There’s a particular hour in September, usually somewhere past six, when the sun drops low enough that it stops lighting the lake from above and starts lighting it from the horizon, and everything on the water turns the color of a brass fitting left out in weather. It doesn’t last. Twenty minutes, maybe. But it’s the light that tells you the season has turned even before the maples do, before the mornings reliably need a sweater, before the marina starts hauling boats. You bask in the beauty of the shift before it’s fully landed in your body.
The weekdays are the tell. Today I found a parking spot more quickly than I have since May. The kid who’s been scooping ice cream all summer told me his last day is next Tuesday. He wants a few days of true vacation before he’s back at practices and in classrooms. But come Friday, the docks fill again, the parking lots along 16 and main streets in towns all over are worse than they ever were in peak season (because leaves, people). September isn’t the season ending. It’s the season getting particular about which days it shows up for.
In the meantime, there is, it turns out, an enormous amount happening. Concerts and craft fairs and a five-hour boxing fundraiser and a faire for pagans and a parade made entirely of lantern light on a lake that used to be a farm. Here’s a selection from the month. As always, let me know what I’ve missed that I should know about by leaving a comment!
Old Home Days & Town Celebrations
Meredith Old Home Day, Main Street, Meredith. Saturday, September 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Second year back after a seventy-year gap, leaning into the theme “Honoring Yesterday, Celebrating Today.” Parade at 10, live music at the Calvary Bible Church lot, a dunk tank, an egg toss, a pie eating contest I will be watching and not entering.
Wolfeboro Fall Festival, 50 Martin Hill Road, Wolfeboro. Saturday, September 26, 9 a.m.
Lantern Light & the Lake
Lantern-Making Workshop, Cook Memorial Library, Tamworth. Tuesday, September 1, 3 to 5 p.m. Free, hosted by the Arts Council of Tamworth and the Chocorua Lake Conservancy, building lanterns ahead of the parade below.
Chocorua Lake Conservancy Annual Picnic & Parade of Lights, Chocorua Lake, Tamworth. Sunday, September 6, picnic at 6 p.m., lantern parade on the water at dusk. Bring your own picnic, a chair, and a headlamp for the walk back. This is the kind of event that makes you understand why people who’ve never lived here still talk about this lake.
Lakes Region Lantern Festival, Center Harbor. Sunday, September 6, 4:30 p.m., lantern launch at dusk, around 7:30 p.m. Inaugural year for this one, hosted by the Lakes Region Tourism Association with the M/S Mount Washington docked for the evening, food and drink aboard. Food trucks, live music, a bouncy house for the kids, and then hundreds of lanterns going up over Winnipesaukee as the light finally gives out. Lanterns can be purchased and personalized ahead of time at lakesregionlanternfestival.org, worth doing if you want to send one up for someone in particular.
Stage, Gallery & Story
Collected Stories, The Barnstormers Theatre, Tamworth. September 4 (7:30 p.m.), September 5 (2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.), September 6 (5 p.m.). Donald Margulies’ play about an established author, her protégé, and the line between mentorship and theft.
“The Wonder of the Woods, Waters & Whites,” the lakes gallery at chi-lin, 135 Eastman Road, Laconia. Through September 23, Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A landscape exhibit at a gallery that’s been showing contemporary New England and Asian art since 1981.
Creative Writing at the 1820 Clark Barn, Clark House Museum Complex, Wolfeboro. Wednesday, September 23, 3 p.m.
History & Lectures
Meredith Historical Society Annual Open House, Main Street Museum, 45 Main St., Meredith. Tuesday, September 1, 5 to 7 p.m. Free hot dogs, chips, and volunteers happy to talk Meredith history.
“Brewing in New Hampshire,” In the Barn at Clark Museum, Wolfeboro. Monday, September 7, 7 to 9 p.m. Author Glen Knoblock, hosted by the Wolfeboro Historical Society. Free.
Wright Museum of WWII Lecture Series, Wolfeboro. Tuesdays through September 29. Check wrightmuseum.org for the week’s topic.
Music at Bank NH Pavilion, Gilford
A genuinely stacked month. Parker McCollum, Friday the 4th, 7:30 p.m. ZZ Top with George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Saturday the 5th, 7 p.m. Tedeschi Trucks Band with Lukas Nelson, Sunday the 6th, 7 p.m. O.A.R. with Gavin DeGraw and KT Tunstall, Sunday the 13th, 6:30 p.m. Dan + Shay with Tyler Hubbard and Josh Ross, Friday the 18th, 7:30 p.m. And Jason Aldean closes it out with two nights, Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th, both 7:30 p.m., with Chase Matthew, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Dee Jay Silver.
