Upper Valley Connections Weekly Digest - Issue #16
Upper Valley Connections
Issue No. 16 - July 9, 2026
Your weekly guide to life along the Connecticut River
The Junction Dance Festival opens this weekend -- ten days, four towns, and sixteen free workshops along the way. We promised you the full story this week, so here it is, alongside a Guster show at Lake Morey tonight that needs no introduction.
-- The Upper Valley Connections Team
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Happening Tonight
Guster plays the Lake Morey Summer Concert Series tonight -- free, gates at 6, following Shaggy by exactly one week. (Full disclosure: I was a freshman at Tufts when Guster -- then still going by Gus -- were seniors, so I'm pretty excited about this one.) Over in Norwich, King Arthur kicks off a five-week run of Community Pizza Nights -- bring your own toppings, they supply the sauce, dough, and cheese, $10 a pizza, live music in the courtyard. Runs Thursdays through August 6.
This Weekend
Arts & Culture · Free
TJDF Kickoff Party: Community Dinner, Dance Films & Ecstatic Dance
Fri Jul 10 · 5:30 PM · New Suns Community Center, Thetford, VT
The Junction Dance Festival opens with dinner, a dance-film screening, and an ecstatic dance party -- free, and the first of ten days across the Valley.
Sports · Free
Nighthawks vs. Vermont Mountaineers
Fri Jul 10 · 6:00 PM · Maxfield Sports Complex, White River Junction, VT
Free admission, summer baseball, a home game against the Mountaineers. Bring the kids or don't -- either way works.
Theater · Tickets required
The Addams Family
Fri Jul 10 · 7:30 PM · Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH
The musical version, at the Opera House, pricing varies. A solid pick if the Fourth of July fireworks scratched your evening-out itch and you're ready for another one.
Arts & Culture · Free
Norwich Community Dance Day & Avant Vermont: SEASONS: Summer
Sat Jul 11 · 10:00 AM · Norwich Congregational Church, Norwich, VT
A full day of the Junction Dance Festival's community programming, anchored by Avant Vermont Dance's outdoor, family-friendly SEASONS: Summer performance on the Norwich Green, followed by an all-ages Families Dancing workshop.
Community · Free
Norwich Farmers Market
Sat Jul 11 · 9:00 AM · 281 Route 5 South, Norwich, VT
55+ vendors, live music, rain or shine -- go early if you're also headed to the Dance Day on the Green afterward.
Music · Ticketed
Opera North: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Sat Jul 11 · 5:30 PM · Blow-Me-Down Farm, Cornish, NH
Opera North's outdoor summer staging continues at Blow-Me-Down Farm. See operanorthnh.org for pricing.
Arts & Culture · Free
Free Dance Workshops at New Suns: Improv, Reggaeton, Contact Improv & Breaking
Sun Jul 12 · 12:00 PM · New Suns Community Center, North Thetford, VT
The festival's community programming continues with a full afternoon of free workshops -- no experience required for any of them.
Community · Free
Canaan Farmers Market
Sun Jul 12 · 10:00 AM · Canaan Town Common, Canaan, NH
A Sunday-morning market on the Common, easy to pair with a slow start to the day.
Later in the Week
Sports · Free
Nighthawks vs. North Shore Navigators
Tue Jul 14 · 6:00 PM · Maxfield Sports Complex, White River Junction, VT
Another free home game, another good excuse to sit outside on a summer evening.
Community · Free
West Hartford Library Farmers Market
Tue Jul 14 · 3:30 PM · West Hartford Library, West Hartford, VT
Small, easy to miss, worth knowing about -- right at the library.
Literary · Free
Brett Ann Stanciu -- Call It Madness
Tue Jul 14 · 7:00 PM · Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
A reading and conversation with the Vermont author. Free, folding chairs, the usual good company.
Music · Free
The Ida Mae Specker Band: Square Dance Workshop & Concert
Wed Jul 15 · 4:00 PM · Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover, NH
A square dance workshop at 4, followed by a free concert at 5:30 -- a fitting echo of dance-festival week, even outside the festival itself.
Arts & Culture · $10
Sawtooth Comedy Night: Double Dippin' with Valley Improv and Standup Comics
Wed Jul 15 · 8:00 PM · Sawtooth Kitchen, Hanover, NH
Improv and stand-up in the same night, $10 at the door. Good for a Wednesday that needs saving.
Music · Free
Lake Morey Summer Concert Series: Larkin Poe
Thu Jul 16 · 8:00 PM · Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT
Three big names at Lake Morey in three weeks -- Shaggy, Guster, and now Larkin Poe. Free, gates at 6.
Music · Free
Front Porch Concert Series: Catfish Howl
Thu Jul 16 · 7:00 PM · Colburn Park, Lebanon, NH
Lebanon's Thursday concert series continues on the Park, free as always.
This Week in the Upper Valley
Where Everyone's Invited to Dance
The Junction Dance Festival opens this weekend, and it's the kind of event that's hard to summarize in a sentence -- ten days, four towns, and a lineup that ranges from a community dinner to a professional showcase at the Briggs Opera House. What ties it together is a simple idea: everyone's invited, regardless of age or experience.
It starts small and warm. Friday night's kickoff at New Suns Community Center in Thetford is a free community dinner followed by a dance-film screening and an ecstatic dance party -- the kind of low-stakes entry point that asks nothing of you except showing up. Saturday moves the festival onto the Norwich Green, where Avant Vermont Dance performs SEASONS: Summer, an outdoor, family-friendly piece, followed immediately by an all-ages Families Dancing workshop.
Sunday's programming, back at New Suns in North Thetford, leans into that same spirit with four free workshops -- improvisational dance, reggaeton, contact improvisation, and breaking -- open to movers of every level. Sixteen free workshops run across the festival's ten days in total, no reason not to get out and dance.
The centerpiece arrives the following Saturday, July 18, when the festival's Main Showcase takes the stage at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, with performances at 2 and 7pm. The lineup pulls dance artists from across Vermont and New England: Garet&Co, rhythm tap artist Michael Dascomb, UVM professor and choreographer Paul Besaw, Chloe A. Schafer, Ann Bosse, and Caitlin Morgan among them. A free community meal runs between the two performances -- artists, audience, and volunteers sharing a table, which is its own kind of choreography.
The festival closes Sunday, July 19 with Ruth Childs performing delicate people in Lyman Point Park, presented by donation.
The Main Showcase lands July 18 at the Briggs Opera House -- for now, the opening weekend is free and starts Friday.
Farmers' Markets
All eight markets are running this week:
- Lebanon Farmers Market -- Thursdays 4-7pm -- Colburn Park, Lebanon NH
- Hartland Farmers Market -- Fridays 4-6:30pm -- 153 Route 5, Hartland VT
- Norwich Farmers Market -- Saturdays 9am-1pm -- Route 5 South, Norwich VT
- Mt Tom Farmers Market -- Saturdays 9:30am-12:30pm -- Saskadena Six, 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, West Hartford VT
- Market on the Green, Woodstock -- Wednesdays 3-6pm -- The Green, Woodstock VT
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