HappyCapeCod

Iconic Events in Every Cape Cod Town, Part 2 – Barnstable (Hyannis), Brewster, Harwich, Provincetown, Truro

by Jeff Shaw

Quick disclaimer; there are tons of annual and notable events in each Cape Cod town. This post is the second of a three-part series seeks to highlight one of many events that could very easily be swapped in for what follows.

My goal is to actually attend each of these events this year, but as the old adage goes, the more the merrier. I hope to see you there!

Barnstable County Fair, Barnstable (Hyannis)

“There is a Fair in the Air,” the tagline reads and cheerful jingle sings. The weeklong Barnstable County Fair returns from July 22-28 at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds.

“Sizzling entertainment, thrilling rides, fabulous food, animals, agriculture and the world’s largest Demolition Derby converge for seven days each July. Named the “Best Local Event of 2022” by the Cape Cod Times, the Barnstable County Fair is a summer staple not to be missed. We bring together an incomparable slate of entertainers, the best-of-the -best in fair food, an array of sizzling rides from Rockwell Amusements, and the world’s largest Demolition Derby.

We match that with county fair hallmarks like 4H demos, petting zoos, livestock, and an impressive display of vegetables, crafts and Americana. This is Cape Cod’s marquee summer event!”

Tickets are not yet on sale.

Brewster in Bloom, Brewster

The 38^th Annual Brewster in Bloom returns May 3-5, 2024. The 3-day event features the town parade, Brewster Band spring concert, 5K and arts and crafts festival and excursion. The 2024 Parade theme is Enchantment Under the Sea [hopefully with a cameo from Michael J. Fox!].

There are also plant giveaways and raffles, a kids fest, chowder tasting, book signings, open houses (at the historic windmill, art galleries, Cobb House Museum, etc.) and garden design talks.

Cranberry Arts and Music Festival, Harwich

The Harwich Cranberry Festival will return on Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15, 2024. The Festival seeks to entertain the public, sustain artists and musicians, provide voice to community organizations, and raise funds to support local youth. The Festival provides scholarships to Harwich students graduating from high school as well as support local activities to benefit youth and families.

A related program is weekly Thursday concerts throughout the summer. Dubbed “Cranfest in the Courtyard,” begins the week after the Fourth of July, with tickets are $25 per show or $160 for a season pass.

Provincetown Carnival, Provincetown

The town at the end of Cape Cod has so many cool and fun annual events picking one is not fair. So let’s go with an oldie, but a goodie, the weeklong Provincetown Carnival!

Created by the Provincetown Business Guild in 1978, Carnival is Ptown’s original summer celebration of community, expression, and creativity. The festival attracts tens of thousands of guests from all over the world to enjoy parties, events, costume contests and the celebrated Carnival parade down Commercial Street. The 2024 theme is Renaissance X Revolution.

It should not be missed!

Truro Treasures, Truro

The understated Truro Treasures [which is so Truro by the way] returns Friday, September 20 through Sunday, September 22. The three-day festival includes Antique Car Show, Grape Stomp, Treasure Hunt, Harbor to Beach 5K, Rock the Block and more!

I mean, where else on the Cape can you find a Grape Stomp?!

April 25, 2024

Iconic Events in Every Cape Cod Town, Part 1 – Chatham, Eastham, Falmouth, Wellfeet, Yarmouth

by Jeff Shaw

Quick disclaimer; there are tons of annual and notable events in each Cape Cod town. This three-part series seeks to highlight one of many notable events that could very easily be swapped in for what follows.

My goal is to actually attend each of these events this year, but as the old adage goes, the more the merrier. I hope to see you there!

Fourth of July Parade, Chatham

“One of the oldest town parades in the United States,” reads the event website homepage. While most people agree the [unofficial] summer season kicks off on Memorial Day Weekend, Fourth of July in Chatham may as well mark the [official] start. The Chatham Fourth of July Parade is an absolute gem of an annual event.

First, the public is encouraged to submit ideas for the annual parade theme to the Parade Committee. Second, best practices to build a “winning float” are actually listed on the website, including a video with five tips! And of course, a baker’s dozen worth of awards are made annually, including most patriotic, funniest, best family entry, best youth entry, etc.

As for onlookers, be sure to place your blanket or chair along the parade route by sunrise on parade day!

