Upper Valley Connections Weekly Digest - Issue #13
Upper Valley Connections
Issue No. 13 · June 18, 2026
Your weekly guide to life along the Connecticut River
The 46th Quechee Balloon Festival lifts off this Father's Day weekend -- and if you've never seen a balloon glow at dusk over the Village Green, this is the year to fix that. We're also covering the Lake Morey Summer Concert Series, three nights of fun with live music, karaoke, and a dance party at Sawtooth, a free trumpet series at the Enfield Shaker Museum, and a feature on strawberry picking season -- which opens in the Valley this week.
-- The Upper Valley Connections Team
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This Weekend
Community · Music · Free
Lake Morey Summer Concert Series: Opening Night
Thu Jun 19 · 7pm · Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT
The series kicks off with Jeff Kazee warming up the crowd at 7pm, followed by the Adam Ezra Group -- 2023 New England Music Award Americana Act of the Year -- at 8pm. Free admission, food trucks on the front lawn starting at 6pm, and a golf course fairway for a stage. This is the one to get to early.
Community · Kids & Family · Outdoors
46th Annual Quechee Balloon Festival -- Friday
Fri Jun 19 · 3pm-9pm · Quechee Village Green, Quechee, VT
New England's longest-running hot air balloon festival returns for its 46th year, and it lands right on Father's Day weekend. Friday gates open at 3pm -- expect balloon launches at 6pm (weather permitting), live music, 60+ craft vendors, and the balloon glow at dusk that makes the drive worth every minute. Weekend pass required; available at the gate or online, children under 12 discounted.
Music · $20 adv / $25 dos
Danny Abel and Friends
Thu Jun 19 · 7pm · Sawtooth Kitchen, Hanover, NH
A Thursday night show worth buying the advance ticket for. Danny Abel is a seasoned guitarist with a loose, improvisational live style -- shows tend to run long and nobody minds.
Community · Kids & Family · Outdoors
46th Annual Quechee Balloon Festival -- Saturday
Sat Jun 21 · Gates at 5:45am · Quechee Village Green, Quechee, VT
Saturday is the full day -- dawn balloon launch at 6am, another in the evening, live music in between. The Midnight Sun Dance Party at Sawtooth starts at 9:30pm if you need somewhere to go after the glow. Weekend pass covers both days.
Community · Free
Norwich Farmers Market
Sat Jun 21 · 9am-1pm · Route 5 South, Norwich, VT
55+ vendors, live music, rain or shine. Fresh strawberries will be at several stands this week even before the PYO fields open -- a good way to taste the season before you go pick your own. SNAP/EBT accepted.
Food & Drink · Free samples
Gozney Pizza Experience
Sat Jun 21 · 10am-2pm · King Arthur Baking Company, Norwich, VT
King Arthur's outdoor wood-fired pizza demo returns for the weekend. Free samples while supplies last -- the line moves faster than you'd expect, and the results are worth stopping for if you're already heading to Norwich.
Music · Free
Upper Valley Traditional Music Jams
Sat Jun 21 · 3pm-5pm · Kilton Library, West Lebanon, NH
Drop in, bring your instrument, or just listen. This open jam session welcomes all skill levels and has quietly become one of the better Saturday afternoon options in the Valley. Free.
Music · Free (freewill offering)
FREE Trumpet Concert
Sat Jun 21 · 8pm · Enfield Shaker Museum, Enfield, NH
Part of the Center for Advanced Musical Studies concert series running all week. The Shaker Museum's stone Great Stone Dwelling makes for one of the more unusual concert settings in the region. Freewill offering benefits student scholarships.
Music · $5 cover
Midnight Sun Dance Party w/ DJ Cartier
Sat Jun 21 · 9:30pm · Sawtooth Kitchen, Hanover, NH
Summer solstice weekend, and Sawtooth leans into it. $5 cover gets you into what will probably be a late one.
Community · Kids & Family · Outdoors
46th Annual Quechee Balloon Festival -- Sunday (Father's Day)
Sun Jun 22 · Gates at 5:45am · Quechee Village Green, Quechee, VT
The final day of the festival falls on Father's Day, which is exactly the point -- this has been a Father's Day tradition in Quechee for 46 years. Dawn launch, evening launch, and a full afternoon of music and craft vendors in between.
Community · Music · Free
Make Music Day!
Sun Jun 22 · 1pm-4pm · Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
Part of the international Make Music Day celebration on the summer solstice weekend. Local musicians, good energy, and Norwich Bookstore's porch in June is hard to beat.
See All 50+ Events This Week ->
Later in the Week
Arts & Culture · Free
Opening Reception: "World Repair: Recent Paintings by John Stomberg"
Thu Jun 19 · 5pm-7pm · AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, NH
AVA opens its latest show with a reception tonight. Stomberg's recent paintings are large-scale, emotional works -- worth seeing in person. The show runs through the summer.
Literary · Free
Rowan Jacobsen -- In Defense of Sunlight
Thu Jun 19 · 7pm · Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
Food and environment writer Rowan Jacobsen -- author of Fruitless Fall and A Geography of Oysters -- presents his new book. He lives in Vermont, writes about things that matter, and is very good at the author talk format.
Community · Free
NPL Yard Sale
Mon-Tue Jun 23-24 · Norwich Public Library, Norwich, VT
The Norwich Public Library's annual yard sale runs Monday through Tuesday. Books, housewares, the usual treasures. Worth stopping by early.
