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Picture the scene…The year was 1958. Many of Newburyport’s mills, factories, and businesses had shut down. The streets were lined with empty storefronts. The city’s future looked bleak.

Artist Jack Frost, however, was determined to renew New England’s fading towns by bringing in visitors and prodigal natives for homecoming celebrations.

In 1958, Newburyport, along with twenty-nine other towns, did just that. Newburyport displayed its historic and cultural significance, and tourism gave its economy a boost.

Sixty-one years later, Newburyport is the only one of those thirty New England towns to continue hosting a Yankee Homecoming celebration. The festivities culminate on August 4 each year, the anniversary of the Coast Guard’s inception.

This year, the Yankee Homecoming festival will take place from July 27 to August 4.

Daily events include:
– Yankee Homecoming Marketplace
– Inn Street Artisans Revival, 10 am to 8 pm
– Heritage Tours
– Waterfront Morning Workout Series
– Downtown entertainment, 11:30 am to 6 pm
– Waterfront concert series, 7 to 9:30 pm

Don’t miss these other great events:
– Art on the Bartlett Mall, July 27 to 28
– Olde Fashioned Sunday, July 28, 10 am to 4:30 pm
– Geno Open, July 29, 8 am
– Kids Talent Show, July 29, 11 am to 2 pm
– Waiter/Waitress Race, July 29
– Market Square Day Craft Show, July 30, 10 am to 7 pm
– Veterans Luncheon, July 30, 12 pm
– Generations of Giving, July 31, 4 to 8 pm
– Yankee Homecoming Sidewalk Sales, August 1-3,
– Coast Guard Open House, August 1, 10 am to 2 pm
– Family Day at Maudslay State Park, August 3, 10 am to 2 pm
– Fireworks, August 3, 9:15 pm
– Parade, August 4, 12 pm

For more information, visit http://yankeehomecoming.com/ and book your Homecoming accommodations at the Essex Street Inn today!