Halloween Events – Page 4 – Salem Main Streets

New Crop of Farmers Being Sought For Salem Market

History, Salem Dining, Salem Event, Salem Farmers Market, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, SMS News No Responses »

Mar 042016

FarmersMarket_Salem_Logo_Large

Do you grow or produce a local food item and are looking to cultivate mass community exposure? The field is open for you to participate as a vendor at the 2016 Salem Farmers’ Market! Applications are being accepted now through March 11 by Salem Main Streets. This next session will operate in downtown Salem in Derby Square, Thursdays from 3-7 pm, June 9 – October 13, 2016.

Applications can be downloaded from www.salemfarmersmarket.org. Booth space is $30 a week for a 10’ x 10’ spot, $60 for a 10’ x 20’ spot, and $90 for a 10’ by 30’ spot. There is a discount for prepayment of the entire season.

“We are so proud of our market vendors, and we hope to see many returning, but we’re also always on the look-out for the next up and coming business,” said Salem Main Streets Executive Director Kylie Sullivan. “This is the perfect opportunity for both newer small businesses looking to get to the next level, as well as established businesses looking to reach a new audience.”

All products must be grown or produced in New England. If a farmer is selling any items he/she did not grow, the farm of origin must be listed. Vendors may label items organic only if they are certified.

Non-farm products must be high quality, locally made, take skill and creativity, and the vendor must add at least 75% of the total value to the product. The product(s) should be complementary to a farmers’ market.

Now in its eighth year, the market welcomes an average of 2,000+ customers weekly. The market is made possible through the leadership of Salem Main Streets and the Farmers’ Market Committee, as well as the generous contributions of numerous volunteers.

For more information please contact Salem Main Streets Executive Director Kylie Sullivan via email at kylie@salemmainstreets.org or phone at 978-744-0004 x15. To get the latest updates about the market, visit our website at www.salemfarmersmarket.org, or follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SalemMAFarmersMarket) or on Twitter (@salemfarmersmarket).

BONS Balloting: Give a Warm Vote to Your Fav Biz

Salem Dining, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping No Responses »

Feb 142016

On a brisk, minus degree feel-like day as we’re having, the options on activities could be limited. While there are still plenty of things to do and see in Salem, if you don’t want to go outside, but still wish to be in a “Salem state of mind” then may we suggest voting for 2016 BONS Readers’ Choice Awards (which began February 1st and ends May 1st).

Winners will be listed in the annual BONS issue of Northshore Magazine (to be distributed in July), alongside Editors’ Choice for the same categories. But, note, online voting is for Readers’ Choice only; Northshore editors and the BONS committee select Editors’ Choice BONS winners separately from the Readers’ Choice winners.

The top vote recipients in the survey and eligible write-in nominees from 2015 voting are used to populate the drop-down menus. This is your opportunity to share with others why you frequent – may we say “haunt” – restaurants as well as general and specialty small businesses in Salem.

If you’ve never voted or haven’t recently, a few things of which to be aware:

Previously, regional or national chains were allowed to qualify as nominees. But beginning in 2015, that privilege was restricted to only local organizations and locally owned franchises
Traded votes for services or discounts is cause for disqualification. In other words, retailers are not allowed to produce a marketing mailer, website ad, social media post, etc., that offers a discount or free service with proof of a vote.
Businesses with multiple locations are to be recognized by the specific location. For example, if a business has locations in Salem, Peabody, and Andover, each location will have its own nomination.

Votes are tallied by the amount of unique votes each business receives. You are not allowed to vote for the same subcategory more than once; to ensure that all votes for each category are unique, their system requires a verifiable email address for each vote.

This year, more than a dozen new sub-categories, including Cookies and Distillery, and an entirely new category: Mingle have been added. Check them out.

You’re Invited – to Help Salem Main Streets Achieve Its Goals

Salem Event, SMS News, Volunteer Opportunities No Responses »

Jan 162016

What is ahead for Salem Main Streets and 2016? Please join us for a night of celebration and information Tuesday, January 26th as we conduct the Salem Main Streets Annual Meeting.

Kylie Sullivan, SMS Executive Director says, “Come cheer with us over last year’s accomplishments and look ahead to see what’s coming in 2016. Learn more about Salem Main Streets’ mission and purpose, and how you can benefit and get more involved.”

This gathering is free and open to all who live, work, or play in downtown Salem – residents, volunteers, business owners, community partners, and government officials.

In other words, we want you there if you have anything to say about how the Downtown District was promoted by us in the past and —

Kylie emphasizes, “We are especially looking for feedback to help improve our work going forward.”

The meeting will run from 5:30 – 7:30pm at Ames Hall in the Salem YMCA, 1 Sewall Street (enter from the Essex Street entrance).

Free appetizers and cash bar!

Please invite your neighbors, associates, and friends! This is you chance to have an impact on how Salem is seen by the local community and the world.

Please RSVP to Kylie at kylie@salemmainstreets.org or 978-744-0004 x15.

Salem Main Streets’ mission is the continued revitalization of downtown Salem as a vibrant, year-round, retail, dining and cultural destination through business retention, recruitment, and promotion of the Downtown District.

Live From Salem MA- – – It’s Halloween!!!

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Oct 312015

Walking around Salem a few minutes ago, it was the quiet before the storm, but shortly the expected 70,000 revelers (plus the media) will begin to trickle, then ooze, then just flat out pour into the Witch City for Halloween 2015.

We hope you brought comfortable walking shoes. The big finale to Haunted Happenings is much more than a 3-ring circus, as you walk to all the events.

