New Hampshire is packing Memorial Day weekend with parades, picnics and a long list of side events, with cities and towns across the state set to honor fallen service members on Monday. Concord, Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth are among the places planning observances, giving residents a full stretch of options from Friday night through the holiday itself.
The weekend starts early. In Portsmouth, the Press Room is set to host the Spongebob Rave with DJ Soup on Friday night, while Jaffrey’s Park Theatre will screen the mockumentary Canoe Dig It? the same evening. Saturday brings the Floating Lanterns Festival in Keene, the Rubber Duck Regatta in Nashua, the Halfway to Halloween Party at the Bookery in Manchester and the NH Alt Market at the Newmarket Millspace, along with conservation events on the banks of the Ashuelot River in Hinsdale and a lesson on the secret power of dandelions at the Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center in Laconia.
Two new murals are also set to go up Saturday in Portsmouth and Nashua, tying the holiday weekend to a different kind of public memory. The Portsmouth mural is meant to memorialize a woman who was enslaved by a US president, while the Nashua piece includes a nod to the city’s French-Canadian heritage and is part of a four-day lineup of events.
Sunday keeps the pace going with the Wildquack Duck Race & Music Festival in Jackson and Chowderfest in Waterville Valley, both listed as part of the state’s Memorial Day weekend ideas. By Monday, the calendar shifts to the holiday’s central purpose, with parades and picnics planned in communities throughout New Hampshire as residents gather to honor those who died while serving in the US military.
That combination of reflection and festival is what shapes the holiday weekend in New Hampshire this year: a mix of commemoration, local pride and family events spread across Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. For anyone searching for memorial day 2026 events near me, the answer in New Hampshire is not one event but a full run of them, with the strongest observances arriving Monday in Concord, Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth.
