Morgen Thiboult E-mail | Web site Morgen lives in southern NH and is the Senior Digital Media Producer for NH.com and The Telegraph. She loves learning and experiencing anything and everything about The Granite State. Her focus is to keep both locals and visitors up to date on upcoming events, attractions, new restaurants and anything else happening in NH. She also enjoys crossword puzzles, reality TV, driving with the sunroof open and a good margarita.

The end of summer is always a hard time of year to stomach. It means back to school for the kids, time to refocus at work and time to get mentally prepared for leaf peepers and snow blowers.

But right at the tail end of summer, before the leaves start to change, there are a couple of magical September weekends. One of them, Labor Day, is celebrated by most of us by taking one last trip to the beach or getting in one last dip in the pool.

The other weekend is Seafood Festival Weekend. Okay, so Seafood Festival Weekend isn't officially the name of the second weekend in September and it's not a state holiday, but it might as well be as far as I'm concerned.

During the second weekend in September, there's a chunk of Ocean Boulevard in Hampton that's closed to auto traffic. Instead of buzzing, beeping cars the ocean front street is filled with music, vendors, people and plenty of seafood. This weekend is dedicated to celebrating the end of summer with food, fun, music and more at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival.

This year, the 21^st Annual Hampton Beach Seafood Festival will be held on Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12. More than 60 of the seacoast's best restaurants will be selling and serving their famously delicious seafood dishes. People can walk around and tasting lobster rolls, scallops, haddock, fried clams, shrimp and other kinds of seafood. Or, if you're like me and don't dig seafood, there's plenty of chicken tenders, steak, onion rings, BBQ ribs, and sinful desserts.

Some of this year's participating restaurants include: LaBec Rouge, Coconuts, Fruitcakes, The Seafood Shack, Harmon's Clam Cakes, The Old Salt, Petey's Summertime Seafood, Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, Lemon Grass Thai Food, East Coast Gourmet, Beach Plum, 401 Tavern, Brown's Seabrook Lobster Pound, Ray's Seafood, and Ashworth by the Sea.

When you need a break from chowing down, there's a wide variety of music entertainment as well as arts and crafts vendors. For the kids there is face painting, a magician, puppets, rides, fireworks and a thrilling skydiving demonstration. There's also a massive beverage court filled with Barefoot Wine, Redhook Ale and live music and karaoke.

Something that is sure to be a crowd pleaser at this year's event is the Saturday morning chef demonstration by the region's top chefs as well as the inaugural Lobster Roll Eating Contest. The U.S. Air Force Band of Liberty will also perform on Saturday evening and provide music up until the fireworks display beings.

Sunday's schedule is also jam packed with chef demonstrations, live musical entertainment and the highly anticipated sky diving extravaganza.

Admission for the event is $5 and children under 12 are free. The cost of admission does not cover any food or drink purchases. (Admission covers music, fireworks, sky diving, chef demonstrations and other entertainment.) And you should also know that since parts of Ocean Boulevard are closed to vehicles there will be alternative free parking lots.

You should also know that I'm not the only one who thinks this event is amazing. The American Bus Association has named Hampton's Seafood Festival as one of the top 100 events in North America and Yankee Magazine named it one of the top 20 events in New Hampshire.

Make sure that the Seafood Festival is part of your September ritual. It is, after all, off the hook.

Comments