Mill in Stonington\, is among the participating breweries. Groton’s Outer Light Brewing Company is also represented. \nThe larger lineup includes Athletic Brewing Company\, B-Sharp Brewing\, Barn Brew Co.\, Back East Brewing\, BAD SONS Brewing\, Creature Brewing Company\, Grey Sail Brewing\, Levine Distributing\, Litchfield Distillery\, Owl’s Brew\, Schooner’s Beverages\, Tapped Apple\, These Guys Brewing\, Two Roads Brewing\, Waypoint Spirits and Whalers Brewing Company. \nThat mix means the Brew Garden extends beyond conventional craft beer\, with spirits and other beverages represented alongside the breweries. \nBrew Garden admission is restricted to guests 21 and older. \nAcoustic Marshpit Returns to the Beach\nThe music portion of the afternoon belongs to Acoustic Marshpit\, returning after previously performing at the Brew Run two years ago. \nThe acoustic act provides the soundtrack once the race gives way to the post-run celebration\, with music continuing alongside the Brew Garden and food trucks. \nThe City of Groton specifically cited the group’s previous Brew Run appearance in announcing its return for 2026\, describing a performance that kept the post-race party moving. \nRather than treating the music as a separate concert\, the Brew Run builds it into the larger beach gathering. Runners can finish their 5K\, grab something to eat and spend the remainder of the afternoon at Eastern Point Beach without needing to head elsewhere. \nA Free Race for Younger Runners\nBefore the main field takes off\, younger runners get a race of their own. \nThe Kids Run begins at 10:30 a.m. and is free for children age 10 and younger. \nPre-registration is required even though there is no entry fee. \nThe Kids Run\, food and live music also give families something to do beyond the adult Brew Garden\, making the larger event more than a beer festival attached to a road race. \nSupporting The Riverfront Children’s Center\nThis year’s Brew Run benefits The Riverfront Children’s Center\, adding a community fundraising component to the event. \nThe Groton nonprofit has served children and families in southeastern Connecticut for decades\, providing early childhood education and care with an emphasis on making quality programs available to families across different income levels. \nThat mission fits an event designed to bring together runners\, walkers\, families\, local businesses and breweries from throughout the region. \nRace Registration and Brew Garden Tickets\nSeveral registration options are available depending on how much of the day visitors want to participate in. \nAs of the current registration period\, the 5K run or walk is $37\, while the combined 5K and Brew Garden package is $49. Brew Garden admission without participating in the race is $39. \nThe Kids Run remains free. \nRace-day packet pickup runs from 8:30 to 10:45 a.m. \nParticipants can also avoid the race-morning pickup line by collecting their bib and shirt in advance at the City of Groton Municipal Building\, 295 Meridian Street. Early packet pickup is scheduled for Thursday\, September 10\, and Friday\, September 11\, from 3 to 7 p.m. \nTech shirts are available to registered 5K runners and walkers while supplies last. \nAn End-of-Summer Party at Eastern Point\nThe combination is an unusual one\, but after six years it has become the identity of the event. \nThe morning starts with running shoes and a starting line. A half-hour after the 5K begins\, taps start pouring\, food trucks are serving and live music takes over the beach. \nPeople who have no interest in running can simply come for the Brew Garden. Families can bring younger children for their own race. Serious runners can treat it as a competitive 5K. \nIn 2025\, William Sanders won the overall race in 15:58\, while Shelly Rivera was the women’s winner in 20:31. \nFor everyone else\, there’s beer waiting at the finish. \nEvent Details\nEvent: 6th Annual Groton City Brew Run\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nLocation: Eastern Point Beach\nAddress: 1 Beach Pond Road\, Groton\, CT 06340\nKids Run: 10:30 a.m.\n5K Run & Walk: 11 a.m.\nBrew Garden\, Music & Food Trucks: 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m.\nLive Music: Acoustic Marshpit\n5K Run/Walk: $37\n5K + Brew Garden: $49\nBrew Garden Only: $39\nKids Run: Free; pre-registration required\nBrew Garden Age: 21+\nBeneficiary: The Riverfront Children’s Center\nHosts: Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce\, Groton Utilities and Kelley’s Pace\nRace-Day Packet Pickup: 8:30–10:45 a.m. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo register\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/groton-city-brew-run/
LOCATION:Zbierski House\, Eastern Point Beach\, 1 Beach Pond Road\, Groton\, 06340\, United States
CATEGORIES:Zbierski House
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Groton-City-Brew-Run.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T180000
DTSTAMP:20260903T140908Z
CREATED:20260903T140908Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260903T140908Z
UID:10007442-1789209000-1789236000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Connecticut Renaissance Faire 2026 Guide
DESCRIPTION:Connecticut Renaissance Faire 2026 transforms the Lebanon Country Fairgrounds into a sprawling 16th-century fantasy village for nine weekends of jousting\, comedy\, live music\, costumed characters\, artisan shopping\, food\, games and themed adventures. \nThe Faire runs from August 29 through October 25 at 122 Mack Road in Lebanon\, with regular hours from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. It also opens on holiday Mondays\, including Labor Day and Columbus Day. \nFor 2026\, the Faire is advertising more than 40 shows each day across 13 stages\, along with dozens of games and activities and more than 200 artisans\, food vendors and other merchants. \nAnd this isn’t an event where you simply watch from the sidelines. \nWalk through the gates and you enter a village populated by kings\, queens\, knights\, fairies\, musicians\, rogues and other characters who interact with visitors throughout the day. You can watch armored combat\, cheer at the joust\, throw an axe\, shop for a handmade sword or drinking horn\, take the kids on human-powered rides\, eat a turkey leg and end up in a conversation with a member of the royal court on the way to your next show. \nHere’s how to plan a day at the 2026 Connecticut Renaissance Faire. \nWhen Is the Connecticut Renaissance Faire?\nThe 2026 season runs from August 29 through October 25. \nThe Faire is generally open Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.\, with special openings on Labor Day and Columbus Day. \nThe season is divided into themed weekends\, so the experience changes as fall progresses. Themes for 2026 include Dragons & Dungeons\, Roses & Romance\, Shirefolk\, Faerie Ring Revels\, Pirates & Vikings\, Time Travelers\, All Hallows and the new Merry Macabre weekend. \nLabor Day weekend\, September 5–7\, is Dragons & Dungeons\, a fantasy-focused weekend built around quests\, heroes and legendary characters. \nCostumes aren’t required to attend. Some visitors arrive in everyday clothes\, while others treat the themed weekends as an opportunity to build elaborate Renaissance\, fantasy\, pirate\, Viking or other character costumes. \nHow Much Are Connecticut Renaissance Faire Tickets?\nGeneral admission for the 2026 season is $18 for adults and $10 for youth\, while children in the Faire’s child admission category enter free. \nAdmission covers the Faire itself and its regular stage performances. Certain games\, rides\, food\, drinks and premium experiences cost extra. \nOne useful change from the way some fairs and festivals operate is that there are no food tickets. Food and beverages are purchased directly from individual merchants. \nSame-day re-entry is also permitted with a handstamp\, so leaving the grounds doesn’t necessarily mean the end of your Faire day. \nStart With the Shows\nTrying to see everything at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire in one day is probably the wrong approach. \nThere are simply too many performances. \nThe 2026 Faire uses 13 stages and advertises more than 40 shows daily. Entertainment ranges from music and comedy to acrobatics\, combat demonstrations\, theatrical performances and interactive shows. \nOne of the biggest spectacles is the armored combat demonstration from the Knights of Gore. These aren’t performers simply swinging lightweight theatrical weapons around one another. The demonstrations feature fighters in plate armor engaging in full-contact medieval-style combat. \nThe Knights of Gore also present educational demonstrations throughout the day covering subjects such as medieval helmets\, the roles of knights and squires and siege weapons including the trebuchet. \nThe Joust Remains a Centerpiece\nIt’s difficult to imagine a Renaissance faire without knights charging toward one another on horseback. \nJousting remains one of the major attractions in Lebanon. \nThe 2026 season includes jousting from Roundtable Productions and Equus Nobilis\, both listed among the Faire’s new entertainment additions this year. \nThe joust combines horsemanship\, theatrical storytelling and medieval-style competition on a scale that’s difficult to replicate on one of the smaller stages. \nIf seeing a joust is high on your list\, check the schedule when you arrive and build the rest of the day around it rather than assuming you’ll simply stumble across the right performance. \nThere Is Plenty of Comedy\nNot everything involves swords and armor. \nComedy is scattered throughout the Faire\, sometimes on a stage and sometimes walking directly toward you in the lanes. \nThe Norfolk Theatricals specialize in interactive theatrical comedy\, presenting deliberately chaotic original plays with audience members sometimes pulled into the performance. \nBone Dallaire roams the grounds as a self-important thespian and playwright whose opinion of his own talent may exceed everyone else’s. \nThe Faire’s cast of Crown Players adds another layer of continuous theater. Instead of performing only at scheduled times\, characters inhabit the village and interact with guests throughout the day. \nThat distinction is important for first-time visitors. \nThe Connecticut Renaissance Faire isn’t simply a collection of scheduled shows surrounded by food booths. The space between the stages is part of the performance. \nMusic Runs From Celtic Traditions to Sea Chanteys\nLive music is another major part of the day. \nThe 2026 roster includes performers working with Celtic music\, traditional folk\, sea chanteys and other styles that fit naturally into the Faire setting. \nJesse Ofgang and the Diaspora\, new for 2026\, combine Scottish and Irish musical traditions with contemporary rhythms using instruments including bagpipes\, whistles and guitars. \nNemeton: Folk Fantasy Music and Dance brings an especially unusual collection of instruments to the Faire\, including bagpipes\, drums\, double flutes\, penny whistles\, English concertina\, medieval small pipes\, rauschpfeife and hurdy-gurdy. \nNew England’s Misfits of Avalon draw from Celtic music with hammered dulcimer\, mandolin\, guitar and violin. \nOther weekends bring different musicians\, including the maritime and Celtic sounds of the Crimson Pirates and southeastern Connecticut’s Bards of Gungywamp. \nBecause performers vary by themed weekend\, it’s worth checking the schedule for the specific date you’re attending. \nSome of the Best Entertainment Is Strange\nRenaissance faires have always left room for acts that don’t fit neatly into a category. \nThat’s part of the fun. \nFor 2026\, Fly by Night joins the Connecticut Faire with a combination of comedy\, juggling\, whip cracking and sideshow skills. The duo of Steve King and Ryan Roberts has been performing since 1990 and appeared as semifinalists on the fourth season of America’s Got Talent. \nCircus Stella puts rescued dogs into a circus environment alongside Dextre Tripp\, mixing canine tricks with juggling\, ladder balancing\, rope walking and unicycling. \nElsewhere\, visitors can encounter puppetry\, dance\, storytelling\, magic and roaming performers without necessarily planning to see them. \nLeave some empty space in the schedule. \nAt a Renaissance faire\, getting distracted is part of the itinerary. \nGames and Rides Go Beyond the Stages\nThere’s plenty to do when you want to participate rather than watch. \nThe Faire’s games and activities include old-fashioned and Renaissance-inspired challenges\, physical games and human-powered attractions. \nSome activities carry an additional fee. \nYou’ll find opportunities to test skill and strength\, explore the Royal Maze and take part in attractions spread throughout the village. \nFor families with younger children\, this can provide a useful break between longer stage performances. \nFor adults\, it can become surprisingly competitive. \nEat the Turkey Leg\, But Don’t Stop There\nYes\, there are giant turkey legs. \nThe Faire’s Turkey Legs and More stand serves the oversized roasted festival staple along with turkey sundaes\, mac and cheese\, smoked chicken\, lemonade and fried dough. \nBut the food selection has grown far beyond the Renaissance-faire stereotype. \nThe 2026 Faire lists 37 food merchants and seven pubs and taverns\, with meals\, desserts\, snacks and beverages distributed throughout the grounds. \nThere are burgers and hot dogs\, chicken sandwiches\, baked goods\, fried seafood\, sweets and a broad assortment of festival food. \nThe Faire also identifies vendors offering vegetarian\, vegan\, gluten-free and dairy-free choices. \nEvery food merchant is required to offer at least one item priced at $7\, an attempt to keep at least one lower-priced choice available at each location. \nOutside snacks and nonalcoholic drinks are also permitted. \nYou Can Walk the Faire With a Drink\nThere are no isolated beer tents requiring guests to remain inside a designated drinking area. \nAdults can purchase alcoholic beverages from the Faire’s pubs and taverns and carry their drinks while exploring the grounds. \nValid identification is required for alcohol purchases. \nThat also makes the taverns part of the atmosphere rather than simply concession stands. \nFor visitors looking for something more structured\, the Faire offers two separate 21-and-over experiences. \nThe Pub Crawl Is a 90-Minute Quest\nThe Connecticut Renaissance Faire Pub Crawl isn’t simply four drink