- Come feast with the family! The 18th annual Feast of the Blessed Sacrament is recognized as the largest ethnic festival in New England and the largest festival of Portuguese culture in the world. Enjoy constant free Portuguese and American entertainment including four stages of live music, Fado singers, and a parade on Sunday. Feast on traditional Madeiran Portuguese dinners, cook your own barbecue beef (carne d’espeto) on an open pit, savor sweet malassadas (fried dough), and more! For a special adult treat, taste Madeira wine imported in large casks by special agreement with the Madeiran government. Throughout the Feast enjoy free entry to the Museum of Madeiran Heritage. Organized by the Club Madeirense S.S. Sacramento and the Committee for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, the feast takes place August 1-4, with Family Fun Day on Saturday from noon-4PM.
- Celebrate Guatemalan culture at the Festival Tipico de Guatemala on August 24 at Riverside Park. Organized by the Community Economic Development Center and the local community, culture comes alive with food and artisan vendors showcasing authentic Guatemalan and Central American food, art, music, and traditional dance performances in cultural clothing and costume.
- Participate in the annual 3rd EyE Open Hip Hop Festival on August 17 from 11-7 at Custom House Square and Wing’s Court downtown. Featuring live music with DJs and beatboxers, live painting and crafts, a community free wall, an interactive kid’s corner, community conversations, a dance jam featuring battles, cyphers and exhibitions, and food trucks. All are welcome to watch or join in the fun.
- The South Coast’s first and only comedy festival, Whale City Comedy Festival, returns for its second year from August 28 through September 1 with five nights, nine shows, and over thirty comedians. In New Bedford shows will be hosted at The Vault Performing Arts Center and Pub on Wednesday 8/28 and Sunday 9/01 and at Gallery X on Friday 8/30. Shows will also be hosted at Buzzards Bay Brewing in Westport and Battleship Cove in Fall River. Sounds like a great excuse to book a hotel room in New Bedford and explore the region!
- New Bedford is full of laughs this August and New Bedford Festival Theatre has stepped up to the plate, presenting Dan Goggin’s Nunsense August 9-18 at The Steeple Playhouse. This hilarious musical farce follows a convent of nuns staging a fundraiser for the burial of four deceased nuns who died of botulism in a cooking blunder. With show-stopping song and dance numbers and funny nuns, this revue will keep the audience roaring on the edge of their seats.
- More theatre you say? Shakespeare in NB in partnership with Reverie Theatre Group are here to help and what better way to enjoy a play than outside in the gardens of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum? Enjoy Twelfth Night on August 15 and 16 at 7:30PM.
- Don’t let summer pass you by; celebrate Summer in the Seaport, the theme of August’s AHA! Night. AHA! Nights happen the second Thursday of every month in downtown New Bedford. Enjoy free family-friendly programming both outdoors and inside various businesses and institutions. Check out what’s happening during AHA! Summer in the Seaport.
- Beat the heat with these specialty museum experiences: The New Bedford Fire Museum maintains a preserved collection of antique equipment and memorabilia of urban firefighting technology inside the old Station No. 4, which was built in 1867. The Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Military Museum and Veterans’ Memorial, in the dedicated care of the Fort Taber-Fort Rodman Historical Association, preserves and interprets New Bedford’s military history and honors the local men and women who have served in every U.S. war. The New Bedford Museum of Glass has approximately 7,000 pieces of glassmaker’s art including late 19th-century art glass originating in New Bedford, once described as the “Art Glass Capitol of the Country.” While visiting this one-of-a-kind museum you will enter into the James and Sarah Arnold Mansion, built in 1821. Learn about the New Bedford entrepreneur who invited the public to enjoy his gardens and whose philanthropy brought his gardens to Boston in the form of the Arnold Arboretum.
- Music! Music! and more Music! Stay tuned to our event calendar for special music pop-ups like the DrumFish! Drum Circle at the First Unitarian Church August 11 from 7-8:30. First Fridays continue at the New Bedford Whaling Museum with August featuring Americana and Celtic Music. The Summer Sound Series has four August concerts hosted block-party style. The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and their friend group the Whaling History Alliance present New Bedford Rocks the Park from 6-8 in Custom House Square on August 8, 15, and 22.
- Don’t skip your self-care routine. Pause to walk along the waterfront utilizing the New Bedford Harbor Walk or rent a kayak to paddle in Clark’s Cove. Sign up for a class at a yoga studio or another specialty fitness studio. Visit a local salon or barber shop to stay fresh during your travel. Talk to a specialist at local apothecaries, Apothecorner and Wild Heart Herb House. Recharge with a smoothie at People’s Pressed, My City Nutrition or The Green Bean.
NBFestive Things to Do this December
Whether you are local or visiting New Bedford is home for the holidays.
