Cocheco Arts Festival Set for Summer in Dover, NH

The Cocheco Arts Festival in Dover is ready for its 36th summer of concerts and other fun activities.

The Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce, which runs the event, spilled the details on this Friday night concert lineup and August Tuesday night movie screening.

"Everything is in place. The acts have been booked, we're selecting raffle prizes that we give away, buttons are for sale. We kicked it off (Tuesday) night and quite a few of those have been sold," Chamber executive director Margaret Joyce told Seacoast Current.

The kickoff event was hosted by the Children's Museum of New Hampshire on their Play Patio. It will be home to a new festival offering.

"The Children's Museum is doing 'Concerts from the Patio.' At three of the Friday night concerts, you can view the concert from their new outdoor play patio. It's an adult only event. It gets you a seat on the patio overlooking the stage, access to a cash bar, a snack bar, and use of indoor restrooms," Joyce said.

Concert at the Cocheco Arts Festival (Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce)

Concerts every Wednesday and Friday night

This summer’s Friday Night headliner shows are:

July 8 - Compaq Big Band
July 15 - Los Sugar Kings
July 22 - Soggy Po' Boys
July 29 - Whiskey Horse
August 5 - Rockingham Groove
August 12 - Studio Two Tribute Band

Along with the headliner shows, there will be the children’s concert series on Tuesdays, a visual arts showcase, a movie night, and weekly performances by the Dover Community Band.

The Shark in the Park concert series presented by 102.1 and 105.3 The Shark takes place Wednesday nights from 6-8pm. The schedule is:

July 13 - Francoix Simard
July 20 - The Wildcat O’Halloran Band
July 27 - Mt. Pleasant
August 3 - Key Elements Band
August 10 - Rosie

Movie at the Cocheco Arts Festival (Greater Dover Chamber of

Other Things to Do

Joyce also encourages people to support events at the Strand Theater and the concert series at the Woodman Museum.

"They have a wide variety of showings, movies, and comedians. They've got dance; the Garrison Players have a whole summer long offering, so we encourage people to not just do these shows we're promoting, but seek out arts in all places," Joyce said.

A full schedule of events can be found at dovernh.org/CAF.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH