Listings may be sent to: Goings On, Gloucester Daily Times, 36 Whittemore St.,Gloucester, MA 01930, or emailed to Joann Mackenzie at jomackenzie@gloucestertimes.com, at least two weeks prior to an event.
At Windhover
ROCKPORT — Windhover Performing Arts Center opens its summer season with two young dance companies sharing an evening of dance this Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. under the huge tent. Dallas-based Ballet Papillon and modern dance company Alison Cook Beatty will perform some magic to music ranging from J.S. Bach to Philip Glass, with contemporary modern to traditional ballet en pointe. Windhover Performing Arts Center is located at 257R Granite St. Rockport. Tickets available at https://windhover.org/. Or call 978-546-3611.
Exchange open
The Annisquam Exchange opens it doors Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., through October. Offering Folly Cove designs, silver, collectibles, estate pieces, linens, fine jewelry, kitchenware, cards, Annisquam apparel from Annisquam Sewing Circle, artworks, toys, candy, and more, at 32 Leonard St. in Gloucester. To learn more, visit www.annisquamexchange.com or email annisquamexchange@gmail.com.
Volker Goetze Quartet
On Saturday, June 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., the Volker Goetze Quartet, featuring composer and trumpeter Volker Goetze, Sri Lankan drummer Uthpala Eroshan, clarinetist Oran Etkin, and bassist Alexis Cuadrado, will return to Manship Artists Residency, 9 Leverett St, Gloucester, for a special fundraising performance entitled, Musical Crossroads. A gorgeous experiment in cross-cultural collaboration, Musical Crossroads brings together the traditions of Jazz and Kandyan percussion to create a new musical vision. Tickets are $75/person. Details and tickets available at manshipartists.org.
Pride at the castle
On Fridays, from now through July 4, Hammond Castle, 61 Hesperus Ave., Gloucester, will celebrate Pride Month with a curated series of Pride-focused mini-exhibits, each highlighting the life and accomplishments of a different set of significant Queer figures who either visited the museum or were associated with founder John Hays Hammond Jr. (b. 1888-d.1965). From now through June 20: “From Beauport to Fenway Court: A. Piatt Andrew, Henry Davis Sleeper, Isabella Stewart Gardner & Leslie Buswell”; June 21-27: “Anything Goes: Cafe Society and Lady Mendl”; June 28-July 4: “Sewing Circles: Natalie Hays Hammond, Alla Nazimova, and Queer Women of the Stage and Screen.” There is no additional fee to enjoy these exhibits. To reserve your visit and learn more about Hammond Castle and its programming, visit https://www.hammondcastle.org/
Horribles fundraiser
This Saturday, June 15, doors open at 6:30 p.m. to let Music Video Bingo begin at 7 p.m., one fun fundraiser for one fun cause: Gloucester’s 2024 Fishtown Horribles Parade. Tickets are $30, available online via square or Eventbrite or with cash or check by contacting Fishtown Horribles Parade Committee, PO Box 924, Gloucester, MA 01930. Space is limited so don’t wait! The 21-plus event will be held at 14 Kondelin Road, Gloucester. Cash bar and snacks for sale, as well as raffle prizes.
At Halibut Point
ROCKPORT — Halibut Point State Park, 4 Gott Ave. in Rockport, offers a new schedule of programs and events, free to all. An adult must accompany children. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request. Guided group tours available with advance reservations by contacting 978-546-2997 or halibut.point@mass.gov, Questions? Email Ramona Latham at ramona.latham@mass.gov.
When Granite was King!, Saturdays, June 15, 22 and 29, 10-11 a.m.. Babson Farm Quarrying History Guided Tour, for ages 8 and older. Meet at parking area. Learn about the buildings, bridges, and breakwaters built to last. Touch tools of the trade. Find out how they moved these large, heavy stone pieces, and “paved” dirt streets in our nation’s growing cities.
Spring Birding Walk, Sunday, June 16, 8 to 10 a.m., Symphony of Bird Song! All ages, meet parking area. Stroll seaside with birding basics. symphony of spring bird song! Learn their sounds, habits, flight patterns. Spectacular ocean views. Bring binoculars. For all ages. Meet at parking area.
Tide Pool Exploration, Saturdays, June 15 and 29, 11 to noon. Observe great diversity of life at the rocky shore. Explore different tide level zones containing ranges of salinity and water coverage. Discover animals and plants and how they survive at each tide level. Meet at Visitor Center. A ages. Heavy rain cancels.
Art in the Barn
ESSEX — Creativity and conservation meet at Essex County Greenbelt Association’s annual Art in the Barn, June 14-15, at Allyn Cox Reservation in Essex. A North Shore premier art exhibition, it features a juried selection of works by 130 regional artists — altogether thousands of paintings, photographs, sculpture, ceramics, woodworking for sale, with 50% of artists’ proceeds donated to Greenbelt’s conservation mission to protect natural land and working farms across Essex County. The Cox Reservation is a stunning 31-acre property with open fields and trails on the edge of the Great Marsh and the Essex River; beautiful destination in and of itself, located at 82 Eastern Ave, Essex. For more information, please visit: ecga.org/artinthebarn
Juneteenth event
ROCKPORT — On Wednesday, June 19, Freedom Day will be celebrated in Rockport in a Juneteenth event hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport and the Congregational Church of Rockport, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the front lawn of the First Congregational Church, 22 Main St. Featured speaker will be Nicole McClain, founder/president of the North Shore Juneteenth Association. There’ll be plenty of food and fun at this family-friendly event.
