Although temperatures in the 90s last weekend may have kept some people in their air-conditioned homes, those at the 37th annual Newmarket Olde Home
Weekend Arts, Crafts and Music Festival were dancing in the streets. The three days of festivities kicked off on Friday night with a performance by “All Together Now,” a Beatles tribute band, that had hundreds dancing. “The streets were packed,” said Joanne Foley, a Barrington resident who enjoyed the festivities when she wasn’t selling crafts and other items at the makeshift “fairground” in the parking lot behind the Newmarket library. “All of the businesses seemed to be doing really well with all of the people on Main Street.” The combination carnival, craft fair, car show and concert entertained residents and visitors alike throughout the hot weekend. But many people, including some of the organizers, said the weather may have kept visitors away. “It certainly was a lot slower than we were used to having for a Olde Town Weekend,” said Cheryl Trenholm Steward of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a charity organization that sets up booths for the festival every year. Although this year’s fair had a dunking booth, concession stands, games, rides, fireworks, face painting and more, with the proceeds going to charity, sales were slow. “The weather definitely hurt us a lot,” said President of the Newmarket Order of Eagles Thomas Johnson. “It’s 90 degrees and we’ve got a big open lot here.”
But when the sun started to set on Newmarket Saturday night, more people flocked to the fair to enjoy everything it had to offer.