tickets stapled together. \nThe approximately 90-minute experience is hosted by Fae Frostwhiperer and takes a group of no more than 15 participants through four Faire taverns. \nThere are four alcoholic drinks along the way\, but participants also complete challenges\, play games\, sing\, chant and interact with their guide. \nOne stop at Shattered Shield includes Liar’s Dice\, a vegetable platter and an exclusive small-batch mead that isn’t sold from the tavern’s regular menu. \nAnother stop includes a Test of Strength at King’s Inn Crossing. \nPub Crawls depart twice each Faire day\, at 11 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. \nThe price is $75\, plus a processing fee when purchased online. Tickets can also be purchased at Shattered Shield without the online processing fee\, although each crawl is limited to 15 participants and can sell out. \nParticipants must be 21 or older with valid identification. \nRegular Faire admission is not included with the Pub Crawl. \nWhiskey Tastings Offer a Quieter Break\nFor adults who prefer sipping to crawling\, guided whiskey tastings offer a considerably calmer experience. \nThe approximately one-hour sessions explore a curated selection of whiskies\, with hosts discussing origins\, production methods\, flavor profiles and techniques for nosing and tasting. \nCharcuterie is served alongside the pours. \nThe experience is designed for both beginners and experienced whiskey drinkers\, and advance reservations are strongly recommended because seating is intentionally limited. \nParticipants must be 21 or older and bring valid government-issued photo identification. \nLike the Pub Crawl\, a whiskey tasting is an additional experience. Regular Connecticut Renaissance Faire admission must be purchased separately. \nShopping Is a Major Part of the Faire\nDon’t treat the merchant area as an afterthought. \nThe Faire says the 2026 season includes 213 artisans\, games and food vendors\, with 32 new shops joining the grounds this year. \nThe marketplace is where the fantasy world starts becoming something you can take home. \nDepending on the merchant\, visitors can find clothing\, leatherwork\, jewelry\, drinking vessels\, artwork\, fantasy accessories\, home décor and handcrafted goods. \nSome merchants make items that are specifically useful for people building Renaissance or fantasy costumes\, while others sell pieces that work perfectly well outside the Faire. \nFor someone arriving without a costume\, the marketplace also provides an easy way to gradually become more appropriately dressed as the day progresses. \nYou may enter in jeans. \nThere is no guarantee you will leave without a cloak. \n2026 Is a Significant Expansion Year\nThe Faire has added a substantial amount of new material for 2026. \nIts official count includes 11 new shows\, 32 new shops and seven new food offerings. \nAmong the new entertainment are the two jousting productions\, Fly by Night and Jesse Ofgang and the Diaspora. \nThe Faire is also introducing Merry Macabre\, a new themed weekend for October 24–25 that takes the season into darker territory just before Halloween. \nThat expansion matters even to people who have attended in previous years. \nThe basic formula remains recognizable\, but the Faire is deliberately designed so returning on another weekend doesn’t simply reproduce the same day. \nBringing Kids to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire\nChildren don’t have to understand Renaissance history to find things to do here. \nThere are family-oriented performances\, interactive games\, rides and characters throughout the village. \nOne particularly memorable experience is the Knighting Ceremony with the King and Queen\, where children can present themselves before King Basil and Queen Gwendolyn Genevieve and receive royal recognition before the parade. \nThere are also quests and interactive encounters with the Knights of Gore. \nThe Faire’s combination of structured shows and wandering characters means children can become involved in the fantasy rather than spending the entire day watching adults perform. \nYes\, You Can Bring Your Pet\nThe Connecticut Renaissance Faire has an unusually broad pet policy. \nWell-behaved dogs\, cats\, rabbits\, ferrets\, rats and lizards are permitted. \nPet admission is $5 per animal\, while service animals enter free. \nDogs and cats must have proof of current rabies vaccination. A veterinarian’s letter\, email or current rabies tag can serve as proof. \nPets must remain on a non-retractable leash no longer than six feet and owners are responsible for cleaning up after them. \nLivestock\, horses\, donkeys\, mules and other large animals aren’t permitted. \nThe Faire advises owners to bring food and water for their animals. Water bowls may be available from merchants\, but pet food isn’t sold on the grounds. \nPets are also permitted on the parking shuttles. \nParking Has Changed for 2026\nThis is one section worth reading before leaving home. \nThe Faire has a new parking system for 2026. \nVisitors who want to park directly at the Faire grounds at 122 Mack Road can purchase Premium Parking for $10 per vehicle. \nThere are only 525 Premium Parking spaces available each Faire day\, and they must be purchased online in advance for the specific date you’re attending. \nYou cannot purchase Premium Parking when you arrive at the lot. \nVIP admission includes Premium Parking. \nThere are also 125 free ADA parking spaces at the main Faire site for vehicles displaying a valid handicapped placard or plate. These spaces can’t be reserved and are available on a first-available basis. \nMotorcycles can park at the main site for free. \nFree Parking and Shuttles Are Available\nYou don’t have to pay to park. \nThe Faire operates free satellite parking with continuous shuttle service beginning at 9:30 a.m. \nOne free lot is located at 744 Trumbull Highway in Lebanon. \nAdditional parking is available at Lebanon Middle School\, 891 Exeter Road\, and Lyman Memorial High School\, 917 Exeter Road. \nThere is one important wrinkle with the school lots: the shuttles do not pick up directly at the schools. \nGuests parking at either school walk to the Mobil station located between the two schools\, which serves as the shuttle pickup and drop-off point. \nThe last shuttle leaves the Faire 30 minutes after closing. \nAnd don’t blindly follow your GPS. \nThe Faire specifically warns visitors not to use Barker Road\, which police close to through traffic on Faire weekends. \nWhere to Stay\nFor visitors coming from farther away\, the Faire maintains a list of nearby lodging options rather than operating an on-site campground. \nBecause the event runs for nine weekends\, staying overnight can also make sense for visitors who want to attend both Saturday and Sunday without making the drive twice. \nCheck lodging availability early for popular themed weekends\, particularly as the season moves toward October and foliage season in eastern Connecticut. \nWhat First-Time Visitors Should Know\nThe easiest mistake is approaching the Connecticut Renaissance Faire like an attraction where everything follows one obvious route. \nIt doesn’t. \nThere are performances happening simultaneously\, characters wandering the lanes\, merchants to explore\, food to try and activities that can consume far more time than expected. \nCheck the day’s performance schedule first and choose the handful of shows you really don’t want to miss. \nThen allow the rest of the day to happen around them. \nYou might stop for lunch and encounter a roaming performer. \nYou might head toward a stage and spend 30 minutes shopping instead. \nYou might intend to watch one song and stay for an entire set. \nThat’s not poor planning. \nThat’s pretty much how a Renaissance faire is supposed to work. \nConnecticut Renaissance Faire 2026 Details\nEvent: Connecticut Renaissance Faire\nSeason: August 29–October 25\, 2026\nRegular Days: Saturdays and Sundays\, plus Labor Day and Columbus Day\nHours: 10:30 a.m.–6 p.m.\nLocation: Lebanon Country Fairgrounds\nAddress: 122 Mack Road\, Lebanon\, CT 06249\nAdult General Admission: $18\nYouth Admission: $10\nChild Admission: Free\nEntertainment: More than 40 shows daily across 13 stages\nMarketplace: More than 200 artisans\, food vendors\, games and other merchants\nFood: 37 food merchants and seven pubs and taverns\nPremium On-Site Parking: $10\, advance date-specific purchase required\nFree Parking: Satellite lots with shuttle service\nPet Admission: $5; service animals free\nSame-Day Re-Entry: Permitted with handstamp\nOutside Food: Snacks and nonalcoholic drinks permitted \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/connecticut-renaissance-faire-2026-guide/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Lebanon Fair Grounds\, 122 Mack Road\, Lebanon\, 06249\, United States
CATEGORIES:Lebanon Fairgrounds
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Connecticut-Renaissance-Faire-2026-Guide.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T140000
DTSTAMP:20260908T220743Z
CREATED:20260908T220743Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260908T220743Z
UID:10007524-1789210800-1789221600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Free School Supply Shop at Westerly Library
DESCRIPTION:Free School Supply Shop at Westerly Library gives local students a chance to stock their backpacks without spending a dollar as the new school year gets underway. Westerly Library & Wilcox Park is turning its Pop-Up at Coy into a temporary school-supply store from Tuesday\, September 8\, through Saturday\, September 12\, with everything in the shop available free to students. \nFamilies can find backpacks\, calculators\, folders\, lunchboxes\, notebooks\, markers\, pencils\, pens\, rulers and other donated supplies. There is no purchase involved and no admission charge. The idea is simple: take the school supplies a student needs. \nThe shop runs from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday\, 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. \nA Community School-Supply Drive Becomes a Free Store\nThe shelves at the Free School Supply Shop were filled by the community before students ever walked through the door. \nWesterly Library began collecting new and gently used school supplies on August 3\, placing donation bins near its entrances and inviting residents to contribute through September 8. \nThe library’s suggested donations covered many of the expenses families encounter at the beginning of a school year: backpacks and lunchboxes\, calculators and rulers\, folders and notebooks\, along with everyday supplies such as pencils\, pens and markers. \nInstead of simply distributing prepacked bags\, the library has taken a different approach. \nThe donations become inventory for a temporary shop where students can look through the available supplies and choose what they need. \nThat distinction may seem small\, but it gives students and families some control over what they take home. A teenager who needs a calculator and notebooks isn’t necessarily looking for the same supplies as an elementary school student who needs markers\, pencils and a lunchbox. \nThe library describes the shop as offering a variety of supplies free to any student. \nFive Days to Stop In\nThe Free School Supply Shop isn’t limited to a single afternoon. \nWesterly Library is opening it across five days with different hours to give families several opportunities to visit: \n\nTuesday\, September 8: 3–7 p.m.\nWednesday\, September 9: 3–7 p.m.\nThursday\, September 10: 3–7 p.m.\nFriday\, September 11: 1–5 p.m.\nSaturday\, September 12: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.\n\nThat means families who can’t make an after-school weekday visit still have Friday afternoon and Saturday options. \nBecause the shop consists of donated items\, selection will naturally depend on what the community contributed and what remains when a family visits. Anyone hoping for the widest selection should consider stopping in earlier in the week. \nThe Pop-Up at Coy Was Built for Ideas Like This\nThe school-supply shop isn’t taking over a conventional meeting room. \nIt’s happening in The Pop-Up at Coy\, a small storefront-like space immediately inside the front of Westerly Library. \nThe room has had quite a few lives. \nIt originally served as the library’s reception office and was once the office of Sallie Coy\, who joined the organization in 1911 and became the longest-serving librarian and library director in its history. Coy remained director until retiring in 1960. \nOver the years\, the space also served as the circulation desk and the Friends Bookstore. A 2017 renovation transformed it into a café. \nIts latest incarnation deliberately moves away from having one permanent purpose. \nWesterly Library now uses The Pop-Up at Coy as a temporary activation space where local organizations\, small businesses\, nonprofits\, community resources and other projects can set up for limited periods. The library describes the concept as a way to give visitors opportunities to see\, experience and learn about different community offerings. \nFor five days in September\, its purpose couldn’t be much more practical: shelves of free supplies for students heading back to class. \nMore Than Books at Westerly Library\nThe school-supply project also fits the broader role Westerly Library has carved out for itself. \nThe library is operated by the private nonprofit Memorial and Library Association\, which was established in 1892 to commemorate local volunteer soldiers and sailors who served in the Civil War. \nWesterly Library opened in 1894 with about 5\,000 volumes. The original building included considerably more than books\, with a gymnasium\, bowling alley\, art gallery\, museum and meeting space for the Grand Army of the Republic. \nMore than 130 years later\, the idea of a library as a community space remains. \nToday’s collection contains more than 287\,000 items\, while the building also houses public computers\, meeting and programming spaces\, youth areas\, a Makerspace\, the Hoxie Gallery and local history collections. \nPrograms range from children’s storytimes and craft sessions to technology instruction\, support groups\, book clubs and community-resource programs. \nThe Free School Supply Shop belongs to the latter category. It doesn’t require a class\, lecture or workshop to be useful. It takes something families need and makes it available in a familiar public place. \nAnd There’s a 15-Acre Park Outside\nA trip to the school-supply shop can also include some time outdoors. \nWesterly Library shares its downtown property with Wilcox Park\, a 15-acre Victorian strolling park and arboretum. \nThe original park land was donated in 1898 by Harriet Wilcox in memory of her husband\, Stephen Wilcox\, the local industrialist and inventor who had earlier donated the land for the library and $25\,000 toward its construction. \nHarriet envisioned a park that could be enjoyed by the working people of Westerly and neighboring Pawcatuck. \nLandscape architect Warren H. Manning\, who had worked with Frederick Law Olmsted and later became a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects\, designed the park while incorporating much of the site’s existing vegetation. \nToday\, Wilcox Park contains 159 different tree species and 43 cultivars\, including seven recognized Rhode Island Champion Trees. \nSo a stop for notebooks and pencils doesn’t necessarily have to be an errand in and out of a building. The park is directly outside and remains open from dawn until 9 p.m. \nFree Really Does Mean Free\nThere isn’t a complicated eligibility requirement buried in the description. \nWesterly Library says the supplies are available free to any student. \nThere is no admission charge listed\, no registration requirement and no requirement that families purchase anything else. The library’s event is categorized for families\, adults\, teens\, tweens and children\, reflecting the fact that school-supply needs don’t end after elementary school. \nFor families buying supplies for multiple children\, or for anyone facing an unexpectedly expensive back-to-school list\, even a few notebooks\, folders\, pens or a calculator can take something off the bill. \nAnd because the inventory came from donations\, the Free School Supply Shop turns one family’s extra backpack or unused package of pencils directly into something another student can use. \nThat’s community programming at its simplest. \nDetails\nEvent: Free School Supply Shop\nDates: Tuesday\, September 8–Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTuesday–Thursday Hours: 3–7 p.m.