Free is a specific claim, not a guess. Only events with a published $0 admission are listed here. A number of fairs and festivals in our New Hampshire data have a promoter who has not posted a price at all, and we do not call those free. An unpublished price could turn out to be free at the gate, or it could turn out to be $20. Until a promoter posts it, we treat it as unknown, and we leave it off this list.
That leaves 30 events across our New Hampshire data confirmed free to enter, running from a mid-May craft fair through a December fair in Nashua. Here is where they cluster, which towns host more than one, and which crowded weekends still have a confirmed free option.
Free craft and artisan fairs
Lakes Region Spring Craft Fair in Tilton, May 16 to 17, opens the free craft season. Memorial Day Weekend Craft Fair in North Conway follows, May 23 to 24. Through the summer: Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Classic, June 18 to 20, Market Days Festival in Concord, June 25 to 27, Gunstock 4th of July Weekend Craft Fair in Gilford, July 4 to 5, On The Green 1 Arts & Crafts Festival in Wolfeboro, July 10 to 12, Mount Washington Valley July Craft Fair in North Conway, July 25 to 26, and Canterbury Fair, July 25, are all free. August adds On The Green 2 Arts & Crafts Festival, August 7 to 9, Mount Washington Valley August Craft Fair, August 15 to 16, and Lakes Region Fine Arts & Crafts Festival in Meredith, August 22 to 23. That is 11 free craft fairs before Labor Day.
After Labor Day, the free craft calendar continues with Gunstock Labor Day Weekend Craft Fair, September 5 to 6, Hollis Old Home Days, September 18 to 19, Falling Leaves Craft Fair in Tilton, September 19 to 20, Mt. Washington Valley Fall Craft Fair, October 2 to 4, Leaf Peeper's Craft Fair, October 17 to 18, Holiday Craft Fair in Tilton, October 31 to November 1, and Holly Jolly Craft Fair in Nashua, December 19, the last free event of the year in this dataset. That is 19 of the 32 craft and artisan events in our data that are free to enter; the other 13 either charge admission or have not published a price.
Free festivals outside the craft category
Londonderry Pride, September 12, Keene Pride, September 20, and Plymouth Pride, September 26, are all free. So is Winchester Pickle Festival on September 26, the same day as Plymouth Pride. Cirque du Hampton Beach, September 5, and Apple Harvest Day in Dover, October 3, are both free. The pumpkin festivals are free across the board: Milford Pumpkin Festival, October 9 to 11, Keene Pumpkin Festival, October 17, and Laconia Pumpkin Festival, October 23 to 24. Return of the Pumpkin People in Jackson is a free self-guided display that our data lists as running through October, though the organizers had not published confirmed start and end dates at the time of research. Portsmouth Halloween Parade on October 31 closes out the free Halloween-season events.
Towns with more than one free event
North Conway hosts five of the 30 free events in this dataset: Memorial Day Weekend Craft Fair in May, Mount Washington Valley July Craft Fair in July, Mount Washington Valley August Craft Fair in August, and Mt. Washington Valley Fall Craft Fair and Leaf Peeper's Craft Fair in October. Three of those five carry the Mount Washington Valley name, the clearest sign of a single promoter running a repeating series in the same town across the season. Hampton hosts three free events: Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Classic, Cirque du Hampton Beach, and Hampton Beach Annual Fire Show. Tilton also hosts three: Lakes Region Spring Craft Fair, Falling Leaves Craft Fair, and Holiday Craft Fair. Wolfeboro hosts two, numbered as a series: On The Green 1 Arts & Crafts Festival and On The Green 2 Arts & Crafts Festival. Gilford hosts two, at the same venue: Gunstock 4th of July Weekend Craft Fair and Gunstock Labor Day Weekend Craft Fair. Keene hosts two: Keene Pride and Keene Pumpkin Festival.
Free options on the season's busiest weekend
September 17 to 20 is the most crowded stretch in our fall data, with eight overlapping events. Four of them are free: Hollis Old Home Days, Falling Leaves Craft Fair, Hampton Beach Annual Fire Show, and Keene Pride. The other four in that cluster, Granite State Fair, New Hampshire Highland Games & Festival, Glendi Greek Festival, and Hampton Falls Craft Festival, have not published a price in our data. If admission cost is the deciding factor for that weekend, the free four are the confirmed option.
How the free calendar spreads across the year
The 30 free events are not spread evenly. May and June combine for 4. July has 4. August has 3. September and October each contribute 9, more than half the year's total between them. December has one, Holly Jolly Craft Fair in Nashua, the last free event before the calendar resets. If you want a free New Hampshire event and your weekends are flexible, September and October are where the confirmed options concentrate.
Check before you drive
This list only includes events where our data has a confirmed FREE admission field. It does not track parking fees, vendor booth costs, or year-to-year price changes, because none of that is in our dataset. If a listing you are checking shows price not published rather than FREE, which is the case for most of the state and county fairs running the same weekends as these free events, treat the price as unconfirmed until the organizer posts a number. Confirmed free versus unpublished is the whole distinction this list is built on, and it is worth checking again close to the date, since a promoter can post a price after this was written.
