Next Thursday, October 29, at 5:30 in the afternoon, the tents come down on Swasey Parkway for the year. Seacoast Eat Local is ending its Exeter Farmers' Market season with its annual Halloween Bash that day, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. That last afternoon by the river closes out the outdoor season.
Exeter's Thursday keeps going after that. On the very next Thursday the town has something to do, it simply starts about the time the market used to close, up the hill among the shops on Water Street, Front Street and High Street. Over the first two weeks of November, downtown's center of gravity shifts from the open lawn along the Exeter River to the storefronts and galleries a few blocks away.
The Parkway Gets Two More Gatherings
Swasey Parkway still has a full Halloween week left. After the market's Halloween Bash on Thursday, the Parkway hosts the Town of Exeter's Halloween Parade & Costume Contest on Saturday, October 31, at 10:30 a.m. Two costume-heavy events in three days, both at the same riverside address, make a natural ending for the season that kept that strip busy all summer.
Saturday morning also marks the end of the Parkway's run as a regular downtown gathering spot this year. The next stop on the calendar sits indoors, with later hours.
One Week Later, the Same Night Moves Indoors
This fall, a group of downtown shops started something new. Enjoy Exeter is a monthly evening when participating businesses stay open until 7 p.m. and run special offers around town. It falls on the first Thursday of each month. The first one was held Thursday, October 1. Going by that first-Thursday schedule, the next one lands on November 5, exactly one week after the farmers' market's final afternoon.
Those two extra hours matter more than they might seem to. As the Portsmouth Herald's Seacoast Online coverage put it this week, many of Exeter's boutiques and mom-and-pop shops typically close around 5 or 6 p.m. The market's Thursday hours ran from 2:30 to 5:30. Enjoy Exeter's listing starts at 5 p.m. and runs to 7. So the Thursday window moves later, past sunset, and onto streets that usually go quiet at dinnertime. The Patch event listing describes the night as a reason to "shop, dine, explore and enjoy all that Exeter has to offer," and suggests grabbing dinner or a drink and making a night of it.
The participating businesses listed for the launch:
- Green Umbrella Marketplace, 39 High Street
- Cymbidium Floral, 141 Water Street
- Enna Chocolate, 152 Front Street
- Avery Art, 2 Center Street
- Art by Alyssa
- Top Drawer
- Forest + Ash
- Dogwood Dell Consignment
- LunaChics
Those addresses cover High, Water, Front and Center Streets, which makes the route a loop through the middle of downtown. Flowers on Water Street, chocolate on Front, an art studio on Center and a marketplace on High all fit into one walk before 7.
That Same Weekend, Water Street Becomes a Gallery Route
The first Thursday in November opens a full weekend. The Exeter Fall Art Tour runs Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Its organizers say every location sits within a 3-mile stretch from start to finish, and the stops include galleries, studio collectives and individual artist studios.
The downtown stops cluster on Water Street:
| Stop | Address | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Exeter Fine Crafts | 61 Water Street | Nonprofit founded in 1966, showing work from over 200 juried artists and craftspeople |
| A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words | 65 Water Street | New England artists, antique maps, ephemera and what the shop calls the seacoast's largest selection of fine art books |
| Gallery stop | 85 Water Street | Tour gallery location |
| Seacoast Artist Association gallery | 130 Water Street | The association's downtown gallery |
| Seacoast Artist Association Members Art Show | Historic Town Hall, 10 Front Street | Association exhibition during the tour |
The tour's own description places A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words "on busy Water Street in sight of the bandstand." Exeter Fine Crafts also runs art and craft classes year-round in its large downstairs studios, so its doors stay open well past the tour weekend.
The gallery season carries on after the tour wraps. The Seacoast Artist Association has two Monday workshops scheduled at its 130 Water Street gallery: a watercolor glazing session on November 9 and a watercolor negative-painting session on November 16, each from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Put the weekend together and Thursday, Saturday and Sunday all point to the same few blocks. Someone who loops through the Enjoy Exeter shops on November 5 will walk past most of the Art Tour's downtown stops two days before the tour opens.
The Downstairs Stop Added This Fall
Water Street has one more indoor stop that didn't exist last fall. In September, Seacoast Online reported that Water Street Bookstore planned to open a used-book annex on September 17 in a space just downstairs from the main shop, with hours set for Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.
Those announced hours line up with the rest of the November calendar. They include Thursdays, which would put the annex within reach on November 5 for anyone who arrives before 6. They also cover the Saturday of the Art Tour and Saturday, November 28, when the next big downtown gathering happens.
Where November Ends Up
The month closes back at Town Hall. The Exeter Holiday Parade organizers are holding a free holiday craft fair at Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front Street, on Saturday, November 28, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proceeds go to the annual parade. That's the same building that hosts the Seacoast Artist Association Members Art Show during the Art Tour three weeks earlier.
The parade itself is set for Saturday, December 5, at 5:30 p.m., rain or shine, with the theme "Stars, Stripes and Holiday Lights." Registration for parade entries opens in November. This year's route adds a new sensory-friendly quiet zone from the start of the parade to New England Pizza and Bank Prov, where organizers have asked fire trucks and large vehicles not to use horns or sirens. The parade's website has the registration form. Organizers ask entrants to wait until their announcement is written before registering, so the emcee reads the right one.
For anyone who will miss the farmers' market itself, the produce doesn't stop either. Seacoast Eat Local's Stratham Winter Farmers' Market at Cooperative Middle School, just over the Exeter town line, is on the calendar for Saturday, November 14. The organizers describe it as a warm, brightly lit indoor market.
Here's the late-fall calendar in order:
- Thursday, October 29, 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Final Exeter Farmers' Market and Halloween Bash, Swasey Parkway
- Saturday, October 31, 10:30 a.m.: Halloween Parade & Costume Contest, Swasey Parkway
- Thursday, November 5, until 7 p.m.: Enjoy Exeter, on its first-Thursday schedule
- Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Exeter Fall Art Tour
- Mondays, November 9 and 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Watercolor workshops, 130 Water Street
- Saturday, November 14: Stratham Winter Farmers' Market, Cooperative Middle School
- Saturday, November 28, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Holiday Parade craft fair, Town Hall
- Saturday, December 5, 5:30 p.m.: Exeter Holiday Parade
Spending a lot of time downtown this season? We'd love to hear which Water Street stop ends up on your November loop. Send a note to the team at The Good Life Real Estate Group, and if you spot a new shop joining Enjoy Exeter on November 5, tell us about that too. Contact Us.