First stop we suggest is our Information Booth at the corner of Washington & Essex Streets. Our volunteers will guide you to where you want to go, so you spend less time trying to get there and more time enjoying what you wish to see.

There are a number of kid friendly events if you’re bringing the little ones for the early part of the day.

Salem Children’s Day, 10am-3pm on the Salem Common
Ask a Witch, Make a Wand, 10am-5pm, Artemisia Botanicals
Professor Wunders’ School of Magic, 10am, Gallows Hill Museum Theatre
Face Painting, noon-6pm, Gallows Hill Museum Theatre

There are also zones of music spaced around the downtown district for you to relax and recharge if you’re spending the entire day.

Music at Fountain Stage, noon – 1pm, Essex Street Pedestrian Mall
Shock Top Beer Garden, 2pm-10pm, Federal Street at Washington Street
Radio 92.9 Concert Stage, 2pm-10pm, Washington Street at Federal Street
Concert Stage, 7pm-10pm, Front Street
Concert Stage, 7pm-10pm, Hawthorne Blvd.
Gazebo Stage, 7pm-10pm, Salem Common

Remember the rules, and have fun. Salem will put a spell on you….

(And in case later tonight you and your friends want— for whatever reason— to sing the version from the movie Hocus Pocus, here are the lyrics….)

And Now for Something Completely Different in Salem MA

Contests, Salem Dining, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, SMS News No Responses »

Oct 282015

What isn’t different in Salem MA during Halloween what with all the witch-stuff, ghostbusters, zombie nurses, etc.? How about these two alternative events for Friday Oct. 30th evening: the First Annual Spice Eating Challenge at Artists’ Row and the Salem Classical production Songs of the Supernatural, produced with support from Salem Main Streets and Creative Salem.

Deborah Greel, Public Art Planner for the City of Salem (Department of Planning and Community Development) describes both events as having an “appeal to tourists but definitely geared for locals too.”

The Heat is ON

Step up to the 1st Annual #Salem MA Wicked Hot Spice Tasting Challenge!!! It will be conveniently located in one of our hottest creative spaces, Artists’ Row, and hosted by Karen Scalia of Salem Food Tours (which is itself located at Artists’ Row). The Challenge will run from 6-7pm, rain or shine. Sign up sheet to be a taster available night of the event.

“The tastings will be four types of mashed chili peppers,” explains Scalia. “Four levels of hot fun – from mild, medium, hot, and SUPER HOT!”

Too afraid to try the heat??? Then just come on down to cheer the poor souls on!! Bwahahahahahaha

The chilis are being supplied by Salem Spice, which also will have them for sale during the event.

“We are thrilled to stage this free community event,” states Scalia. “It’s a fun and exciting way to start Halloween weekend in Salem, a fantastic way to celebrate Artists’ Row, and a great way to support our local fire department.”

Salem Fire Department Local 172 will be in attendance selling tee shirts to raise money for local fire station amenities (which are usually paid for out of pocket by fire-fighters).

As for just what makes chili peppers such a hot deal? According to the website chilipeppermadness.com, “That spiciness we all love and crave comes from a compound called capsaicin that is found in all hot peppers. Interestingly enough, capsaicin is found in no other plant than the chili pepper. A single drop of this substance combined with 100,000 parts water is still noticeably spicy.”

As for advice when the heat is too much to beat? The website advises “Don’t Drink The Water! Pure capsaicin is soluble in alcohol but not soluble in cold water. Hence, instead of dousing the raging flame on your tongue, the water will only spread the spices around in your mouth and make the situation worse. Instead, try sugar or milk to curb that luscious heat.”

For more info, check out the Challenge website.

And if you DARE for more, The Lobster Shanty (also on Artists’ Row) will be serving some delicious spicy HOT specials to get your taste buds roaring.

Coldly Haunting Classical

A siren haunts a rock on the river Rhine.
A princess, locked away in a Bronze Room.
A charlatan conducts sham séances.
A teenage girl, driven to suicide by cruel fate…

The Salem Witch Trials are not the only persecutions fixated on the supernatural. Explore dark magic and tragic heroines, set to hauntingly gorgeous music by Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, Menotti, Lees, and Rorem, when Salem Main Streets and Salem Classical present the Salem debut of Songs of the Supernatural at the First Church in Salem (316 Essex Street) at 8pm.

Kate Kostopoulos will be the performing soprano; she is from Boston and has been pursing vocal performance for the past six years and simultaneously maintaining a career in Arts Administration.

She is a recent graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she received her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance. Earlier this year Kostopoulos was a Young Artist at the Atlantic Music Festival performing opera and art song repertoire.

Brendon Shapiro will be her pianist; he is a vocal coach, musical director, and conductor based in Boston. Currently serving as a staff pianist at Boston University and organist for First Parish in Arlington, MA, he has additionally been hired by numerous opera companies, recitalists, choral ensembles, and religious organizations in the area.

He also is on faculty as a vocal coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Shapiro holds a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano Performance from Boston University and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Ithaca College School of Music where he won the Mary Hayes North Piano Competition Award.

Salem Classical is the home of classical music located in the heart of the pedestrian zone of historic downtown Salem. The mission of Salem Classical is to remove the boundary between the public and performers, bringing some of the greatest music ever composed to Salem. Audiences are invited to frequent concerts as a compliment to the overall cultural experience in the city of Salem that includes dozens of restaurants, shops, and museums. And witches, ghostbusters, etc., etc.

For more info go to the Classical Salem website.

This upcoming Friday night is the “calm before the storm,” so why not venture out for chili and classical? Only in Salem MA would saying that make any sense.

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