Friday, June 10, 2011

Pro Portsmouth Presents Market Square Day 2011


PORTSMOUTH—
On Saturday, June 11, Pro Portsmouth will present its 34th Annual Market Square Day Festival & 10K Road Race, the City’s premier Downtown festival.
At a recent press conference, Pro Portsmouth’s Executive Director Barbara Massar thanked the many area businesses who make Market Square Day possible – in particular several of the long-term partners including the Title Sponsor of the Road Race, Access Sports Medicine & Orthopedics and longtime Festival and Race Supporting Sponsors Liberty Mutual, Oakhurst Dairy, Portsmouth Regional Hospital and Coca Cola of Northern New England.
Festival and Race Sponsors also include this year’s Program Partner, Irving Oil. They are joined by Bottomline, Runner’s Alley, PowerAde and Dasani.
The press conference introduced Dawn Pepe as the 2011 Logo Artist. Dawn’s design was chosen from nearly 80 submissions and will be featured on all Race and Volunteer T-shirts as well as the Festival T-shirt which will be available at the Pro Portsmouth booth in Market Square during the event. The second and third place designs were both submitted by member’s of Terra Merry’s Portsmouth High School Computer Graphics’ classes with second place going to Kevin O’Leary ($125) and third to Andy Zou ($75). Previously, Pepe’s work was featured on the 2004 Market Square Day logo.
This year’s Market Square Day Historic Walk takes place on Friday, June 10 at 6:00 p.m. The Walk begins at Market Square in front of the North Church.
Market Square Day features entertainment throughout the day on three stages. Various acts will fill the Downtown with music and dance. “We’re very pleased to feature our First Night® ‘Battle of the Bands’ winner, The Grounded,” noted Massar. “This year’s musical offerings take on a very diverse sound with Salt River, Grupo Fantasia, Martin England and Djoliba Kan – just to name a few.”
An abundance of crafters, local businesses and food vendors will set up ‘shop’ on the streets of Portsmouth. Over 150 will be on hand for this year’s festival.
Parking restrictions do take place in Downtown Portsmouth beginning at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 11. Streets will be posted on Friday, June 10 to indicate where parking is prohibited during the festival. Parking restrictions will be enforced and vehicles will be towed at the owner’s expense. The Parking Garage offers a flat fee of $5.00 from the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and $3.00 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Shuttle service provided by First Student Transit/Pro Portsmouth runs from the overflow lot at the Fox Run Mall (across from the JC Penny/Lens Crafters side of Mall) to the Hanover Street Bus Station across from the Hilton Garden Inn (Hanover Street Bus Stop) in Downtown Portsmouth. The shuttle runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The event, often referred to as the unofficial start to summer on the Seacoast, draws on nearly 2,000 runners and competitive walkers for the 10K race and 80,000 festival-enthusiasts to the heart of the City. The Road Race starts at 9 a.m. in Market Square. The Festival runs from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m.
Market Square Day is produced by Pro Portsmouth. Pro Portsmouth, Inc. is a 501c (3) organization serving the Seacoast area. Its Mission is to promote the arts, culture, history and community of the area through such events as Children’s Day, Market Square Day, Summer in the Street and First Night® Portsmouth. For more information on the group, including volunteer and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.proportsmouth.org.
Photo caption: Pro Portsmouth’s Market Square Day 2011 will take place this Saturday, June 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The 2011 MSD Logo is the creation of Dawn Pepe, whose artwork will be featured in all Market Square Day marketing and on the Race, Volunteer and sale T-shirts. (Courtesy image)