Guest Correspondant : The Beer Babe (
www.beer-babe.com)
Hi there! After being asked (ahem, told) to cover Market Square day in Portsmouth because both of the Msquared bloggers were out of town (Portland and Florida? Really?) (J & H: It's circumstantial! We swear!) I gladly accepted the job because it involved being outside, food, and Portsmouth. And, honestly, I had planned on going anyway. I woke up bright and early, put on a cute summer dress and headed south to Portsmouth.
Deciding that the chances of finding a parking meter (free for the event) were next to nothing, we headed towards the
parking garage on Hanover Street. For a flat fee of $5.00 we were able to park for as long as we wanted – which if we stayed more than 6.5 hours – was a discount. I thought that was fair considering that we planned to stay all day, and that it wasn’t as high as some fair/festival parking can be. It also meant that people could park legally, securely within close proximity to Market Square.
(J: For future reference, you can always try and park in the State/Cabot St. area. It's not a far walk. However, if you take my parking spaces from in front of my house I will be very
perturbed.*)
The day was bright and sunny, with an occasional breeze. The streets were lined with small white tents, balloons hung overhead, and a flow of people moved up and down the streets with relative ease. There were families, strollers and beautiful people young and old, all dressed in comfortable summer clothes. It felt like summer had truly arrived (though it doesn’t officially show up for another few days).
Seriously there were people everywhere.
These balloons were cool though.
The tents featured both vendors from local shops and local artisans. Most of the shops had some kind of sale items out front – clearance or special items that were less expensive than what is normally sold in retail stores. Breezy fabrics in neutral colors waved in the wind, beads on necklaces rattled and the noise in general was of a busy flea market. The artists impressed me – there was one who made jewelry and wind chimes from silverware in unique arrangements, one who made sculptures from pieces of old pier wood that looked like they were asking to be shaped into a whale or lobster. Hand-made beads, hand sewn purses and avant guarde designs were everywhere, and all the vendors selling wares gave Portsmouth its feel. Not entirely “hippie” like (J: Oh you hippies...), but an earthy and creative feeling that seemed to mirror the tastes of the people walking around. I felt like I could get a good sense of a store and decide which stores I’d come back to look around in – which isn’t always obvious just from window displays.
Uri Gellar, eat your heart out.
In addition to the crafters, there were businesses raising money for charitable events. A ring toss sponsored by Smuttynose and the Portsmouth Brewery raised money for one of four charities – the tosser was given a token at the end of the attempts to win and got to choose the charity to receive the donation. (This is similar to how they do their
Charity Pint Nights on Tuesday nights.) Others were raising money or awareness for education, women’s rights, environmental issues (J: See? Hippies...) or local non-profit organizations.
Better than Beirut? You decide. And it's Beirut. Not "Beer Pong"
Starting in front of Breaking New Grounds, the street was also filled with restaurant booths cooking away sizzling steaks, hot dogs, sweet potato fries, crab cakes and other local delights. I had a crab cake from
The Common Man restaurant’s booth that was a solid two tugboats. The Common Man will be opening a Portsmouth location on State St. in July.
Other food vendors included Canceaux Hot Sauces where I bought some “Angry Pickle” relish, and
Maine Roots Soda where I had a wonderful blueberry soda – the perfect summer soda, in my opinion.
The Beer Babe. IN ACTION. With, um, soda.
I was pleased that I still had access to the normal businesses in town. I was able to get a beer at the Portsmouth Brewery and a chai at Breaking New Grounds without being mobbed by people. I spent some time in a used book store and wandered around a park or two when I needed a rest from people. The presence of visitors who had not been to Portsmouth before was a new feeling – watching people study the chamber of commerce maps together to figure out where they were going was interesting. Portsmouth still functioned despite all this and I took that as a very good sign.
The weather held out all day, and it turned into a warm night. After the vendors packed up everything and the roads were re-opened, we seamlessly flowed into a summer evening out. Sitting outside of the
GasLight listening to a great cover band and reflecting on the day, I realized that if I went to this every year, I might tire of it (J&H: We won't), but going to this event was a good look inside what Portsmouth is really about. And honestly, it contributed to my growing desire to move there (J&H: To which we say, DO IT!).
(J: Special thanks to Carla Companion, the Beer Babe, for this post! We sincerely apologize for missing the event that is our namesake!)
*H: I would like to point out that I think our readers are smart enough to know what "perturbed" means, but that's because I love and respect you, unlike Jayson.