A Taste of Turnip Day, Eastham

It has been a few years, but I had to see for myself what the town of Eastham and turnips have in common. And sure enough, a full gymnasium full of vendors, exhibits and games confirmed the fact that indeed, Eastham is the turnip capital of [the world?!] Cape Cod!

Last year, over thirty local restaurants and food trucks served specials featuring Eastham turnips; soups, sides, entrees and even ice cream! A local celebrity, Bob Seay of GHB News, even delivered the Blessing of the Turnips.

Falmouth Road Race

Save the date, August 18, 2024, for the 52^nd running of the Falmouth Road Race!

The race website homepage reads: The Falmouth Road Race was established in 1973 and has become one of the premier running events of the summer season.

Each year the race draws an international field of Olympians, elite, and recreational runners out to enjoy the iconic 7-mile seaside course. The creation of the FRR At-Home Edition allows you to experience Falmouth from your hometown. You can walk or run 7 miles in 7 days beginning August 12th.

The nonprofit Falmouth Road Race organization is committed to promoting health and fitness through community programs and philanthropic giving.

Wellfleet Oysterfest

Hosted by the Wellfleet Chamber of Commerce, Oysterfest is a two-day, family-friendly festival that celebrates the town’s famous oysters, clams and shellfishing traditions and brings together locals and visitors for a weekend of hometown flavor and fun.

There is something for everyone at OysterFest: local cuisine, a fine art and craft fair, educational lectures, culinary programs, children’s activities, eco-tours, live music, a road race, and the annual Oyster Shuck-Off competition.

Yarmouth Sand Sculpure Trail

For a decade and a half, the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce has sponsored the annual Yarmouth Sand Sculpture Trail. The trail is one of Yarmouth’s biggest attractions, featuring three dozen or so family-friendly sand sculptures. The trail is usually available for viewing from Memorial Day until mid-October. But beware, some sand sculptures are not completed until mid-June.

Sand sculpture trail maps are available and the public is encouraged to vote for their favorite!

March 14, 2024

Six Cape Cod Concert Venues to Get Your Music On

Rocking at Nauset Beach, Orleans, MA. Photo credit: Hog Island Brewery.

by Jeff Shaw

According to the Weather Channel, the world’s most famous groundhog did not see his shadow on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Therefore, an early spring is on the way.

My reasoning for writing about outdoor concerts in freezing February is ground[hog]ed in this furry weather predictor. Early spring means summer is closer than it may appear. February is also, traditionally, the month where summer tour concert tickets go on sale. [And even if you’re more of a Potomac Phil kind of person, relax, he didn’t see his shadow either. Oh, and while we’re at it, Groundhog Day is the definition of a re-watchable movie!]

Cape Cod is known for what you see on-Cape – world class beaches, bustling harbors, iconic bluffs and lighthouses to name a few; though those smells are a close second, salty air, fried clams, steamy chowder, oh my!

A few rungs down the ‘why Cape Cod is amazing ladder’ is for what you hear – sounds. I give you the top venues to catch some good vibrations [Beach Boys pun] on Cape Cod!

Harwich Cranberry Arts & Music Festival, Harwich

The 2024 Cranberry Festival and [affectionately called] Cranjam return at the Community Center Fields on Saturday and Sunday, September 14 and 15, 2024.

This music festival is paired with a craft festival with over 180 vendors. Additionally, local brewery Devil’s Purse provides wine and local drafts. Food trucks are the main calorie option. With free parking and a laid-back bring your own chair/blanket type seating area, what’s not to like.

The two-day annual event started in the 1970s and is creeping up on a 50^th anniversary.

Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis

As I wrote a few years ago, you have to catch a show at the Tent. With tandem parking on a gravel lot, the place reeks of old Cape Cod. And sure, so are some of the acts, but you may also be surprised at what tours make a “pit” stop [standing room only concert pun intended].

The current 2024 concert line-up features original acts, tribute bands and comedians. Headliners tend to be announced in the spring, so sign-up for their newsletter to learn about bookings.

Membership enables booking tickets one week before the public and provide express access into the venue on show nights.

Margaritaville Cape Cod, Hyannis

You read that right. Margaritaville Resort Cape Cod is coming for summer 2024—the first New England location for the popular Jimmy Buffet-inspired chain. Waa-hoo!

The resort will be a rebrand for the former Cape Codder Resort & Spa in Hyannis. The revitalized resort will have over 270 rooms in addition to an indoor water park, pool, spa and restaurants. While large scale concerts are not part of this rebrand, I’d guess plenty of live “trop-rock” acts will p[l]ay their respects to the late Jimmy Buffett during the inaugural season.