\nFriday Hours: 1–5 p.m.\nSaturday Hours: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.\nAdmission: Free\nWho Can Participate: School supplies are available free to any student\nRegistration: No registration listed\nAvailable Supplies: Donated school supplies may include backpacks\, calculators\, folders\, lunchboxes\, markers\, notebooks\, pencils\, pens and rulers; selection depends on availability\nLocation: The Pop-Up at Coy\, Westerly Library & Wilcox Park\nAddress: 44 Broad Street\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nPhone: 401-596-2877\nLibrary Hours: Monday–Thursday 9 a.m.–8 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; closed Sunday\nWilcox Park Hours: Daily from dawn–9 p.m. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/free-school-supply-shop-at-westerly-library/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Westerly Library & Wilcox Park\, 44 Broad Street\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:Westerly Library & Wilcox Park
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Free-School-Supply-Shop-at-Westerly-Library.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T150000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022633Z
CREATED:20260910T183522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022633Z
UID:10007544-1789210800-1789225200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:4th Annual Misquamicut Kite Festival
DESCRIPTION:4th Annual Misquamicut Kite Festival fills the sky above Wuskenau Town Beach with color Saturday\, September 12\, as the free family festival returns to the Westerly shoreline from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. \nPresented by the Misquamicut Business Association\, the annual event is open to everyone\, whether you’re bringing a favorite kite from home\, picking up a children’s kite kit at the beach or simply coming to watch. \nThere’s also a little friendly competition involved. \nOrganizers will award a $100 prize for the Best in Show kite\, creating plenty of incentive to bring something more ambitious than the old plastic diamond kite that’s been sitting in the garage. \nBut competition isn’t really the point. \nThe invitation from organizers is simpler: bring your creativity\, bring the family and help fill the sky above Misquamicut with color. \nFour Years of Kites Over Misquamicut\nThe Misquamicut Kite Festival is still a relatively young tradition. \nThe Misquamicut Business Association launched the event in 2023\, and it has returned to Wuskenau Town Beach each September since. \nThe second annual festival was held in 2024. \nThe third followed on September 6\, 2025. \nNow the festival returns for its fourth year on September 12\, 2026\, retaining the same four-hour format from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. \nThere’s an appealing simplicity to the concept. \nNo tickets. \nNo complicated schedule. \nNo need to know anything about kite flying before arriving. \nJust a beach\, the Atlantic wind and as many kites as people can get into the air. \nBring a Kite or Pick Up a Kids Kite Kit\nFamilies don’t necessarily need to arrive equipped. \nKids kite kits will be available on site\, giving younger visitors an opportunity to get into the air even if they don’t already own a kite. \nThose who do have one are encouraged to bring it. \nThat leaves plenty of room for everything from inexpensive children’s kites to homemade creations and the more elaborate designs that will compete for Best in Show. \nThe festival’s $100 prize provides a reason for experienced kite builders and creative families to put some effort into their entry. \nAnd a kite festival has an advantage over many competitions. \nEven the entries that don’t win become part of the show. \nWhy the Beach Is Such a Good Place to Fly\nAnyone who tried to fly a kite in a backyard as a child probably remembers the frustrating part. \nRun. \nWatch it rise. \nWatch it stall. \nRun faster. \nWatch it crash. \nTry again. \nThe beach removes some of those problems. \nOceanfront locations tend to offer more consistent wind because there are fewer buildings\, trees and other obstructions disrupting the airflow. \nWuskenau Town Beach opens directly onto the Atlantic\, providing the combination kite flyers want: a large open area and coastal wind. \nThat doesn’t guarantee perfect conditions. Wind speed and direction still matter\, and a very windy day can actually make flying more difficult. \nBut when conditions cooperate\, a beach can turn kite flying from an exercise in sprinting into something much more satisfying. \nGet the kite above the turbulent air close to the ground and let the wind do the work. \nThere’s More Going On Up There Than String and Wind\nA kite stays in the sky through the same basic aerodynamic forces involved in aircraft flight. \nWind moves across the kite’s surface and produces lift. \nThe kite string provides tension\, while gravity and drag pull in other directions. The kite’s shape\, angle to the wind\, tail and bridle help keep those competing forces balanced. \nChange one thing and the kite behaves differently. \nA tail isn’t merely decorative\, for example. It can add drag and stability\, helping prevent some kite designs from spinning or diving. \nThat’s why homemade kite building can quickly become an accidental science experiment for kids. \nChange the shape. \nMove the bridle. \nAdd a tail. \nRemove some weight. \nTry again. \nThe immediate feedback is difficult to miss. \nEither it flies or it doesn’t. \nKite Flying Is Much Older Than the American Beach Vacation\nThe idea of putting something on the end of a string and sending it into the sky goes back thousands of years. \nKites are generally believed to have originated in ancient China\, where suitable materials such as silk and bamboo allowed builders to create lightweight structures capable of flight. \nThey eventually spread through Asia and into other parts of the world. \nAnd kites weren’t always toys. \nOver the centuries\, people used them for military signaling\, measuring distances\, scientific experiments and meteorological observations. \nOne of the most famous American experiments came in 1752\, when Benjamin Franklin used a kite during his investigations into electricity and lightning. \nMore than a century later\, experiments with kites helped researchers understand aerodynamics during the period leading toward powered flight. \nBy the time beach communities like Misquamicut developed into popular vacation destinations\, kites had become firmly established as recreational objects. \nIt’s hard to imagine a more natural pairing. \nWuskenau Is the Town Beach Beside Misquamicut State Beach\nVisitors who haven’t heard the name Wuskenau Town Beach may still know exactly where it is. \nThe Westerly-owned beach sits at 311 Atlantic Avenue\, immediately beside Misquamicut State Beach. \nIt’s also sometimes called New Town Beach locally. \nThe location provides direct access to the broad sandy shoreline that has made Misquamicut one of Rhode Island’s best-known beach communities. \nWuskenau is a simpler facility than the larger state beach next door\, but that’s not much of a drawback for a kite festival. \nThe attraction Saturday is overhead. \nMisquamicut Has Been Reinventing the Beach Season\nThe festival also fits a larger effort by the Misquamicut Business Association to make the beach community more than a July-and-August destination. \nThe association organizes events throughout the year\, including the Misquamicut Springfest\, FallFest\, Drive-In Movies and other community programming. \nThe Kite Festival arrives at an interesting point on the calendar. \nBy September 12\, the peak summer vacation season is winding down. Schools are back in session. The crowds of midsummer have begun to thin. \nBut southeastern Connecticut and southwestern Rhode Island still have weeks of potentially beautiful coastal weather ahead. \nThe ocean doesn’t disappear after Labor Day. \nNeither does the beach. \nA free Saturday kite festival gives families a reason to come back. \nA Good Kite Can Be Almost Anything\nFor people thinking about entering the Best in Show competition\, kite design has moved far beyond the familiar diamond. \nThere are delta kites. \nBox kites. \nParafoils. \nCellular kites. \nDragons. \nAnimals. \nGeometric designs. \nAnd enormous inflatable creations that can turn a kite festival into something resembling an airborne parade. \nSome designs are engineered primarily for performance. \nOthers are essentially flying artwork. \nThe festival hasn’t announced restrictive design categories for its Best in Show competition\, leaving plenty of room for imagination. \nThat makes the contest accessible to kids as well as serious hobbyists. \nA technically sophisticated kite might be impressive. \nSo might something completely ridiculous that actually flies. \nYou Don’t Need a Kite to Enjoy This One\nThat’s another advantage of the Misquamicut Kite Festival. \nSpectators get essentially the same view as participants. \nThe entire sky becomes the display. \nFamilies can walk the beach\, watch the different designs go up\, see which creations stay aloft and which require a little more persuasion\, and take in an early September afternoon beside the Atlantic. \nAdmission is free. \nThe festival runs for four hours. \nAnd there’s no obligation to participate. \nBut considering kids kite kits will be available at the beach\, staying strictly on the spectator side may prove difficult for families with younger children. \nDetails\nEvent: 4th Annual Misquamicut Kite Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 11 a.m.–3 p.m.\nLocation: Wuskenau Town Beach\nAddress: 311 Atlantic Avenue\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages\nParticipation: Open to everyone\nKites: Bring your own kite; kids kite kits will also be available on site\nCompetition: Best in Show Kite\nPrize: $100\nPresented By: Misquamicut Business Association\nSetting: Outdoors on the beach\nWeather: Kite flying and outdoor activities are weather-dependent\nParking: Wuskenau Town Beach has town-operated parking lots along Atlantic Avenue; check current Town of Westerly parking requirements before arriving\nEvent Contact: Misquamicut Business Association\, 401-322-1026 \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/4th-annual-misquamicut-kite-festival/
LOCATION:Wuskenau Town Beach\, 311 Atlantic Ave\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:Wuskenau Town Beach
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/4th-Annual-Misquamicut-Kite-Festival.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T170000
DTSTAMP:20260705T020852Z
CREATED:20260510T162306Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260705T020852Z
UID:10000479-1789210800-1789232400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Brickwrecks: Sunken Ships in LEGO Bricks
DESCRIPTION:Brickwrecks: Sunken Ships in LEGO Bricks drops visitors into centuries of maritime mystery and disaster at Mystic Seaport Museum.. The internationally touring exhibition combines massive LEGO® ship recreations with real maritime history\, creating an experience that feels part museum exhibit\, part interactive adventure. As the first American stop for the exhibition\, Mystic Seaport becomes the latest host for a showcase that has previously appeared at major maritime museums in Europe and Australia. \nThe exhibit features eleven detailed LEGO® models recreating famous shipwrecks and maritime disasters spanning thousands of years\, including the Titanic\, the Vasa\, Franklin’s Arctic expedition ships Terror and Erebus\, and the ancient Uluburun trading vessel. Created in partnership with LEGO® Certified Professional Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught\, the displays combine historical storytelling with surprisingly intricate engineering and visual detail. Some models even include cross-section cutaways revealing what happened beneath the waterline. \nInteractive experiences throughout the exhibit invite visitors to test survival scenarios\, operate a remote underwater vehicle\, experiment with ship stability\, and build LEGO® creations of their own. Alongside the models are replica artifacts\, archaeological tools\, and multimedia displays exploring how modern researchers investigate shipwrecks and what those discoveries reveal about trade\, exploration\, disaster\, and human history. The result is an exhibit that works equally well for families\, history buffs\, LEGO® fans\, and anyone who still secretly wants to touch every museum display. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/brickwrecks-sunken-ships-in-lego-bricks-3/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Mystic Seaport\, 75 Greenmanville Ave\, Mystic\, CT\, \,06355-1946\,\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Seaport