Fundraisers & Community Good
Gala en Blanc, Castle in the Clouds, Moultonborough. Friday, September 4, 5 to 10:30 p.m. The Castle’s white-attire fundraiser, doubling this year as the 20th anniversary of the Castle Preservation Society.
Wolfeboro Lions Club 21st Annual Golf Tournament, Indian Mound Golf Course, Ossipee. Tuesday, September 8, 7:30 a.m.
Rock Steady Boxing Lakes Region 8th Annual 5K Run/Walk, The Downtown Gym, 171 Fair Street, Laconia. Saturday, September 19, 9 a.m. Raises funds for the Adopt-A-Boxer program, which uses boxing training to help people with Parkinson’s.
“Your Health Is Wealth” Autumn Wellness Symposium & Luncheon, Birch Hill Farm, Gilford. Tuesday, September 22, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mid-State Health Center and Bank of New Hampshire on nutrition, healthcare, and financial planning, proceeds to Mid-State’s food security program.
Be A Hero 5K Run/Walk, Castle in the Clouds, Moultonborough. Saturday, September 26. Now in its fifth year, benefiting the NH Humane Society, dogs welcome on leash, costumes encouraged.
Veterans Count Lakes Region Red, White and Brew, Funspot, Laconia. Saturday, September 26, 12 to 4 p.m. 10th annual, craft beer, car show, and live music from the Bob Pratte Band, benefiting NH service members and veterans’ families.
On the Water & Wheels
Discover Squam Guided Lake Cruise, Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, Holderness. Daily, 1 to 2:30 p.m., through October 12. Ninety minutes on a canopied pontoon boat past the loons and eagles, on the lake where On Golden Pond was filmed.
Laconia Biketemberfest Fall Rally, Big House, Weirs Beach, Laconia. Friday through Sunday, September 11-13.
Ice Cream Tamwich, Tamworth. Sunday, September 13. A new gravel ride through the back roads, finishing with ice cream.
Crawford Ridgepole Trail Workday, Burleigh Farm Road, Holderness. Sunday, September 20, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Squam Lakes Association’s Lakes Region Conservation Corps leads volunteers clearing trail ahead of the Squam Ridge Race. First-timers welcome, tools provided.
Markets, Makers & Weekly Rituals
Fiber Arts Group, Belknap Mill, Laconia. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to noon. Bring your own knitting, spinning, or embroidery.
Classic Car Cruise Night, Tilt’n Diner, Tilton. Thursdays, 5 to 7 p.m. Held in memory of longtime organizer Walter Krauz, Jr.
Wicked Wednesdays, Silver Sage Cottage, Tilton. Second Wednesday of the month, September 9, 5 to 7 p.m. A low-key community gathering the shop itself describes as “a porch light for the weird and wonderful.”
Mill After Hours: Sock Hop, Belknap Mill & Rotary Park, Laconia. Friday, September 11, 5 to 8 p.m. Classic cars, live music from the Rockin’ Daddios, a gallery opening, and an outdoor screening of Grease. Costumes and root beer floats encouraged.
Fairs & Festivals
Labor Day Weekend Craft Fair, Gunstock Mountain Resort, Gilford. Saturday and Sunday, September 5-6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Over 100 exhibitors, free admission, leashed pets welcome.
5th Annual New Hampshire Pagans Faire, Belknap County Fairground, Belmont. Friday evening September 18, Faire days September 19-20. Local artisans and community resources, open to any path, described by organizers as rooted in kindness and inclusivity.
Lagerfest, Vulgar Brewing Company, Franklin. Saturday, September 19, noon to 4 p.m. Breweries from across New England pouring nothing but lager, plus a running game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Nightlife
Wolfeboro Inn Dinner Show: Frank Santos Jr., The Wolfeboro Inn, Wolfeboro. Sunday, September 13, 6 p.m. Comedy hypnosis and dinner, 18+.
Anytime in September
Apple picking opens up early to mid-month at Surowiec Farm in Sanbornton and at Stone Mountain Farm and Smith Orchard in Belmont. The Squam Lakes Natural Science Center’s Live Animal Exhibit Trail stays open daily through November 1. And the lake, if you catch it in that late gold hour before the light goes, is still warm enough to make you forget the calendar entirely, at least until you’re standing on the dock afterward, a little cold, watching the color drain back out of the water the way it does every night this time of year, a little earlier than the night before.
Here's to the lasts of the season. Last cone. Last swim. Last sunset after seven. Enjoy them while they last.
🧭 Jenn
Keys to the Lakes
