Gloucester

The Gloucester Schooner Festival is a  wonderful celebration of Gloucester's fishing and maritime history during labor day weekend. This year's festival, hosted by Maritime Gloucester,  is Gloucester’s major marine event, with participating vessels coming from ports along the Eastern seaboard and beyond. There will be both large and small vessels—ranging from 19 feet to over 100 feet in length. You will see new boats and old boats, from newly built (Ardelle - launched 2011) to over 100 years old!

Here's a plant sale that will beautify your garden, help reduce your carbon footprint and benefit a local community organization that's dedicated to helping children! Come to Stage Fort Park to shop for perennials supplied by your neighbors to help fund programs through the Gloucester Education Foundation! This sale is organized by Generous Gardeners Inc.  a unique North Shore Business that  promotes philanthropy through gardening – check them out to swap or donate plants online!

Robots come in all shapes and sizes, but in Gloucester this June you'll be able to see demonstrations of one-of-a-kind sail boat robots! SailBot 2013 is an international robotic sailing regatta open to student teams wishing to design, build and compete robotic sailboats. SailBot 2013, the North American competition for robotic sailboats will be held in Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. This year's event is hosted by Olin College and the City of Gloucester and includes 19 teams, including Gloucester High School, seven other high school teams and teams from several universities.

Join the Gloucester Education Foundation in honoring the multi-faceted pool of talent that makes up the population of the Gloucester Public Schools. Kids of all ages make beautiful and amazing art and the creators of the citywide festival seek to celebrate GPS students, their art and those helping our students live, learn and create every day. Come to Downtown Gloucester for a full day of performances and exhibitions that cover a wide range of arts, from ballroom dancing to a day long community art project that is created by participants and visitors alike.

The Open Door will hold its annual Empty Bowl Dinner on Thursday, May 9 from 4-8 pm at Cruiseport Gloucester.  Share in a simple meal of soup, bread and a cookie and take the dinner bowl home as a reminder of someone in need of a meal. Empty Bowl events are held nationally to generate awareness concerning hunger and to raise money for local hunger-relief programs.

The Abbadia Mare Festival is a fund raiser for the Hammond Castle Museum. At this Rennaisance Faire there will be live performances, musicians, great food, demonstrations, comedy, Knights, storytelling, and artisans/vendors from around New England!  Castle Tours will also be available. Perhaps you can be a part of our Human chess Match, or cheer on our knights as they do live steel combat!

Children 2-5 and their parents, grandparents, or guardians are invited to play in our Children's Room. The children's room depicts Gloucester Harbor and includes 14 wooden buildings, 6 piers, 5 schooners, a dory, Ten Pound Island Lighthouse and various wooden people. Not surprisingly, a 3-5 year old can play in this room for hours.  One of our educators will also read a seafaring children's book during this weekly event. We hope you can join us.

Walk through history at Ravenswood Park! Ravenswood has changed from a main thoroughfare to a forgotten backwoods, and now to our favorite local refuge over time. See the evidence in cellar holes, stonewalls, and carriage paths. Learn the stories of a colorful cast of characters who transformed it into a such special place. Pre-registration requested.