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Brickwrecks-Sunked-Ships-in-Lego-Bricks.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T170000
DTSTAMP:20260701T201347Z
CREATED:20260701T201347Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260701T201347Z
UID:10006473-1789210800-1789232400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways at Mystic Museum of Art
DESCRIPTION:Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways at Mystic Museum of Art explores the history of textiles in southeastern Connecticut\, tracing how fabrics\, fashion\, and craftsmanship have shaped the region from the precolonial era through the present day. On view from June 26 through October 11\, 2026\, the exhibition brings together historic artifacts and contemporary works to examine how textiles reflect labor\, immigration\, cultural identity\, and changing ideas of luxury. \nInspired by southeastern Connecticut’s once-thriving velvet industry\, the exhibition features a collaboration between Mystic Museum of Art\, Historic Stonington\, Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center\, Mystic Seaport Museum\, and the Connecticut Region of the Studio Art Quilt Associates. Visitors will encounter an extensive collection of beadwork\, embroidery\, quilts\, velvet\, fashion\, and textile art drawn from partner institutions and the museum’s own collection. \nThe exhibition also highlights contemporary fashion designers with Connecticut connections\, including Xarea Lockhart\, Toriana Sauro\, Christian Siriano\, and Peter Som. Their work connects the region’s textile heritage with modern fashion\, demonstrating how clothing and material culture continue to influence art\, identity\, and design. Throughout the exhibition\, the museum will present lectures\, artist conversations\, and hands-on workshops that further explore these themes. \nExhibition Details\n\nExhibition: Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways\nVenue: Mystic Museum of Art\nDates: June 26-October 11\, 2026\nLocation: Mystic\, CT\n\nExhibition Highlights\nVisitors will experience: \n\ns\nWorks from Mystic Museum of Art’s permanent collection\nLoans from regional museums and organizations\n\nFeatured Partners\nThe exhibition includes contributions from: \n\nHistoric Stonington\nMashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center\nMystic Seaport Museum\nStudio Art Quilt Associates\, Connecticut Region\n\nFeatured Designers\nThe exhibition showcases work by designers with Connecticut ties\, including: \n\nXarea Lockhart\nToriana Sauro\nChristian Siriano\nPeter Som\n\nAdmission\n\nGeneral Admission: $12\nNew London County residents: $10\nSeniors (65+): $10\nStudents with valid ID: $10\nFree:\n\nMystic Museum of Art members\nYouth ages 17 and under\nMilitary personnel and veterans\n\n\n\nExhibition Programs\nPublic programs are held on select Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. \nTuesday\, July 7\nMystic Mudlarking: The River and the Rossie Velvet Mill \n\nGuest speaker: Mary Hendrickson\n\nTuesday\, July 21\nImmigration and Industry \n\nGuest speaker: Chelsea Mitchell\, Library Director & Collections Manager\, Historic Stonington\n\nTuesday\, September 1\nConversation with Alana Ryder and Emerging Designers \nFeaturing: \n\nAlana Ryder\nXarea Lockhart\nToriana Sauro\n\nWorkshops\nAll workshops take place in KTJ Studios. \nSaturday\, September 19\nFrom Textile to Art: Felt Collage Workshop \nSaturday\, September 26\nIntroduction to Sewing Workshop \n\nFeatured designer: Toriana Sauro\n\nSaturday\, October 10\nRelief Printing on Silk Scarf Workshop \nWhy Visit\nLuxe CT examines how textiles have connected communities across centuries while reflecting the region’s history of manufacturing\, immigration\, craftsmanship\, and artistic innovation. By pairing historical artifacts with contemporary fashion and fiber art\, the exhibition offers visitors a deeper understanding of southeastern Connecticut’s cultural heritage and its continuing influence on today’s artists and designers. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/luxe-ct-velvet-mills-to-modern-runways-at-mystic-museum-of-art/2026-09-12/
LOCATION:Mystic Museum of Art\, 9 Water Street\, Mystic\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Museum of Art
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Luxe-CT-Velvet-Mills-to-Modern-Runways-at-Mystic-Museum-of-Art-daily-11am-5pm.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T120000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022619Z
CREATED:20260910T171125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022619Z
UID:10007539-1789212600-1789214400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Children’s Walking Parade:
Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters
DESCRIPTION:Mermaid & Privateer Children’s Walking Parade:
Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters invites children to become part of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival on Saturday\, September 12\, with a free\, costumed procession through Fort Trumbull State Park and Museum in New London. \nThe parade begins at 11:30 a.m. at Fort Trumbull and is part of the festival’s family programming. Children are encouraged to dress as mermaids\, privateers\, pirates\, sea monsters\, and other nautical characters\, with free face painting and costume-making activities helping families get ready before the procession begins. Current festival coverage also calls it the Mermaids and Privateers Parade\, while event calendars use Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\, so families may see both names for Saturday’s event. \nThis isn’t a parade where kids are expected to stand behind a barricade and watch someone else have all the fun. \nThey’re invited to join in. \nFirst\, Make Yourself Into a Sea Creature\nFamilies can arrive at Fort Trumbull before the 11:30 a.m. start and make the transformation part of the morning. \nThe festival’s Kids Nautical Zone includes children’s activities throughout the weekend\, and Saturday’s programming includes face painting and costume activities before the parade. The larger festival opens at 10 a.m.\, giving families time to explore before lining up for the procession. \nThat means elaborate homemade costumes aren’t required. \nA child who arrives Saturday morning dressed like an ordinary human can still end up marching as something considerably more aquatic. \nMermaids are an obvious choice\, but the concept is intentionally broad. Pirates\, privateers and imaginary creatures all fit into a procession built around the centuries-old combination of the sea and human imagination. \nWhy Mermaids and Sea Monsters Belong at a Maritime Festival\nA weekend devoted to maritime heritage could limit itself to ships\, sailors and naval history. \nThe sea has never been that simple. \nFor as long as people have traveled beyond the shoreline\, they’ve brought stories home with them. \nUnfamiliar animals became monsters. Strange shapes glimpsed from a moving ship acquired elaborate explanations. Mermaids and other humanlike sea creatures appeared independently in folklore around the world. Sailors carried stories from one port to another\, changing them along the way. \nEven the monsters sometimes had something real behind them. \nManatees and dugongs have been suggested as possible sources of some mermaid sightings. Giant squid were once creatures of legend before science confirmed that enormous cephalopods really did inhabit the deep ocean. Whales could be terrifyingly large to someone encountering one from a wooden boat. \nThe boundary between natural history and maritime folklore could become wonderfully blurry. \nSaturday’s parade takes that tradition and lets children run with it. \nPirates and Privateers Aren’t Quite the Same Thing\nThe other characters likely to appear Saturday come with a little more historical baggage. \nA pirate operated outside the law. \nA privateer operated with government authorization\, usually under a commission or letter of marque permitting a privately owned vessel to attack and capture enemy shipping during wartime. \nFrom the perspective of the people whose ship was being captured\, the distinction may not have been terribly comforting. \nBut legally\, it mattered. \nPrivateering became particularly important during the American Revolution\, when the new United States lacked the enormous naval establishment possessed by Britain. \nNew London and Connecticut’s other ports were deeply connected to that maritime world. \nSo the privateers marching around Fort Trumbull Saturday aren’t entirely imaginary visitors. \nThey have historical roots here. \nFort Trumbull Is a Particularly Good Place for the Parade\nThe parade’s 2026 setting gives the fantasy a very real historical backdrop. \nFort Trumbull occupies a strategic position overlooking the Thames River and New London Harbor. The current masonry fort dates largely to the 19th century\, but the site’s military history reaches back to the American Revolution. \nAnd one of the darkest days in New London’s history happened here. \nOn September 6\, 1781\, British forces commanded by Benedict Arnold attacked the New London and Groton area. \nThe earlier Fort Trumbull was overwhelmed. \nAcross the river\, the fighting at Fort Griswold became much bloodier. British troops captured the fort\, and American commander Col. William Ledyard was killed after surrendering his sword. \nMuch of New London was burned during the raid. \nThat history becomes especially relevant during this year’s Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival because 2026 marks the nation’s 250th anniversary\, and Revolutionary War history is woven throughout the weekend. \nBritish and American reenactors will establish 18th-century encampments at Fort Trumbull\, complete with canvas tents\, camp kitchens and open fires. Visitors can meet reenactors and watch military drills and marching demonstrations. \nSo children dressed as privateers will be walking through a place where the history they’re pretending actually happened. \nThis Is One Piece of a Huge Morning at Fort Trumbull\nFamilies could easily build most of Saturday around the parade. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the day\, with vessel tours\, children’s programming\, living history\, vendors\, live entertainment and maritime demonstrations spread between Fort Trumbull and the downtown waterfront. \nThe festival’s 2026 vessel lineup is unusually substantial. \nVisitors will be able to explore visiting military\, training and historic vessels\, while the waterfront programming includes Coast Guard demonstrations and activities connected to the Coast Guard Academy’s 150th anniversary. \nAt 10 a.m.\, the U.S. Postal Service will formally dedicate a new U.S. Coast Guard Academy Forever stamp at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival. The ceremony is part of the Academy’s sesquicentennial celebration. \nThen\, at 11:30\, the mermaids and monsters get their turn. \nAfter the Parade\, Follow the Music Downtown\nThere’s another reason to join the parade rather than treating it as an isolated event. \nAt 12:30 p.m.\, Steve Elci & Friends perform a free children’s sing-along at Custom House Pier with The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder. \nThe concert poster explicitly bills the performance as an “After the Parade!” event. \nThat creates a natural progression for families. \nStart at Fort Trumbull for face painting and costume activities. \nJoin the parade at 11:30. \nThen head toward the downtown waterfront for singing and dancing. \nThe one thing parents need to understand is that the parade and concert are at different festival locations. \nFortunately\, organizers are providing free transportation between festival areas. The Thames River Heritage Park water taxi operates continuously from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. between Fort Trumbull\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton. Free shuttle buses are also available. The water taxi doesn’t operate on a fixed timetable\, and boarding is first-come\, first-served. \nThe Kids Get a Parade Before Benedict Arnold Gets His\nThere’s also a wonderfully strange symmetry to Saturday’s schedule. \nThe Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade isn’t the only procession through New London that day. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, Flock Theatre begins the considerably less childlike Burning of Benedict Arnold – March of the Traitor. \nParticipants march from Bank Street toward Waterfront Park in a revival of New London’s historic tradition of symbolically punishing Arnold for the 1781 destruction of the city. The march culminates in the burning of an Arnold effigy on the waterfront. \nA 300-drone light show over the Thames River follows later that evening. \nSo New London gets bookend processions Saturday. \nThe morning belongs to mermaids\, pirates and sea monsters. \nThe evening belongs to an infamous Revolutionary War traitor. \nA Parade Kids Don’t Have to Watch From the Sidewalk\nThat’s ultimately what distinguishes the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade from many festival parades. \nThe children aren’t merely the audience. \nThey’re the parade. \nThey can put on a costume\, have their face painted\, march through one of Connecticut’s most important maritime historic sites and then continue the adventure with music\, ships\, sailors and hands-on activities around the waterfront. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival is supposed to introduce people to the state’s relationship with the sea. \nFor a five-year-old\, explaining 250 years of naval and maritime history may not be the most effective opening argument. \nAsk whether they want to become a mermaid or a sea monster. \nYou can work on the history afterward. \nDetails\nEvent: Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\nAlso Promoted As: Mermaids and Privateers Parade\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 11:30 a.m.\nLocation: Fort Trumbull State Park and Museum\nAddress: 90 Walbach Street\, New London\, CT 06320\nAdmission: Free\nAges: Family-friendly / all ages\nParticipation: Children are encouraged to dress up and join the parade\nCostumes: Mermaids\, sea monsters\, pirates\, privateers and other maritime-inspired characters fit the theme\nBefore the Parade: Children’s activities and face painting are available as part of the festival programming\nFestival Hours: Daytime festival activities run 10 a.m.–5 p.m.\nAfter the Parade: Steve Elci & Friends perform a children’s sing-along at 12:30 p.m. at Custom House Pier\nTransportation: Free shuttle buses and Thames River Heritage Park water taxi service connect major festival locations\nWater Taxi: Continuous service from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. between Fort Trumbull\, City Pier and Thames River Landing; first-come\, first-served\nParking: Festival organizers recommend parking in a downtown Water Street garage or near Fort Trumbull and using free festival transportation between venues\nSetting: Outdoors; dress for waterfront weather \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/mermaid-privateer-childrens-walking-parade-little-mermaids-and-sea-monsters/
