NH Weekend Planner: Music, Radios and the Best of NH!

1. Amateur Radio Operators Unite! Gov. Maggie Hassan has proclaimed June as Amateur Radio Month and Come to the Granite State Amateur Radio Association will operate a radio station this weekend out of Earl Legacy Park in Bedford. The event begins Friday, June 21, at noon and extends through Sunday, June 23 at 1 p.m. Click here for more information.

2. Music Festival! The Nashua Family Music Fest will take place at Greeley Park in Nashua on Saturday, Jun. 22 from noon to 5 p.m. The festival will feature a variety of musical performances including great jazz from The Jon Lorentz Quartet, Open Aire featuring Rebecca Jeffreys and Marjorie Bollinger, Mike Loce’s Ukestra made popular through the former Studio 99 in Nashua, and African Drumming with Marie Mendelow. Kids activities will include a karate demonstration from students at the Tiger Den Karate School, an instrument “Petting Zoo” and face painting. Weir’s Roasting will be catering the event with a variety of delicious food offerings. The Family Music Fest’s goal, in addition to providing inexpensive family fun, is to showcase local musical talent and raise awareness and support for the Nashua Community School. The Nashua Community Music School will be holding a “Family Music Festival” at Greeley Park on Saturday June 22nd from noon-5pm. Please support the school by purchasing food tickets for the event at www.nashuacms.org/musicfest.html . 

4. Run around! The Blues Traveler will play at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Sunday, Jun. 23 at 7 p.m. Eighteen years after scoring the Grammy Award winning, harmonica laced Billboard Top Ten breakthrough hit that came to define pop music in the mid-90s, Blues Traveler are still finding unique ways to ensure that they don’t give their legion of worldwide fans the “Run-Around.” On their instantly infectious, musically expansive 11th studio album and 429 Records/SLG debut, Suzie Cracks The Whip, they remain creatively focused while dramatically expanding their musical horizons upon celebrating over 25 years as a band. Tickets are $45.50.

4. The Best! This year’s Best of NH Party will feature award-winning food and beverages from more than 60 establishments located across the Granite State, as chosen by the readers and editors of New Hampshire Magazine, plus live music and entertainment. The celebration runs from 5:30 to 8 pm at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester on June 20, 2013. “The Best of NH Party continues to be a hugely popular event—and for good reason,” says Rick Broussard, editor of New Hampshire Magazine. “We’ve brought together the best food and drink establishments from across the state to one location so guests can wine, dine and enjoy non-stop entertainment. This year, we’ve lowered ticket prices to $69 which covers a full evening of fun, food and music. And proceeds from the event’s ticket sales will benefit New Hampshire Food Bank, a program of New Hampshire Catholic Charities.” This year’s entertainment line-up includes: Manchuka, an incredible jazz-funk dance band from Manchester; the Rocking Horse Review, an eclectic roster of up-and-coming local talent backed by some of the state’s best session musicians; On Air, an award-winning barbershop quartet featuring the Singing Chef Jason McCarter; the juggling and unicycle antics of Spoof Gabbling Circus and the roving close-up magic of Andrew Pinard. The following winners and sponsors will be serving food and beverages, or have an exhibit (as of June 3): 900 Degrees Anheuser Busch Arena Sports Bar & Grill AutoFair bluAqua Restaurant & Bar Blue Moon Evolution British Beer Co Bud Light Lime Cabin Fever Whisky Cigna Comcast Comman Man Cotton Cross Insurance Courser Farm Kitchen Dunkin Donuts EJ Gallo Flag Hill Winery Frederick’s Pastries German John’s Bakery Grappone Conference Center Hannaford Supermarkets Hart’s Turkey Farm Harvey’s Bakery & Coffee Shop Hermanos Cocina Mexicana Jacques Fine European Pastries KC’s Rib Shack Little Zoe’s Lui Lui Restaurant Me & Ollie’s Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream Mixteca Taqueria y Cantina Muse Bistro Thai & Sushi NH Orthopedics Newicks Lobster House North American Power O Steaks and Seafood Old Salt Penny Pitou Puritan Backroom Red Arrow Diner Republic Smirnoff T-Bones/ Cactus Jacks The Meat House The Pie Guy The White Apron The Works Bakery Café Throwback Brewery Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery Tuscan Market Teatotaller Teahouse The Moonbeam Café Shellback Rum Smirnoff Sunflower’s Cafe and Catering Van Otis Chocolates Weathervane Seafood White Mountain Cupcakery Who You Callin’ Cupcake? Woodstock Inn, Station & Brewery Wing-Itz Party attendees can enter to win a grand prize of an all-inclusive, seven-night vacation for two to Valentin Imperial Maya Resort in Mexico including airfare, courtesy of Travel Impressions and Penny Pitou Travel. This year’s Best of NH winners for food, drink, shops, services, and people categories will be featured in New Hampshire Magazine’s July issue, on newsstands in late June. Proceeds from the event’s ticket sales will benefit New Hampshire Food Bank, a program of New Hampshire Catholic Charities. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.bestofnh.com.

5. Musica! Catch Os Mutantes at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry on Friday, Jun. 21 at 8 p.m. Before the long-running style Musica Popular Brasileira settled in as Brazil's national favorite, evolved a form of boundary-shattering multi-dimensional pop art music called Tropicalia. A combination of classical, folk, rock, samba, and bossa nova, Tropicalia thrived in the governmentally terrorized country for only a brief period. In the mid-60s leading the way of this music was the giddily experimental Os Mutantes, which began as a trio made up of brothers Sérgio (guitar and bass) and Arnaldo Dias Baptista (keyboard and bass), and Rita Lee (vocal, percussion, and effects). The group started out as part of Six-Sided Rockers, but expanded from there with Os Mutantes' several albums of mad pop meets musique concrete. Fans of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso or Tom Ze, and recent artists such as Beck, David Byrne, and The Fiery Furnaces should not resist the band's indescribable albums (all of which are now distributed by Light In The Attic), and do everything they can to see them on tour in the United States this summer. This historic tour marks their first US visit, and first full tour in over thirty years.