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Strawberry Festival
Kick off your summer with the celebrated strawberry shortcake — a favorite fruit of the early colonists and native people alike! Enjoy a day filled with fun family entertainment, including games, music, and pony rides.
Admission: $8 Adults, $4 Children 6-12, Free for Children under 6. Family maximum of $25! Discounts for active military and seniors.
Windmill Wednesdays
Last Wednesday of the month: June 29, July 27, August 31
Have you always wanted to see the inside of the 1812 Prescott Farm windmill? Now is your chance at this windmill open house! Explore how this amazing machine works and learn about the importance of grist milling on Aquidneck Island. Enjoy a family-friendly evening with johnnycake tasting and hands-on activities for kids. Bring a picnic dinner to enjoy at one of our picnic tables while listening to live music from Rory and Ric.
Suggested donation $5. For questions, call (401) 846.4152 x122 or email Liz@newportrestoration.org
Family Fun Fridays
Blithewold’s Family Fun Fridays are the ultimate family-friendly way to enjoy an early summer afternoon. Bring a picnic, a blanket to sit on, and enjoy the show! Each week, dance and sing along with the kids to a variety of educational and interactive musical performances. Performance runs from 11:00-12:00. From 12:00-1:00, there will be a fun nature-inspired craft activity, face painting, and pizza (one slice of pizza per person, so you may want to bring additional food).
Admission includes entrance to the museum: $14 Adults, $13 Seniors, $10 Full-time Students/Military, $5 Children 6- 17
July 1 – Toe Jam Puppet Band
July 8 – Keith Munslow
July 15 – Ben Rudneck
July 22 – Rolie Polie Guacamole
July 29 – Kaleidoscope Theater
August 5 – TBA
August 12- Matt Heaton
August 19 – Toe Jam Puppet Band
The Decade That Roared
For Rhode Island and America, the 1920s were a time of exciting new technologies, unprecedented cultural change and growing pains. This summer, Hearthside brings the stories of the 1920s to life … from early jazz, dance crazes, fabulous fashion, and live radio to prohibition, speakeasies, intolerance and scandals. Activities include demonstrations of an early radio broadcast, airing of silent movies, a variety of entertainment on the stage, presentations about a variety of topics from the 20s, fashion commentary, demonstrations of Charleston, makeup and hair style, vintage clothing vendors, and music on the grounds of this 200-year old house. Inside the museum, there will be exhibit panels, image displays, and artifacts on display.
Admission: $12 Adults, $6 Children 13 or younger
Sights & Sounds of Shangri La
Bring friends and family to Rough Point (680 Bellevue Ave., Newport) on Wednesday, August 24th for “Sights & Sounds of Shangri La,” a child-friendly event celebrating the cultures featured in the 2016 exhibition, Waterscapes: Islamic Architecture & Art from Doris Duke’s Shangri La.
The theme for August 24th is “paradise,” and Rough Point will be open to explore the galleries. Outside the mansion, on the sweeping ocean-front lawn, you’ll find activities for all ages, from coloring book stations to a performance of Tibetan singing bowls and guided meditations.
Food will be available for purchase; bring your own blankets or lawn chairs to relax. Bring yoga mats to participate in the yoga-inspired activities! See the event poster here.
Purchase tickets online, or at the admissions tent day-of.
Participating vendors and entertainers
- Tibetan Singing Bowls: Lynda Loranger of The Renaissance Barn
- Guided kundalini yoga meditation: Barbara Schlubach
- Gong bath: Kyla Maher of Long Time Sun Apparel
- GATHER – Herb Shop + Tea Bar + Clinic
EVENT INFORMATION FOR AUG 24
Wednesday, August 24, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Adults $10, kids 18 & under free.
Free parking. Bike friendly. Rain or Shine.
Come to the admissions table located under pop-up tent on the circle drive and receive a wrist band.
Happy 100th Birthday to the National Parks!
On Thursday, August 25, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., join the staff and volunteers of the Roger Williams National Memorial to celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th birthday!
Meet park staff and volunteers at the outdoor visitor center, stroll the beautiful grounds, join rangers for storytime at 10:30 a.m., explore new outdoor exhibit panels, meet Roger Williams—and try to stump him with your questions from 12 to 2 p.m.!
Fun fact: The Roger Williams National Memorial is the 20th smallest National Park in the nation!
Celebrate with a picnic, bring lawn chairs and stay for the afternoon!
- Meet the Staff and Volunteers at the Outdoor Visitor Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Ranger Story Time from 10:30 to 11 a.m.