LOCATION:Fort Trumbull State Park\, 90 Walbach Street\, New London\, CT\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:Fort Trumbull State Park
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mermaid-and-Privateer-Childrens-Walking-Parade-
Little-Mermaids-and-Sea-Monsters.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T130000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022601Z
CREATED:20260910T163942Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022601Z
UID:10007538-1789214400-1789218000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends
DESCRIPTION:Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends keeps the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival’s youngest sailors\, mermaids and sea monsters moving Saturday\, September 12\, with a free waterfront concert immediately following the festival’s children’s costume parade. \nThe concert is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at Custom House Pier in downtown New London\, according to the band’s current announcement. Steve Elci & Friends will be joined by costumed characters The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder for a family sing-along built around familiar songs\, dancing and audience participation. \nBut the poster’s “After the Parade!” isn’t just a bit of nautical decoration. \nThere really is a parade. \nEarlier Saturday\, families can head to Fort Trumbull State Park for free face painting\, make costumes\, and then join the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\, one of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival’s signature children’s events. \nThe parade begins at 11:30 a.m. at Fort Trumbull State Park\, according to the festival’s most recent published information. \nThat makes the two events a natural Saturday pairing: dress up and parade through Fort Trumbull in the morning\, then head downtown for music with Steve Elci & Friends. \n11:30 a.m. — Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Take Over Fort Trumbull\nThe festival’s children’s parade isn’t intended to be something families simply stand along the route and watch. \nKids are encouraged to become part of it. \nSaturday morning’s children’s programming at Fort Trumbull includes free face painting and costume making\, giving kids a chance to transform themselves into mermaids\, pirates\, sea monsters and other maritime characters before the parade begins. \nFree face painting is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Fort Trumbull. \nThe festival describes the parade as a combination of local folklore\, music\, dancers\, military marchers and fantastical sea creatures. Earlier festival materials have also called it the Mermaids and Privateers Children’s Walking Parade\, but the current 2026 family programming identifies it as the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade. \nIt’s a relatively new tradition. \nThe first Mermaids & Sea Monsters Parade was held during the 2022 Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\, when participants traveled through downtown New London from Bank Street to City Pier. \nBy 2023\, organizers were already calling it the third annual parade. \nFor 2026\, they’ve changed things around. \nInstead of beginning downtown\, this year’s parade is being held at Fort Trumbull State Park\, putting the procession in the middle of the festival’s large family activity area. \nThat also makes it easier for children to create a costume and then immediately become part of the event. \nAfter the Parade\, Steve Elci & Friends Take Over Custom House Pier\nOnce the procession ends\, the party shifts downtown. \nSteve Elci & Friends are scheduled to perform at 12:30 p.m. at Custom House Pier\, with The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder joining them. \nThe concert is free and designed as a participatory children’s sing-along rather than a conventional sit-and-watch performance. \nThe poster gets directly to the point: \n“It’s time to dance and sing to some of your favorite songs!” \nThat’s familiar territory for Elci. \nSteve Elci Has Been Making Music for Kids Since 2010\nNew London County families may already know Steve Elci & Friends\, but the group’s reach extends well beyond southeastern Connecticut. \nThe award-winning children’s music group has been performing since 2010\, taking its shows from New England to Florida and Nashville. \nElci’s approach to children’s music is deliberately interactive. \nThe goal isn’t to place children quietly in front of a stage while adults perform at them. Singing\, dancing\, movement and participation are built into the experience. \nThat philosophy has also carried into the group’s recorded music and educational projects. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival describes Steve Elci & Friends as an Emmy-nominated\, award-winning children’s music group\, and there’s a local reason for that Emmy connection. \nKidsploration Put Elci’s Music Together With Education and Adventure\nIn 2014\, Steve Elci & Friends partnered with The Day newspaper to create Kidsploration\, an online children’s program combining music\, education and adventure. \nThe project earned an Emmy nomination. \nIt was a logical extension of what Elci had already been doing onstage. \nChildren’s entertainment can be fun without treating children as passive spectators. Music can become the doorway into exploring something else. \nThat’s particularly appropriate at the Maritime Heritage Festival. \nA child might arrive because there’s a mermaid. \nThen climb aboard a ship. \nTouch a sea creature. \nWatch a Coast Guard rescue demonstration. \nWalk through a Revolutionary War encampment. \nListen to music. \nAnd leave knowing considerably more about the place where they live than when they arrived. \nThe Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder Join the Band\nSaturday’s concert adds two recognizable seafaring characters to that formula. \nThe festival announcement identifies The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder as joining Steve Elci & Friends for the sing-along. \nThe Wayfinder character draws on the Polynesian voyaging tradition popularized for modern children through Disney’s Moana\, while The Little Mermaid brings another familiar ocean story into the program. \nTheir presence connects the morning costume parade with the concert that follows. \nChildren who’ve just spent part of the morning dressed as mermaids\, pirates and sea creatures aren’t suddenly being asked to switch gears. \nThe fantasy continues at the pier. \nCustom House Pier Puts the Concert Beside a Working Harbor\nThe setting is particularly good for a children’s maritime concert. \nCustom House Pier sits on South Water Street beside New London’s downtown waterfront\, looking across the Thames River and New London Harbor. \nThis isn’t a decorative body of water created to make a festival look nautical. \nIt’s a working harbor. \nFerries\, recreational boats\, Coast Guard vessels\, commercial traffic and other ships move through the river\, while Naval Submarine Base New London sits upriver in Groton and the Coast Guard Academy occupies the New London side of the Thames. \nA few steps away is Custom House Maritime Museum – New London Maritime Society\, housed in New London’s 1833 U.S. Custom House. \nSo while kids sing about the sea\, the real thing is directly behind them. \nGetting From the Parade to the Concert Takes a Little Planning\nThere’s one important practical detail for parents. \nThe parade and concert are not at the same location. \nThe Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade takes place at Fort Trumbull State Park\, while Steve Elci & Friends perform afterward at Custom House Pier downtown. \nThe festival has anticipated the problem of moving between its waterfront locations. \nFree transportation operates throughout the weekend. \nVisitors can travel aboard the Thames River Heritage Park water taxi or use the festival’s free shuttle buses connecting the major festival areas. \nThe water taxi operates continuously from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday between Fort Trumbull\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton. There isn’t a fixed departure schedule\, and boarding is first-come\, first-served. \nFamilies trying to make the 12:30 concert immediately after the parade should keep the travel time in mind. \nThe festival recommends parking once and using its free transportation to move between locations rather than repeatedly relocating the car. \nThere’s Plenty More for Kids Before and After the Music\nThe parade and Steve Elci concert are only part of Saturday’s family programming. \nThe festival’s Kids Nautical Zone offers crafts\, games and educational activities. \nProject Oceanology brings marine life close enough for children to explore through its touch-tank programming. \nThere’s also Salt\, a life-size inflatable whale that children can actually walk through while learning about whale biology. \nAt 1:30 p.m.\, shortly after Steve Elci & Friends finish\, the U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to conduct a search-and-rescue helicopter demonstration over the waterfront. \nFamilies can also tour participating vessels during the day\, including military\, training and historic ships visiting New London for the festival. \nAmong the vessels highlighted for 2026 is the USCGC Eagle\, the Coast Guard’s 295-foot tall ship and training vessel. \nThe Eagle’s presence is particularly significant this year because the Coast Guard Academy is celebrating its 150th anniversary. \nSaturday morning’s festival opening includes the unveiling of a new U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp honoring that anniversary. \nFor a child who comes because they want their face painted like a mermaid\, there’s a surprising amount of real maritime history waiting around the corner. \nTwo Very Different Parades Happen Saturday\nThere’s also a fun contrast built into Saturday’s schedule. \nThe Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade isn’t the only procession taking place in New London. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, the tone changes considerably when Flock Theatre begins its annual March of the Traitor on Bank Street. \nThat procession commemorates Benedict Arnold’s devastating 1781 attack on New London and leads to Waterfront Park\, where Arnold is burned in effigy. \nA 300-drone light show over the Thames follows later in the evening. \nSo New London gets two parades in one day. \nAt 11:30 a.m.\, children dressed as mermaids and sea monsters march through Fort Trumbull. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, adults in Revolutionary-era garb march Benedict Arnold toward his fiery demise. \nThat’s a fairly good illustration of just how much the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival is trying to fit into one Saturday. \nStart With a Costume and Stay for the Ships\nFor families with younger children\, the morning-to-afternoon sequence may be one of the easiest ways to approach what is otherwise an enormous festival. \nGet to Fort Trumbull in time for face painting and costume making. \nJoin the Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade at 11:30. \nThen use festival transportation to head downtown. \nAt 12:30\, Steve Elci & Friends\, The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder take over Custom House Pier. \nAnd when the music ends\, the ships\, touch tanks\, waterfront activities and Coast Guard demonstration are still waiting. \nThe Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival is ostensibly about preserving the state’s relationship with the sea. \nSaturday’s children’s programming approaches that mission from a different direction. \nFirst\, make the sea fun. \nThe history can follow. \nDetails\nEvent: Kids’ Sing-Along with Steve Elci & Friends\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.\nPerformers: Steve Elci & Friends with The Little Mermaid and The Wayfinder\nLocation: Custom House Pier\nStreet: South Water Street\, New London\, CT\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages / family program\nProgram: Children’s music\, singing and dancing\nRelated Event: Little Mermaids and Sea Monsters Parade\nParade Time: 11:30 a.m.\nParade Location: Fort Trumbull State Park\, 90 Walbach Street\, New London\nBefore the Parade: Free face painting and costume making; face painting is scheduled from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Saturday\nImportant: The parade and concert take place at different festival locations\nTransportation: Free festival shuttle buses and Thames River Heritage Park water taxi service connect festival areas\nWater Taxi Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; continuous service with no fixed departure schedule and first-come\, first-served boarding\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival runs September 12–13 along the New London waterfront\nParking: Festival organizers recommend parking in a downtown Water Street garage or near Fort Trumbull and using the free transportation system between festival locations\nWeather: Outdoor festival programming may be affected by weather; check the festival’s current schedule before traveling \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/kids-sing-along-with-steve-elci-friends/