Old Salties Jazz Band
Dave Sags’ Old Salties Jazz Band plays jazz every Monday at 1 p.m. at the Rose Baker Senior Center, 6 Manuel F Lewis St., Gloucester. All are welcome to stop by and enjoy some great live jazz. Just tell them at the entrance desk that you’re there as a guest of the Old Salties Jazz Band. Questions? Call 978- 325-5800.
Cribbage
West Gloucester Trinitarian Congregational Church, 488 Essex Ave. in Gloucester, hosts a monthly cribbage tourney. The next tourney is Monday, June 17, at 6:15 p.m. Entry fee is $10 per person. For questions, please contact the church at 978-283-2817 or wgtccucc@gmail.net. All are welcome.
A cribbage league plays Thursdays at 7 p.m., at the Pilot House, 3 Porter St, Gloucester. Cost is $5 a week and each round lasts ten weeks. For more information, call 978-491-8660.
Magnolia Cribbage is on hiatus for the summer, returning after Labor Day. For more information, email dotsieradzki@gmail.com.
Garden tour
ROCKPORT — To its ten gardens on the north shore of Rockport, the Rockport Garden Club 2024 Garden Tour has added at talk at African Stone Sculpture Garden, on Phillips Avenue. On Saturday, June 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., join the tour and meet the owner and creators of this much talked about and beautiful stone sculpture garden and learn the history of the 18 sculptures. New this year are student musicians in the gardens enhancing the experience with music, and returning, the popular “Artists in the Garden” following the tour with a luncheon reception at The Emerson Inn on-the-sea. All art painted that day will be available for sale. Tickets are $35, available with more information and link to pre-order your boxed lunch at Emerson Inn by June 17. Visit: https://rockportgardenclub.org/blossoms-%26-granite-tour
Reflections on ‘Home’
On June 21, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., the Gloucester Writers Center and the Rocky Neck Art Colony present an evening of prose poetry and the spoken word to accompany the current art exhibit: “Home.” The readers and story-tellers are Sharron Cohen, JoeAnn Hart, Eric Parkison, Kevin Perrin, and Heidi Wakeman. The art show is curated by Susan Erony, at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, 6 Wonson St., Gloucester. The show and the reading explore the role that home plays in our lives and how the spaces we inhabit represent our values desires and cultures. This is event is free to the public. Donations are warmly appreciated by the two non-profits For more information https://rockyneckartcolony.org/ or https://www.gloucesterwriters.org/
GHS 50th reunion
Gloucester High School, Class of 1974, will hold its 50th class reunion on Saturday, July 27, at the Bass Rocks Golf Club. Cost is $75 per person. Cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner and music by our favorite DJ Leo’s Classic Hits follow. Seating is limited. If interested, please email GHS197450@gmail.com or call Cyndi Bolcome at 508-527-3377.
Descendants’ sails
To honor the legacy and heritage of Gloucester’s schooner fishermen, the schooner Adventure offers free sails to descendants of the men who worked, sailed, and fished on board any Gloucester schooner. If you have an ancestor or relative from Gloucester’s schooner fishery, you are a descendant and eligible for these free sails. Please call the Adventure office at 978-281-8079 to confirm descendant status and book a spot on either Sunday, July 17, sailing at 11 a.m., or Wednesday, Aug, 17, sailing at 4:30 p.m., from the Harriet Webster Pier, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester. Learn more at https://www.schooneradventure.org/
Bandstand concerts
David Benjamin, summer music girector for the City of Gloucester, is again helming free seaside concerts at Stage Fort Park’s Antonio Gentile Bandstand, on Sundays, July 7 through Aug. 25. Performances start at 6:30 p.m. A highlight of the season will be the Cape Ann Community Band “Barbie, Ken and Taylor” concert Aug. 17, with vocalist Alexandra Grace and her music students singing tunes from the Eras tour and the Barbie movie. The full season schedule is July 7, Cape Ann Big Band jazz; July 14, Horizon (pop hits); July 21, Grupo Fantasia (Latin dance); July 28, Compaq Big Band with Marina Evans; Aug, 4, Daisy Nell & Capt. Stan (acoustic fun); August 11, 4Ever Fab (Beatles tribute band); Aug. 18, The Continentals (pop-rock band); and Aug. 25, Martin & Kelly Band (country 2estern). To learn more, visit www.DavidLBenjamin.com or telephone 978-281-2286. Parking’s free, bandstand located on Hough Avenue, Gloucester. Restrooms are ADA accessible. Bring lawn seating.