Warren Holiday Festival kicks off Friday night

Festival runs Friday and Saturday

By Ted Hayes
Posted 11/29/19

Downtown Warren will turn into a big party Friday night, and as revelers pour in for the 31st annual Warren Holiday Festival, there’s good news: The weather is expected to be beautiful.

Even …

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Warren Holiday Festival kicks off Friday night

Festival runs Friday and Saturday

Posted

Downtown Warren will turn into a big party Friday night, and as revelers pour in for the 31st annual Warren Holiday Festival, there’s good news: The weather is expected to be beautiful.

Even if it were unseasonably cold, the line-up for Friday, the first night of the two-day festival, has some hot events. Prior to the lighting of the town's holiday lights around 7:30 p.m., there will be fire spinners, dancers and wandering performers all throughout the downtown area, and a new group, the TropiGals, will perform at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.

Marilyn Mathison, who has been in charge of scheduling the festival's performers and events for the past 20 years, said she is particularly excited this year not just for the TropiGals, but by a troupe of Dickensian carolers who will walk the town Saturday afternoon. She said they're a hard group to book as they're in demand, and she said she was lucky to get them this year.

Here's the lineup:

Friday, Nov. 29

* 5 p.m.: Tour the Masonic Temple, the second oldest continuously run Masonic Temple in the United States.There, Paul Rocha will play originals.

* 5 p.m.: Tour the Maxwell House, with music by Mt. Hope High School students.

* Candle holders will be made at 243 Water St.

* A children's ornament workshop will be held at rescue squad headquarters on Miller Street.

* Wandering performers will play around Water and Baker streets. They include stilt walkers, jugglers and hula hoopers.

* The Hugh Cole School chorus will fill the Warren Methodist Church with holiday music. Enter at the Baker Street entrance.

* 5 to 7 p.m.: Santa will hear children's wishes at the Baker Street Fire Museum.

* 5:30/6:30 p.m.: Circus Dynamics fire spinners will perform at 59 Baker St.; meanwhile, TropiGals will bring the golden age of dance to the corner of Water and Church streets.

* 6 p.m.: The Mt. Hope Vocal Ensemble performs at 59 Baker St.

* 7:15 p.m.: The Mt. Hope High School Marching Band will play at Massasoit Park as guests gather for a march down to Warren Town Hall for the Main Street Lighting Ceremony. The Mt. Hope Vocal Ensemble will also perform just prior to the lighting countdown.

* 8-10 p.m.: Immediately following the lighting, Playing Mantis will bring rhythm and blues to the Historic Warren Armory at 11 Jefferson St. There will be free refreshments, sweet and savory, with adult beverages for sale.

Saturday, Nov. 30

* 12 to 2 p.m. Santa arrives via fire truck at 521 Main St., then heads to the Historic Warren Armory for selfies. Music next door, at 520 Main St., will be by the Mt. Hope Choir., while the Mt. Hope Guitar Ensemble will play any Imago.

* 12 to 2 p.m.: The Very Merry Dickens Carolers will be wandering the town. These carolers wear authentic Dickens-era costumes and sing classic carols. Meanwhile, there will be an ornament workshop at the Methodist Church on Church Street.

* 12 to 4 p.m. Wandering performers will be all throughout the historic district. Trolley tours will run, with stops at various venues. Also, make packages of reindeer food in the Warren Town Hall basement (behind Delekta's). There will be a moonwalk at the Central Fire Station, Touch a Truck and Christmas Karaoke at the East Bay Recovery Center, 31 Railroad Avenue, and a children's natural bird feeder workshop at 243 Water St.

* 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.: Circus Dynamics performs shows at the Historic Warren Armory. After the show, kids can learn how to make a balloon animal (after first show) or learn juggling, hula hoop tricks and flag spinning (second show).

* 1 to 3 p.m.: A gingerbread cookie workshop runs at the George Hail Library. Also, ring the 19th century church bells at the Baptist Church.

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.