Outermost Roots & Blues Festival, Orleans

About a decade ago, Hog Island Beer Company, located in Orleans, billed itself as “the Outermost Brewery.” (At the time, that geographical self-description was accurate.) Naming their flagship beer, Outermost IPA, sealed it, no matter what Outer Cape breweries (we see you Ptown) would pop up down the road [yup, another subtle Route 6 pun].

So, it should not come as a surprise when the same brewery collaborated with local musicians to create an outdoor concert of the same theme – the Outermost Roots & Blues Festival. Located in the enormous parking lot of Nauset Beach (750 spaces), this fall event returned in 2023 after a brief hiatus due to the pandemic.

Part of what makes this event unique is that it was created locally, managed locally and even a portion of the proceeds from the festival support The Friends of Nauset Beach, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Make sure to add this concert to your shoulder season calendar.

Payomet Performing Arts Center, Truro

Tucked away down a long access road is Payomet Performing Arts Center, a nonprofit located at the Highlands Center in partnership with Cape Cod National Seashore.

Similarly to the Tent, bookings tend to be announced in the spring, so sign-up for their newsletter to learn when new acts are booked. Additionally, membership provides advanced notice to purchase tickets before going on sale to the public. Members also get a discount on tickets for most events.

Martha’s Vineyard Beach Road Weekend, TBA!

To be honest, the news of Beach Road Weekend moving off island/from Martha’s Vineyard, back to Cape Cod, inspired this post.

Certainly a bummer to some, the Vineyard Arts and Culture Foundation announced last month that the Beach Road Weekend music festival and Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series will not return to Martha’s Vineyard in 2024. Beach Road Weekend will relocate to a new home on Cape Cod in 2025.

The concert series debuted in 2019, but then was canceled for two years due to the pandemic. In 2022, the concert returned featuring 30 bands, including the Avett Brothers, Beck and Wilco, with Mumford and Sons headlining the 2023 line-up.

Ultimately, costs associated with these high profile acts, enormous crowds, insurance, transporting equipment (ferrying literally tons of equipment), etc., made it unprofitable/unsustainable/unworkable.

So, the promoters are going to give it another go on-Cape in 2025. Looking forward to sea [coastal pun intended] how the next chapter unfolds.

Until then, Fins Up! [JB]

February 7, 2024

Movie Review: A Cape Cod Christmas

by Jeff Shaw

Last month, the Chatham Orpheum Theater held a screening of the 2021 holiday film, A Cape Cod Christmas, including a meet and greet with the Cape Cod-based director, John Stimpson. Somehow [perhaps in the midst of pandemic chaos] I missed this movie announcement all together, and just the other night, watched it.

As Jennifer Sexton-Riley wrote in The Chronicle, “A Cape Cod Christmas,” promises an opportunity to rediscover romance with an ocean view. Margot, a children’s book author, comes down to Cape Cod for one last Christmas dinner with her disagreeable siblings before they have to sell their family beach house – a home base of family tradition while their parents were alive. Margot doesn’t want to sell, the other two siblings do. Further, her sister Meredith is in a tough financial situation faced with a looming college tuition bill for her son. A plan is devised to try and get the sister and brother to change their minds as well as a childhood romance is rekindled.

The film was shot in Falmouth during the pandemic, and features many prominent locations throughout town.

I am not a movie critic, in fact, I don’t recall ever reviewing one, but a few observations stood out. Please feel free to agree or disagree:

Props

A reindeer-themed throw blanket on the couch was a little too Green, White or Rocky Mountains. I would bet 9/10 beach house homeowners have a marine-themed holiday throw.

B-Roll Shots

The brief aerial shots of the people walking the beach* was so Cape Cod. Same for the (quiet) shots of the harbor. Nailed it.

Storyline(s)

While the story circled back around to the original premise neatly, I cannot help but think a secondary plot line should have been established, about Meredith, the sister. Her character was underdeveloped, but you could see a path where she, not Margot, was even more torn between the emotions tied to losing a connection with your late parents/happy beach house memories and the practical reality of using a third of the house’s sale price to pay for your child’s college tuition.