LOCATION:Custom House Pier\, South Water Street\, New London\, CT\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:Custom House Pier
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Kids-Sing-Along-with-Steve-Elci-Friends.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T160000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022548Z
CREATED:20260907T023729Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022548Z
UID:10007491-1789214400-1789228800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Stonington Borough Porchfest
DESCRIPTION:Stonington Porchfest makes its debut Saturday\, September 12\, turning porches\, lawns\, courtyards and other outdoor spaces throughout Stonington Borough into a collection of intimate stages for an afternoon of live acoustic music. \nThe inaugural Porchfest runs from noon to 4 p.m. and is free and open to all ages. Rather than gathering everyone around a single stage\, the event invites visitors to walk through the Borough\, discover musicians along the way and move between performances at their own pace. \nPorchfest is being held in conjunction with the annual Stonington Borough Art Walk\, which begins two hours earlier at 10 a.m. and brings more than 60 artists to Water Street and surrounding courtyards. The two are separate events\, but together they create a full afternoon of visual art and live music stretching through the Borough. \nStonington Gets Its First Porchfest\nPorchfest takes a familiar neighborhood feature and gives it a different purpose for a day. \nInstead of building stages\, organizers place musicians on existing porches\, stoops\, lawns\, driveways and courtyards. Audiences walk from one location to another\, stopping for a song\, a set or an entire performance before continuing through the neighborhood. \nThe idea has spread widely since the first Porchfest was organized in Ithaca\, New York\, in 2007. Communities around the country have since created their own versions\, with each shaped by the streets\, musicians and neighborhoods hosting it. \nStonington’s version arrives particularly well suited to the Borough’s geography. \nIts narrow streets\, historic houses\, small yards\, gardens and courtyards are concentrated within a compact peninsula that can be explored on foot. Instead of separating performers from the community on a festival stage\, Porchfest puts the music directly into those surroundings. \nAn Afternoon Designed for Wandering\nThere is no single Porchfest concert to attend. \nThe idea is to wander. \nPerformers will appear at outdoor locations around Stonington Borough between noon and 4 p.m.\, creating multiple small listening areas rather than one large audience. \nThe music will emphasize acoustic performances\, allowing the individual settings to remain part of the experience. A front porch can become a stage. A lawn can become a listening room. A courtyard can hold an audience for a set before everyone moves down the street to find the next musician. \nThat also means visitors don’t have to commit to one performer or spend the entire afternoon in one place. \nThey can build their own route through the Borough\, stopping when something catches their ear. \nLocal Musicians Take Over the Neighborhood\nPorchfest is built around local bands and performers rather than a traditional festival headliner. Check out the Porchfest musician roster to find out who’s playing and when. \nThe participating musicians will play short sets at locations distributed throughout the Borough\, with a range of acoustic music planned for the afternoon. \nSalt Marsh Opera is among the local arts organizations participating in the new event\, while Mystic Paper Beasts has also announced plans to rove during the combined Art Walk and Porchfest day. \nA complete performance schedule and location map are expected from organizers\, allowing visitors to choose particular performers or create a route between stages. \nUntil then\, part of the event’s appeal remains built into the Porchfest concept itself: walk through the neighborhood and see what you find. \nFive Community Organizations Bring Porchfest to Stonington\nStonington Porchfest is not the project of a single organization. \nThe inaugural event is being presented through a collaboration among La Grua Center\, the Stonington Borough Merchants Association\, the Stonington Village Improvement Association\, Salt Marsh Opera and the Stonington Cultural District Commission. \nFunding is provided in part by the Kitchings Family Foundation. \nLa Grua Center serves as a natural anchor for the collaboration. The nonprofit arts and culture organization at 32 Water Street has spent years presenting concerts\, exhibitions\, lectures\, poetry and other cultural programs in the Borough. \nPorchfest takes that mission outside its walls. \nInstead of asking the community to come to a performance space\, the performances spread through the community. \nArt Walk Starts the Day at 10 a.m.\nVisitors arriving before Porchfest begins will find another event already underway. \nThe Stonington Borough Art Walk runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, bringing more than 60 artists and makers to Water Street and surrounding spaces. \nPainters\, photographers\, potters\, illustrators\, jewelers\, textile artists\, sculptors\, woodworkers and other artists will exhibit their work during the free event. \nAt noon\, Porchfest joins the activity. \nFor the remaining four hours\, someone walking through the Borough can move between artist tents and live performances without having to choose one event over the other. \nThe CT Beacon is covering the Stonington Borough Art Walk separately with its own event guide. \nWhat Makes a Porchfest Different\nA Porchfest isn’t quite a music festival and isn’t quite a neighborhood block party. \nThere are musicians and scheduled performances\, but the absence of a conventional main stage changes the relationship between performer and audience. \nA singer with an acoustic guitar may be only a few feet from listeners gathered on a lawn. A small group can perform from the steps of a house rather than beneath stage lights. People walking past can stop because they hear something they like\, even if they had never planned to see that particular musician. \nThat informality is central to the format. \nThere is no admission gate and no need to remain in one designated festival area. The Borough itself becomes the venue. \nFor Stonington’s first attempt\, that venue stretches through one of southeastern Connecticut’s most walkable waterfront villages. \nA New Tradition Begins in the Borough\nThe September 12 event is specifically being billed as Stonington’s inaugural Porchfest\, making 2026 the beginning rather than the continuation of an established annual tradition. \nWhether it becomes one will come later. \nFor its first year\, the concept is simple: put musicians outside\, give them porches and lawns instead of conventional stages\, and let people explore. \nWith Art Walk already filling the Borough from morning through late afternoon\, Porchfest adds a soundtrack to a Saturday that was already centered on local creativity. \nFrom noon until 4\, following the music may be as simple as walking down the street. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Stonington Porchfest 2026\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: Noon–4 p.m.\nLocation: Porches\, lawns\, courtyards and outdoor spaces throughout Stonington Borough\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages\nMusic: Live acoustic performances by local musicians\nAlso Happening: Stonington Borough Art Walk\, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.\nPresented By: La Grua Center\, Stonington Borough Merchants Association\, Stonington Village Improvement Association\, Salt Marsh Opera and Stonington Cultural District Commission\nSupport: Funded in part by the Kitchings Family Foundation\nRain Date: Sunday\, September 13 \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n\n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/stonington-porchfest/
LOCATION:Stonington Borough\, Water Street\, Stonington\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Stonington Borough
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Stonington-Borough-PorchFest.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T160000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022533Z
CREATED:20260905T025945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022533Z
UID:10007474-1789219800-1789228800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Star Trek Trivia With Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport
DESCRIPTION:Star Trek Trivia with Robb Pearlman at Mystic Seaport Museum on Saturday\, September 12\, combining a conversation with one of the franchise’s most prolific pop-culture authors with a live trivia showdown built around more than 60 years of Star Trek. It’s part of From Sails to Stars: A STAR TREK 60th Anniversary Celebration held at the museum all day Saturday. \nThe program begins at 1:30 p.m. on the Performance Stage. It features Pearlman\, a #1 New York Times bestselling author\, editor\, and self-described pop culturalist whose long relationship with Star Trek has produced books ranging from affectionate parody to fitness guides\, children’s titles\, and explorations of the franchise’s characters and ideas. \nAfter the conversation\, Pearlman turns quizmaster\, testing the audience with questions drawn from his newly released Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck. \nRobb Pearlman Has Made a Career Out of Pop Culture\nPearlman’s bibliography stretches far beyond the final frontier. \nHe has written more than 80 books for adults and children and has worked professionally across writing\, editing\, art direction\, licensing and publishing. His projects have touched properties including The Office\, Marvel\, Scooby-Doo\, The Golden Girls\, Bob Ross\, I Love Lucy and The Princess Bride. \nHis publishing career has been similarly broad. Pearlman spent years at Rizzoli\, including time as associate publisher for Universe\, and has worked with major entertainment and publishing brands throughout his career. \nBut Star Trek has become one of his specialties. \nPearlman is a regular speaker at pop-culture conventions and has been part of Star Trek: The Cruise\, giving him a relationship with Trek fandom that extends well beyond simply writing licensed books. \nFrom Kirk and Spock to Body by Starfleet\nPearlman’s first Star Trek book\, 2014’s Fun with Kirk and Spock\, approached the franchise from an unexpected direction. \nIt borrowed the visual and linguistic simplicity of old Dick and Jane-style early readers and applied it to Kirk\, Spock and the frequently dangerous universe around them. \nThe joke worked because Pearlman understood both sides of it. \nHe told Publishers Weekly that he recognized an overlap between adults nostalgic for childhood books and fans who had grown up watching Star Trek\, often with their families. \nMore Trek projects followed. \nHis bibliography includes Star Trek: Redshirt’s Little Book of Doom\, Search for Spock: A Star Trek Book of Exploration\, The Wit and Wisdom of Star Trek\, Star Trek: Body by Starfleet\, Star Trek: Starfleet Is…\, Star Trek Discovery: The Book of Grudge\, The Star Trek Book of Friendship and Star Trek: The Girl Who Made the Stars. \nThat last title adapted the story Michael Burnham hears from her father in Star Trek: Discovery into a book written specifically for younger readers. \nPearlman’s Trek work has consequently covered parody\, humor\, fitness\, friendship\, children’s storytelling and franchise lore. \nSeptember’s Mystic appearance adds trivia to the list. \nThe Ultimate Trivia Deck Is Brand New\nThe timing of the event isn’t accidental. \nStar Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck was released on August 18\, 2026\, less than a month before Pearlman’s appearance in Mystic. \nThe officially licensed game contains 200 cards and 400 questions spanning more than 60 years of Star Trek. \nAnd this isn’t simply a trivia set devoted to Kirk\, Spock and the original Enterprise. \nThe questions reach across the franchise’s television series and movies\, from Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation through newer installments including Strange New Worlds. \nQuestions are divided among four broad categories: Technology; Characters; Events and Anomalies; and Planets\, Places and Cultures. \nEach card contains two questions at different difficulty levels. Answer the easier question correctly and the player can attempt the harder one for additional points. \nThe formats also vary between straightforward questions and answers\, multiple choice and true-or-false. \nThat structure gives Pearlman plenty of material for the audience competition at Mystic Seaport. \nThink You Know Star Trek? Here’s the Test\nAfter the conversation portion of the program\, Pearlman will host a live trivia contest inspired by the new deck. \nThat changes the event from a conventional author appearance into something considerably more participatory. \nThe Museum is framing the challenge around finding the “ultimate Trekkie\,” so brushing up on only one corner of the franchise may not be enough. \nThe published trivia deck reaches across characters\, technology\, planets\, cultures and events from different eras of Trek. A fan who can explain the inner workings of the Enterprise-D may run into a question about Klingon history. Someone who knows every original-series episode may suddenly be dealing with a newer series. \nThat breadth is appropriate for a franchise celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2026. \nThe original Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8\, 1966. Pearlman’s Mystic appearance comes just four days after the anniversary of that first broadcast. \nSixty Years of Star Trek\nWhat began as a television series struggling to survive in the ratings has become one of the most durable fictional universes in popular culture. \nGene Roddenberry’s original series lasted only three seasons\, but its afterlife proved much bigger than its initial run. \nMovies followed. Then The Next Generation\, Deep Space Nine\, Voyager and Enterprise. A new television era eventually brought Discovery\, Picard\, Lower Decks\, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds\, among other projects. \nThe franchise’s longevity has also produced