- “Ask Roger Williams” from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Slater’s Art & Manufacture Festival
On Saturday, August 27 and Sunday, August 28, from 11 am to 5 pm, Slater Mill will be hosting its annual outdoor art and manufacture festival, S.A.M. FEST.
Taking place outside and inside, the two-day event promises music, film, a maker fair, food trucks, libations and free self-guided tours of Slater Mill itself, including the Wheel Pit exhibit (where a 10-ton wheel moves 2,000 gallons of water per minute).
Saturday features music from Mitch Chakour Band, w/Cliff Goodwin; Western Caravan, w/ “Thirsty” Dave Hansen; and Paul Rishell & Anne Raines. Starting at 7:40 pm, you can catch the Rhode Island-shot film, Moonrise Kingdom. For those who can celebrate into the late hours, David Bowie’s myth and fantasy film Labyrinth begins at 9:40 pm.
Sunday, see musical performances by Troy Gonyea, James Montgomery Band, and Jesse Dee. And both days will have a tented stage and dance floor!
Click on the poster below to see more details!
Naval Impressment: A 1765 Reenactment in Colonial Newport
Discover Newport’s place in history, by seeing history unfold! On the afternoon of August 27, 2016, “step back in time” to the summer of 1765, before the American Revolution, to witness (and engage with!) Newport Historical Society’s living-history event, Naval Impressment: A 1765 Reenactment in Colonial Newport.
Taking place in the harbor and in Washington Square, Newport will be ablaze with activities from 1 to 5 p.m., portraying the life and the lifestyle of colonial-era Americans with dozens of costumed interpreters re-imagining a summer afternoon in June of 1765.
Children’s games will be available, along with a family scavenger hunt to inspire learning. Families can explore an 18th century boat, visit inside a colonial home of Newport residents, as well as discover a fish market, meet a merchant captain, and talk to a sailmaker!
“Naval Impressment” illustrates life in a colonial seaport by going back to June 1765 when members of the Royal Navy from HMS Maidstone strong-armed colonialists (known as a “naval impressment”) to crew British warships (known as a “naval press gang”). In reaction to these manpower demands, the citizens of Newport stole and set on fire the Maidstone’s longboat.
See the rush of defiance that helped grow the historic roots of our American Revolution — in real life! “Naval Impressment” visitors can roam between three locations that have distinct connections to the June 1965 incident:
- At Perotti Park (39 America’s Cup Avenue), interpreters will represent life in the Royal Navy where they will train “impressed sailors” and discuss life at sea. Visitors can also view a reproduction 18th century boat which will be moored in the harbor and learn about what sailing was life during the Golden Age of Sail.
- At the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (17 Broadway), interpreters portraying middle and upper class residents will discuss the views on the naval incident and how the loss of sailors impacts their personal economic stance.
- And Washington Square will be occupied with reenactors portraying many aspects of 18th century daily life including a fish market, a merchant captain, tavern life, a sailmaker, printer and much more.
Enjoy a hearty cup o’ cider: The Society will sell reproduction tankards that visitors can fill with apple cider at each of the three locations where the living history event takes place–Washington Square, Perotti Park and the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House. The handmade tankards cost $25, which includes several cider refills during the afternoon program. The tankards can be pre-ordered by calling the Brick Market: Museum & Shop at 401-841-8770 or purchased there the day of the program. Event attendees purchasing this tankard receive an extra 15% off at the museum shop on August 27th.
Museum of Work & Culture Labor Day Open House
Explore the legacy of Rhode Island mill workers at the Museum of Work & Culture’s 18th Annual Labor Day Open House.
Admission is free, from 9:30 am to 4 pm on Monday, Sept. 5, with this year’s event celebrating the debut of the Mill Workers’ Memory Bank, a digital registry of profiles of former mill workers.
Monday, September 5th, Labor Day, will mark the exhibit’s premiere, with event attendees being the first to have the opportunity to register their loved ones and permanently recognize their contribution to Rhode Island’s manufacturing heritage. For Labor Day only, photographs will be included in profiles for free.*
Additional programming will include:
- Walking tours of historic Woonsocket by the National Park Service at 10 am and 11:30 am
- A presentation by Woonsocket Works Exhibit Developers Content Design at 1:30 pm
- A designing Main Street activity for children and a staffed Catholic schools archive
- As well as the display of “Community Care Alliance: Human Services in Woonsocket, A 125 Year History” in the changing gallery.
*Read about the Mill Workers’ Memory Bank project, and how to participate, in the Valley Breeze. Profiles can be created for a donation of $25. All donations will go toward the development of Woonsocket Works, a new digital exhibit space which will prominently feature the Memory Bank. All donations are tax deductible. Registration forms can be downloaded here.