Arts & Culture · Workshop · Free
Zine Making Meetup and Potluck
Tue Jun 24 · 6pm-8pm · AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, NH
Bring something to share and make something small and weird. AVA's zine meetups are low-key, genuinely creative evenings. Bring a dish if you can.
Literary · Free
Deborah Lee Luskin -- Into the Wilderness
Tue Jun 24 · 7pm · Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
Vermont Public Radio essayist and novelist Deborah Lee Luskin reads from her new novel. If you've heard her "Living in Vermont" commentaries, you already know the voice -- warm, observant, deeply local.
Community · Free
Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer's Kick-Off Event
Wed Jun 25 · 3:30pm-5pm · Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH
The local Walk to End Alzheimer's team kicks off the season with an information and registration event at DHMC. Free to attend.
Food & Music · $18/plate
Summer Dinner & Music Series: BBQ Night with Spencer Lewis
Thu Jun 26 · 4:30pm-7pm · King Arthur Baking Company, Norwich, VT
The Thursday dinner series returns with BBQ night and live music from Spencer Lewis on the Route 5 lawn. $18 per plate. Worth calling ahead to confirm seating.
Music · Free (freewill offering)
FREE Trumpet Concert
Thu Jun 26 · 8pm · Enfield Shaker Museum, Enfield, NH
The CAMS series wraps the week with another free evening concert at the Shaker Museum. Three nights of free trumpet concerts this week alone -- a very specific and very good reason to visit Enfield.
Music · Free
Lake Morey Summer Concert Series: Fitz and the Tantrums
Thu Jun 26 · 8pm · Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT
The second Thursday of the series brings Fitz and the Tantrums to the Fairlee fairway. This one will draw a crowd -- free admission, gates at 6pm, bring a blanket.
Arts & Culture · Theater · Ticketed
Circa: Humans 2.0
Thu Jun 26 · 7:30pm · Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover, NH
Australian circus-theater company Circa brings their latest show to the Hop. Acrobatics, contemporary movement, and a level of physical precision that tends to make audiences very quiet. Tickets required.
This Week in the Upper Valley
The Red Season Is Opening
It happens fast. One week the strawberry plants are loaded with green nubs and white flowers, and the next you're standing in a field with stained fingers, eating every third berry before it makes it into the bucket. That week is this week. PYO fields are opening right now, and if you've been waiting for the signal -- this is it.
Crossroad Farm in Post Mills is planning to open Tuesday, June 23. They grow at their farm on West Fairlee Road, and also run a stand in Norwich on Route 5 South -- a useful detail if you want to pick up pre-picked berries closer to home first. PYO price is $5 a quart, and CSA members get two quarts free. Call ahead before you make the drive: (802) 333-4455. crossroadfarm.com
Edgewater Farm in Plainfield, NH has been a fixture for decades -- a full farm stand and kitchen alongside the PYO fields, so even if you arrive late and the best rows are picked over, you won't leave empty-handed. Prices run $7 a quart or $25 for a medium box, cash and check only. They're at 99 River Road in Plainfield, follow the signs from Route 12A. edgewaterfarm.com
Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford -- the organic option -- is listing their fields as not yet open but expected to open mid-to-late June, which means any day now. It's worth calling before you go: (802) 785-4737. Cedar Circle is a nonprofit farm and education center on Route 5 in East Thetford, just south of Bradford, and the farm itself is worth the trip even outside strawberry season. cedarcirclefarm.org
The window is short -- usually three weeks, sometimes less if it gets hot. A warm weekend can strip a field by Monday morning. Go early, before 10am if you can, and bring a wide shallow container so the bottom berries don't bruise under the weight of everything above them.
What do you do with three pounds of strawberries? Eat the first pint plain. Freeze the rest in a single layer on a baking sheet, then transfer to a bag -- they'll keep until February, and on a gray January morning a frozen Upper Valley strawberry is a very specific kind of comfort.
The berry season runs long here if you let it. Strawberries give way to blueberries at Cedar Circle by mid-July, and then the raspberries come. Summer in the Valley has a rhythm to it, and this is one of its best weeks to tune in.
Farmers' Markets
Something worth noting: as of this week, the Upper Valley now has a farmers market running every single day. Eight markets, seven days -- from the Monday Mini Market at Honey Field Farm in Norwich to the Saturday double-header in Woodstock and Norwich. If you've ever thought "I wish I could get to a market," the answer this summer is: pick a day.
Lebanon Farmers Market -- Thursdays 4-7pm -- Colburn Park, Lebanon, NH. SNAP/EBT accepted. Rain or shine.
Hartland Farmers Market -- Fridays 4-6:30pm -- 153 Route 5, Hartland, VT. Now open for the season.
Norwich Farmers Market -- Saturdays 9am-1pm -- Route 5 South, Norwich, VT. 55+ vendors, live music, SNAP/EBT accepted. Rain or shine.
Mt Tom Farmers Market -- Saturdays 9:30am-12:30pm -- Saskadena Six, 247 Suicide Six Road, Woodstock, VT.
Canaan Farmers Market -- Sundays 10am-2pm -- Canaan Town Common, Canaan, NH.
Monday Mini Market at Honey Field Farm -- Mondays 4-7pm -- 55 Butternut Road, Norwich, VT.
West Hartford Library Farmers Market -- Tuesdays 3:30-6:30pm -- West Hartford Library, 2993 VT Route 14, West Hartford, VT.
Market on the Green, Woodstock -- Wednesdays 3-6pm -- The Green, Central Street, Woodstock, VT. Now open for the season.
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