Be a part of the Summer Solstice Festival, Saturday June 20, 5 pm till dark on the green in Norwich. This beloved tradition welcomes the summer season, offering authentic traditional music, song, dance and crafts - and a wonderful sense of community!

Before the parade at 5 pm, children are invited to participate in a Bug Making activity with Gabriel Q, puppeteer and pageantry expert extraordinaire. Bug headgear can then be wore as part of the procession onto the green. All Bugs will have a special role to play in the choral performance between 7:45 and 8:45 pm.

The Festival winds up with community singing and dancing at dusk, as we celebrate the longest day around closing bonfire.

Festival activities on the green will include arts and crafts, harmonica playing, shape note singing, dancing and instruction, including the middle eastern tradition of belly dancing, as well as English country and Morris dancing. Entertainment includes Skip Cady, Maple Leaf Morris, story-telling and more, and features the Revels North Summer Festival Chorus and Children's Chorus at 7:45 pm.

Bring your family and  friends  for this Upper Valley tradition.

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site opens for the season this weekend. Buildings are open 9 am to 4:30pm, 7 days a week and grounds until dusk. This Memorial Day weekend the park will be offering a special talk on General John Logan, Union Civil War hero who established Memorial Day as a national holiday in 1868. Augustus Saint-Gaudens created a dramatic equestrian statue of Logan for Chicago's Grant Park. The talks will be May 23, 24 & 25 at 1:15pm and 3:15pm and are included with the Site's $5 entrance fee.

This year the park is also participating in the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial commemoration with a special 25-minute tour about Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his Standing and Seated Lincoln Monuments both located in Chicago. The tour will be offered twice daily at 11:30am and 3:30pm through the season. In addition, a new 12-page color booklet about Saint-Gaudens and his Lincoln monuments will be available free of charge while supplies last.

The new hour-long documentary film about the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture, to premier nationally on PBS this fall 2009, is also available for sale at the museum gift shop.

For information about visiting the park please call the site at (603) 675-2175 or visit us on the web at www.nps.gov/saga