something unusual for a trivia event: several generations of fans can arrive with completely different areas of expertise. \nOne person may have watched Kirk and Spock when the episodes originally aired. Another may have discovered Jean-Luc Picard in syndication. Younger fans may have entered the universe through Discovery\, Prodigy or Strange New Worlds. \nPearlman’s work has frequently played with exactly that multigenerational quality of Trek fandom. \nAt Mystic Seaport\, those generations get to compete. \nAn Author Talk That Doesn’t End With the Talk\nPearlman will also have books and copies of the trivia deck available for signing following the program. \nThat gives the afternoon a three-part structure: conversation\, competition and signing. \nIt also provides an opportunity to hear from someone who approaches licensed pop culture from both sides of publishing. \nPearlman isn’t only an author handed established characters and asked to write about them. His career has included acquiring\, editing\, developing and art directing projects based on major entertainment properties. \nThat makes the conversation potentially broader than Star Trek trivia alone. His career sits at the intersection of fandom and the publishing business that turns familiar fictional worlds into books\, games and other objects fans can take home. \nThen comes the part where somebody has to prove they actually know how many nacelles are on the Enterprise-D. \nA Different Kind of Voyage at Mystic Seaport\nThere’s also something pleasantly fitting about bringing Star Trek to Mystic Seaport Museum. \nOne institution preserves stories of people who ventured across oceans in wooden sailing ships. \nThe other imagined humanity taking that same impulse much farther. \nMystic Seaport’s historic vessels represent an era when leaving port could mean disappearing beyond reliable communication for months or years. Star Trek took exploration\, navigation\, unknown territory and life aboard a ship and transported those ideas into space. \nThe technologies could hardly be more different. \nThe basic fascination with going somewhere no one around you has seen remains surprisingly familiar. \nOn September 12\, the Museum’s Performance Stage trades square-riggers for starships for an afternoon. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Star Trek Conversation and Trivia with Robb Pearlman\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 1:30 p.m.\nLocation: Performance Stage at Mystic Seaport Museum\nAddress: 75 Greenmanville Avenue\, Mystic\, CT 06355\nGuest: Robb Pearlman\nProgram: Author conversation followed by a Star Trek trivia contest\nTrivia: Inspired by Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck\nBook Signing: Books and trivia decks will be available for signing\nNew Release: Star Trek: The Ultimate Trivia Deck\, released August 18\, 2026 \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/star-trek-trivia-with-robb-pearlman-at-mystic-seaport-museum/
LOCATION:Mystic Seaport\, 75 Greenmanville Ave\, Mystic\, CT\, \,06355-1946\,\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mystic Seaport
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Star-Trek-Trivia-With-Robb-Pearlman-at-Mystic-Seaport-Museum-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T190000
DTSTAMP:20260910T041330Z
CREATED:20260910T041117Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T041330Z
UID:10007537-1789221600-1789239600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Songs of the Sea 2026 at Parade Plaza
DESCRIPTION:(This event is part of the CT Maritime Heritage Festival) \nSongs of the Sea 2026 at Parade Plaza brings six acts and four hours of sea songs\, chanteys\, Celtic music and folk punk to Parade Plaza in downtown New London on Saturday\, September 12\, as part of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival. \nThe free\, all-ages concert runs from 2 to 6:45 p.m. at Parade Plaza\, at State and South Water streets\, with performances scheduled in chronological order from None Of Us Saints\, Littlefield & Morneault\, Marc Bernier\, Hold Fast\, My Druthers and Canadian folk-punk band The Dreadnoughts. \nThere will also be vendors and food trucks around the concert. \nThis isn’t the genteel version of maritime music. \nThe organizers describe what they’ve been trying to create since around 2012 as a free concert of “maritime mayhem” in the middle of New England’s old Whaling City. The lineup deliberately puts veteran chanteymen who have spent decades preserving traditional work songs beside musicians who discovered that those same songs sound remarkably good when played with the attitude of punk rock. \nAnd the progression of Saturday’s lineup tells that story particularly well. \n2–2:30 p.m. — None Of Us Saints\nNone Of Us Saints opens Songs of the Sea at 2 p.m.\, starting the afternoon with a Connecticut group that draws from punk\, Celtic folk and traditional sea-song culture. \nTheir recorded repertoire includes traditional Irish standards such as Seven Drunken Nights and Rocky Road to Dublin\, immediately revealing where at least part of the group’s musical vocabulary comes from. \nBut this isn’t intended as museum-piece folk music. \nThe organizers describe None Of Us Saints as an assemblage of “punks\, Celts\, folksters and sea-songers\,” which is a pretty good introduction to the larger philosophy behind Songs of the Sea. \nMaritime music has survived in part because generations keep changing the way they perform it. \nThe sailors who originally sang work songs aboard commercial vessels weren’t preserving historic music. They were using songs as tools\, entertainment and community. Centuries later\, musicians can retain the choruses and stories while changing the instrumentation\, tempo and attitude around them. \nThat’s the territory None Of Us Saints occupies as the first band of the afternoon. \nPerformance: 2–2:30 p.m. \n2:45–3:15 p.m. — Littlefield & Morneault\nThe afternoon then reaches much deeper into New England’s maritime-music tradition with Littlefield & Morneault. \nDavid Littlefield and Joseph Morneault perform ballads\, maritime music and songs connected to local history\, but both bring considerably more than a repertoire of old songs to the stage. \nLittlefield worked for 24 years at Mystic Seaport Museum\, where he served as a chanteyman and interpreter of historic vessels and exhibits. \nHe became particularly interested in the lives of ordinary sailors aboard American whaleships and conducted extensive research into the Charles W. Morgan\, the last surviving wooden whaleship from the American whaling fleet. \nLittlefield also spent 15 summers aboard the schooner Mystic Whaler performing maritime music. \nAnd he was a member of Forebitter\, the influential group of Mystic Seaport chanteymen whose recordings and performances helped carry traditional American maritime music well beyond southeastern Connecticut. Forebitter performed internationally\, and Littlefield’s own maritime compositions have been performed by musicians in the United States and Europe. \nHis partner Joseph Morneault approaches the tradition as both musician and historian. \nMorneault is a social historian and author specializing in the late 18th century and serves as president of the Maritime Music & Tradition Society\, the organization behind the Connecticut Sea Music Festival in Essex. \nHe can also regularly be heard at the Griswold Inn’s long-running Monday night sea music gatherings in Essex. \nTogether\, Littlefield & Morneault represent something important in the middle of a festival filled with punk musicians. \nThese are people who know where the songs came from. \nPerformance: 2:45–3:15 p.m. \n3:30–4:05 p.m. — Marc Bernier\nIf southeastern Connecticut has an old guard of maritime musicians\, Marc Bernier belongs firmly within it. \nBernier spent more than 30 years working at Mystic Seaport Museum\, including five years as one of its chanteymen. \nBut his connection to maritime music didn’t end on a museum stage. \nHe’s worked as a musician and educator with the Clearwater program on the Hudson River and has actually gone to sea aboard traditional sailing vessels\, working as a cook\, deckhand and entertainer from Maine to the Chesapeake Bay. \nThat experience matters when singing chanteys. \nA sea chantey wasn’t originally a song about sailing. \nIt was a song used while working aboard a ship. \nDifferent chanteys were suited to different jobs. The rhythm helped sailors coordinate physical labor\, whether hauling together on a line or performing other repetitive tasks that required a crew to move at the same moment. \nA chanteyman led the song and the crew answered. \nBernier has spent decades studying and performing that tradition. \nHis repertoire extends well beyond sea music\, however. He performs Irish tunes and songs\, American folk music\, pub and drinking songs and instrumental music\, accompanying himself on guitar\, mandolin and tenor banjo. \nHe’s also an accomplished percussionist who plays bodhrán in Irish music and frottior\, or rubboard\, with Cajun and Zydeco musicians. \nThen there’s another Connecticut tradition in his background. \nBernier has been involved in the state’s fife-and-drum community since his teenage years and has performed as a fifer across North America and Europe. \nAt 3:30\, Songs of the Sea essentially hands the microphone to someone whose life connects several of the musical traditions the festival is celebrating. \nPerformance: 3:30–4:05 p.m. \n4:20–4:55 p.m. — Hold Fast\nAt 4:20\, somebody turns up the volume. \nHold Fast comes from Harrisburg\, Pennsylvania\, and takes traditional Irish music into Celtic-punk territory. \nThe band’s approach combines Irish traditional material with original songs\, electric rock instrumentation and punk energy. Even when Hold Fast performs acoustically\, speed and rhythm remain central to its sound. \nTheir repertoire provides a useful illustration of just how freely this musical world can cross boundaries. \nHold Fast has recorded a mashup of Rancid’s punk standard Ruby Soho and Sloop John B\, a traditional song with roots extending back well before the Beach Boys made their version famous in 1966. \nThat combination might sound strange on paper. \nAt Songs of the Sea\, it makes perfect sense. \nCeltic punk has spent decades doing something very similar\, taking traditional melodies\, fiddles\, whistles\, drinking songs and historical ballads and putting them alongside distorted guitars and drums. \nThe Pogues helped establish the possibilities in the 1980s. Later bands pushed the combination in different directions. \nHold Fast carries that idea into the second half of Saturday’s concert. \nAfter more than two hours rooted heavily in traditional sea music and folk\, the afternoon starts moving toward punk. \nPerformance: 4:20–4:55 p.m. \n5:10–5:45 p.m. — My Druthers\nThen the festival gets very local. \nMy Druthers is a New London band led by Stuart Fensom\, built as a rotating collective of musicians playing sea chanteys\, maritime songs\, Irish rebel music and working-class folk with punk-rock energy. \nThey are also one of the clearest examples of why Songs of the Sea belongs in New London. \nFensom comes from the punk scene\, but the band treats traditional music less as a historical curiosity than as an earlier version of working-class music. \nSongs about dangerous jobs\, lousy bosses\, drinking\, rebellion\, leaving home\, missing home and dying far away from it aren’t exactly alien concepts to punk. \nMy Druthers simply shortens the distance between the traditions. \nThe rotating lineup can include guitar\, fiddle\, banjo and mandolin alongside multiple voices\, and the group has appeared at punk shows\, pubs\, Celtic festivals\, maritime gatherings and chantey events around New England. \nTheir 2025 debut album\, Coming Up 3’s\, was produced by Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls\, providing another direct connection between New London’s sea-song scene and American punk. \nMy Druthers also keeps maritime music active locally rather than saving it for festival weekends. The group has hosted and appeared at sea-shanty nights at New London’s Oasis Pub\, including performances with other regional traditional and maritime musicians. \nThe organizers affectionately describe them as New London’s “punks\, drunks\, stowaways\, & shantymen.” \nBy 5:10 Saturday afternoon\, that may require very little additional explanation. \nPerformance: 5:10–5:45 p.m. \n6–6:45 p.m. — The Dreadnoughts\nThe final band takes the basic premise behind the entire afternoon and pushes it about as far as it can go. \nThe Dreadnoughts formed in Vancouver\, British Columbia\, in 2006 and built an international following by combining street punk with sea chanteys\, Celtic music\, polka\, klezmer and other European folk traditions. \nIt’s an improbable mixture until you hear it. \nThen it becomes difficult to imagine why somebody hadn’t done it sooner. \nThe band traces its beginnings to Vancouver’s Ivanhoe Hotel and originally set out to combine traditional European folk music with punk. Over the following two decades\, The Dreadnoughts toured internationally\, playing hundreds of shows across roughly 30 countries. \nThey’ve released a catalog that demonstrates how seriously they take both halves of “folk punk.” \nPolka’s Not Dead includes Randy Dandy-Oh alongside the band’s punked-up polkas and originals. \nForeign Skies is an ambitious concept album built around stories of the First World War\, moving among chanteys\, Balkan music\, klezmer\, polka and punk. \nInto the North leaned heavily into nautical music. \nRoll and Go continued the band’s relationship with traditional maritime song\, and Green Willow returned to folk material through the group’s distinctly loud interpretation of it. \nThe band’s maritime work isn’t simply punk songs with pirate imagery attached. \nThe Dreadnoughts have spent years performing actual traditional nautical material\, including songs such as Roll the Woodpile Down and Eliza Lee. Their original maritime songs have themselves begun moving through the folk community and being recorded by other sea-music performers. \nMore recently\, with members relocating to New York\, The Dreadnoughts developed an a cappella version of the group devoted specifically to traditional nautical music. \nThat makes them an unusually appropriate closer. \nSaturday begins with Connecticut musicians mixing punk and folk\, moves through performers directly connected to Mystic Seaport’s