It wasn’t clear where Meredith and her family were currently living, but she recalled not being at the family beach house in two years, so that seed of longing was planted early. Since the painting ended up being for Meredith, not Tom, the older brother, or somehow split among both siblings, this would have made the painting unveiling scene twice as powerful as well as the second-to-last scene, a bit more joyful [Spoiler alert…knowing that Meredith could have it both ways].

A Little Life Advice

I love the in-your-face message Christian delivers during the sunrise walk along the beach…to paraphase…put down your friggin’ phone and look around and actually see, dare I say appreciate, the natural beauty that surrounds many of us! Indeed, we’re the lucky ones.

Word Play

Later in that scene, Margot and Christian run to the dock where their initials were carved and…to paraphrase…he says something to the effect of, after all these years, it’s still there. “It” being their love/connection, which gets a bit lost as Margot recoils at his advance.

Bottomline

If you have a soft spot for Cape Cod, it is going to be hard to turn off the movie once started. The brief b-roll shots of coastline, downtown shops, and holiday decorations, especially of a cozy, waterfront beach house, are satisfying. Like all Hallmark- or Lifetime-esque movies, there is plenty of cheesiness, but endless coffee runs keeps you grounded [coffee bean pun intended].

While far from a holiday classic, it may be sniffing the rewatchable conversation. Regardless, there is an important lesson, hard to ignore, for many families who will find themselves in a similar situation – what to do when multiple children inherit a family [or beach] house and do not agree with what to do with it [keep or sell]. For that reason alone, the film may be worth watching.

*I know of no one who wakes up before sunrise regularly to walk the beach. Do you?

January 1, 2024

Amazing Heritage Museum and Gardens Sandwich

Gardens in bloom with an administrative building in the background. Photo credit: Jeff Shaw.

By Jeff Shaw

I’ve always noticed a large brown ‘historic attraction’ sign along Route 6 – the Mid-Cape Highway near [former] Exit 2. It reads Heritage Museums & Gardens and that sign should probably have blinking lights, a spotlight or one of those inflatable air dancers to emphasize the joy that is the Heritage campus.

Heritage Museums and Gardens is bustling in the summer, shoulder seasons (Halloween Spooktacular!), and even the winter. Their annual Gardens Aglow – light displays throughout the gardens, festive seasonal decor and fun activities for all – sold out in mid-November.

A map of the grounds. Photo credit: Jeff Shaw.

It is no wonder this celebration of lights has become a treasured holiday tradition, just listen to this event description: “…visit with Santa in the 1913 Ford Model T…take a ride on the 1908 Looff carousel and view winter scenes from the Currier and Ives collection…roast marshmallows…go on a reindeer scavenger hunt…enjoy seasonal treats from Lily’s Café and Cape Cod Donut Truck…warn up at a fire table…view the expanded model train display.” Talk about a good time.

But I’m not here to talk about Gardens Aglow [frankly, it speaks for itself]. Heritage Museums and Gardens is great choice on overcast days, as most of the attractions are outside, so some protection from the sun is welcome.

A replica train coach of the railroad display in the Special Exhibitions Gallery.
Photo credit: Jeff Shaw.

The gardens are impressive, with interesting features mixed-in, such as artwork, windmills, a labyrinth, a garden maze (think corn maze), fountains, a legit tree house, and of course, buildings with exhibits. The indoor, turn of the 20^th century historic carousel ride is also a must.

The museums are quite engaging on their own. The two-level classic car showroom; the history of Cape Cod becoming a tourist destination, and more importantly, how to protect it given the massive influx of people, traffic, pollution, development, etc., that accompanies such success.

A wooden bridge near the Maze Garden. Photo credit: Jeff Shaw.

The Hundred Acre School is one of their featured programs. “The Hundred Acre School was created to cultivate young minds using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as a springboard to multidisciplinary learning.” Full or half day programs are available for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2.

Accessibility is noteworthy. In addition to regular shuttles, the main pathways are paved, with ramps into the buildings. Even the trails, seashell, stone, dirt, gravel, are in good condition for strollers (walkers, not so much).

The labyrinth near the historic carousel.
Photo credit: Jeff Shaw.

Oddly, one super random thing caught my eye in the parking lot. Spray paint on the pavement which reads, “Joggers start,” and then twenty yards away, “Walkers start”. It seems a road race begins in the parking lot. I don’t know what it entails, so I’ll have to return to find out.

The markings of a road race in the parking lot.
Photo credit: Jeff Shaw

Another sign this is the place to be – Shawme Pond is part of the grounds!

December 1, 2023