historic chantey tradition\, turns toward Celtic punk and New London’s own maritime-punk scene\, and finishes with a band that has carried essentially the same musical collision around the world. \nPerformance: 6–6:45 p.m. \nWhy Sea Chanteys Sound So Good With Punk Rock\nThere’s a reason so many of these musicians can move between maritime music and punk without the combination feeling forced. \nChanteys were communal music. \nThey generally weren’t intended to showcase a virtuoso singer while everyone else stood silently listening. \nA leader called. \nThe crew responded. \nThe chorus belonged to everybody. \nThe music had to be rhythmic\, memorable and loud enough to work in a difficult environment. \nStrip away the historical distance and some of the underlying principles don’t sound terribly far removed from a crowded punk show. \nBoth traditions also contain plenty of songs about people on the margins of polite society. \nSailors\, laborers\, emigrants\, soldiers\, drinkers\, prisoners\, rebels and people trying to survive hard circumstances populate traditional folk music. \nPunk simply arrived later with electric guitars. \nSongs of the Sea puts both traditions on the same stage. \nNew London Is More Than a Convenient Backdrop\nCalling New London the Whaling City isn’t a modern marketing invention. \nThe city’s maritime history stretches across centuries of commercial shipping\, whaling\, naval activity\, fishing and shipbuilding. During the 19th century\, New London developed into one of America’s important whaling ports. \nThe Thames River remains central to the region’s maritime identity today. \nThe U.S. Coast Guard Academy sits upriver in New London. Naval Submarine Base New London is across the river in Groton. The historic ship Nautilus and Submarine Force Museum sit farther north\, while ferries\, commercial vessels\, Coast Guard ships\, recreational boats and submarines continue moving through the river. \nThat makes Parade Plaza an appropriate place to sing songs originally created by people whose lives revolved around ships. \nIt’s also why Songs of the Sea fits so naturally into the larger Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival taking place across New London’s waterfront Saturday and Sunday. \nOne Concert Inside a Much Larger Maritime Weekend\nSongs of the Sea occupies the afternoon\, but the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival begins hours earlier. \nSaturday’s official festival schedule starts at 10 a.m. with an opening ceremony and a presentation marking the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a new commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp. \nThroughout the day\, visitors can tour vessels\, visit vendors\, explore children’s activities and use free transportation connecting festival locations around the harbor. \nFree hop-on/hop-off harbor cruises run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.\, connecting Fort Trumbull\, City Pier\, the Nautilus area and Groton. \nOther Saturday activities include a children’s Mermaid & Privateer Walking Parade at 11:30 a.m.\, a noon kids’ sing-along\, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue helicopter demonstration at 1:30 p.m. and other music and programming around the waterfront. \nThe festival then continues after Songs of the Sea finishes. \nAt 7:30 p.m.\, the March of the Traitor begins on Bank Street as Flock Theatre revives New London’s tradition of burning Benedict Arnold in effigy. The procession leads toward Waterfront Park\, where the burning is scheduled from 8 to 8:15 p.m. \nA 300-drone light show over the Thames River follows at approximately 8:15 p.m. \nThe festival returns Sunday with another full day of vessel tours\, maritime programming\, a children’s fishing clinic\, Discovering Amistad programs and the Navy-versus-Coast Guard Sea-Service Showdown. \nSongs That Once Worked Ships Now Build Community\nThere is a nice bit of continuity in what Songs of the Sea is trying to accomplish. \nThe original chanteys existed partly because a group of people needed to act together. \nOne person sang a line. \nEveryone answered. \nThe song turned individuals into a crew\, at least for the duration of the work. \nSaturday’s organizers are explicit that community remains part of the point. \nThey’ve envisioned a free\, all-ages maritime concert in downtown New London since around 2012. The emphasis isn’t on exclusivity or musical purity. Veteran chanteymen share a bill with punk musicians. Traditional songs coexist with electric guitars. People who know every chorus can sing beside people hearing a sea chantey for the first time. \nAnd admission costs nothing. \nIn a city whose identity has been tied to the sea for centuries\, that may be a more authentic way to keep maritime music alive than treating it as something that ended when the last commercial sailing ships disappeared. \nAt 2 p.m.\, None Of Us Saints starts the music. \nBy 6 p.m.\, one of the world’s better-known folk-punk bands takes over. \nIn between\, several generations of New England’s maritime-music tradition get 30 or 35 minutes apiece to demonstrate that sea songs aren’t finished yet. \nDetails\nEvent: Songs of the Sea 2026\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nConcert Time: 2–6:45 p.m.\nLocation: Parade Plaza\nIntersection: State Street and South Water Street\, New London\, CT\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages\nSetting: Outdoor concert in downtown New London\nFood: Food truck options are planned\nVendors: A selection of vendors will be on site \nPerformance Schedule:\n2–2:30 p.m. — None Of Us Saints\n2:45–3:15 p.m. — Littlefield & Morneault\n3:30–4:05 p.m. — Marc Bernier\n4:20–4:55 p.m. — Hold Fast\n5:10–5:45 p.m. — My Druthers\n6–6:45 p.m. — The Dreadnoughts \nConnecticut Maritime Heritage Festival: September 12–13 at New London Waterfront Park\, Fort Trumbull State Park and other downtown/waterfront locations\nFestival Hours Saturday: Main daytime activities begin at 10 a.m.; evening programming continues until approximately 8:30 p.m.\nTransportation: Free festival shuttle service and hop-on/hop-off harbor transportation connect festival locations during the day\nSaturday Evening: March of the Traitor at 7:30 p.m.; Burning of Benedict Arnold from approximately 8–8:15 p.m.; 300-drone light show follows over the Thames River\nParking: Festival organizers recommend downtown Water Street garages or street parking near Fort Trumbull\, then using free festival transportation between locations \nMore information is available at the Event Website links below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/songs-of-the-sea-2026-at-parade-plaza/
LOCATION:Parade Plaza\, State Street &\, S Water St\, New London\, 06320\, United States
CATEGORIES:Parade Plaza
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Songs-of-the-Sea-2026-at-Parade-Plaza.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T193000
DTSTAMP:20260817T215904Z
CREATED:20260817T215904Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260817T215904Z
UID:10007214-1789227000-1789241400@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Westerly Land Trust Farm Dinner Celebrates Local Food at Barlow Nature Preserve
DESCRIPTION:[The dinner is sold out\, but you can register on a waitlist by clicking the Event Ticketing link at the bottom of the page] \nWesterly Land Trust Farm Dinner returns to Barlow Nature Preserve on Saturday\, September 12\, bringing guests together for an outdoor meal built around locally grown food and the land that produced it. \nThe annual dinner begins at 3:30 p.m. at the 80-acre preserve on Westerly Bradford Road. This isn’t simply dinner with a pretty farm as the backdrop. The location is part of the story. \nBarlow Nature Preserve has become a working example of the Westerly Land Trust’s efforts to connect conservation\, sustainable agriculture and the community. The property is home to Frontier Farm and Echo Rock Flowers\, and ingredients grown locally will make their way onto the dinner table. \nThis year’s meal will be prepared by husband-and-wife chefs Johan Jensen and Abbey Hemmann\, the team behind Whitecrest Eatery and Backdoor Kitchen. \nFrom Preserved Land to Working Farm\nThe story of Barlow Nature Preserve begins well before the first dinner table is set. \nThe 80-acre property became the Eleanor F. & Edward W. Barlow Nature Preserve following a bequest from Eleanor Barlow in 2018. The land contains an unusually diverse combination of agricultural fields\, upland forest and extensive freshwater wetlands and sits beside Rhode Island’s 111-acre Newton Swamp Management Area. \nRather than simply preserve the property and leave it untouched\, the Westerly Land Trust saw an opportunity. \nThe organization decided to make Barlow its headquarters while also returning part of the property to active agriculture. The existing farmhouse was renovated into office space in 2019\, and young local farmers were invited onto the land to begin rebuilding its agricultural life. \nToday\, that work can be seen in the fields surrounding the Farm Dinner. \nFarming With Conservation in Mind\nOnly about five acres of the 80-acre preserve are suitable for farming\, according to reporting by ecoRI News. That farmland is now used by Frontier Farm and Echo Rock Flowers\, which employ regenerative growing practices. \nFrontier Farm moved to Barlow in 2019 and developed a 2.5-acre commercial farm there. The farm grows vegetables\, fruits and herbs without synthetic chemicals or fertilizers and uses regenerative and no-till methods whenever possible. \nThat’s particularly important at Barlow because of what’s beyond the cultivated fields. \nThe property contains extensive freshwater wetlands adjoining Newton Swamp. Protecting soil and limiting agricultural runoff were important considerations when farming was reintroduced. The Land Trust worked with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service on irrigation and water infrastructure while its farmers committed to environmentally responsible soil-management practices. \nIn other words\, the vegetables growing here aren’t separate from the Land Trust’s conservation work. They’re part of it. \nThe Farms Behind the Dinner\nGuests at the Farm Dinner will be eating in the same landscape where food and flowers are being grown throughout the season. \nFrontier Farm focuses on sustainably grown produce\, while Echo Rock Flowers fills another part of the property with locally grown cut flowers. \nThe two farms also operate the seasonal Barlow Farm Stand\, selling produce and flowers grown on the preserve along with products from other area farms. For 2026\, the stand operates on an honor system and accepts cash and Venmo. \nThe Land Trust has increasingly used Barlow as a place where people can experience agriculture rather than simply read about it. Its Farm Squad children’s program\, for example\, introduces kids to planting\, pollinators\, soil health\, harvesting\, composting and farm biodiversity right on the property. \nThat makes the Farm Dinner something of a culmination of the growing season: people gathering around a table on land they’ve watched produce food throughout the summer. \nDinner by Whitecrest Eatery and Backdoor Kitchen\nFor the 2026 Farm Dinner\, Westerly Land Trust has invited chefs Johan Jensen and Abbey Hemmann to prepare the menu. \nThe husband-and-wife team is behind Whitecrest Eatery and Backdoor Kitchen and will create the meal around local ingredients. \nJensen is known for globally influenced cooking and an approach that puts flavor ahead of unnecessary formality. Hemmann brings an equally important ingredient to the evening: hospitality. \nThe result should fit the setting particularly well. This isn’t intended to feel like a restaurant dining room transplanted into a field. The idea is to gather around a table with neighbors\, eat food connected to the surrounding landscape and celebrate the people preserving and working that land. \nMore Than 80 Acres to Protect\nBarlow represents only one piece of a much larger conservation effort. \nThe Westerly Land Trust\, established in 1987\, now protects more than 1\,900 acres of forests\, wetlands\, grasslands and agricultural fields throughout Westerly. Its properties are used not only for conservation but also for public recreation\, environmental education and community programs. \nThe Farm Dinner celebrates that work while helping connect the people supporting conservation with the places being protected. \nAnd Barlow is particularly suited to telling that story because visitors can see several pieces of it at once: cultivated fields\, working farmers\, woods\, wetlands and trails all occupying the same protected landscape. \nExplore Barlow Nature Preserve\nThe dinner might also introduce some guests to a preserve worth returning to another day. \nBarlow Nature Preserve has two separate trail systems\, with routes through woods and along the agricultural portions of the property. \nOne trail area overlooks the hayfield and working farm\, with several trees identified by species. Another runs near Newton Swamp\, offering a more wooded walk with wetland and marsh views. \nVisitors heading toward the farm stand will also find a Little Free Library devoted to nature books. There’s even a hidden compartment on the back containing seeds visitors can take home. \nIt’s a small detail\, but it captures what Barlow has become: not simply land saved from development\, but land being actively used to get people interested in farming\, nature and conservation. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Westerly Land Trust Farm Dinner\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 3:30–7:30 p.m.\nLocation: Barlow Nature Preserve\nAddress: 449 Westerly Bradford Road\, Westerly\, RI\nChefs: Johan Jensen and Abbey Hemmann\nFeaturing: A locally sourced dinner celebrating Westerly’s farms and conserved land \nMore information is available at the Event Website link at the bottom of the page. \nYou can register to be put on a waitlist by clicking the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/westerly-land-trust-farm-dinner-celebrates-local-food-at-barlow-nature-preserve/
LOCATION:Barlow Nature Preserve\, 449 Westerly Bradford Road\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:Barlow Nature Preserve
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Westerly-Land-Trust-Farm-Dinner-Celebrates-Local-Food-at-Barlow-Nature-Preserve.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR