Overview The Hampton Beach Seafood Festival closes Ocean Boulevard along Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, for three days on the weekend after Labor Day, and more than 50 Seacoast restaurants cook on the road itself, from H Street to the Memorial Statue. Two stages, about 80 craft vendors, a culinary tent, a Saturday-night fireworks show and a run of contests fill the rest of the strip. The 2026 festival was the 37th. The American Bus Association has named it one of its Top 100 Events in North America. The Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce runs it; the chamber dates to 1915, covers Hampton, Hampton Falls, North Hampton, Rye and Seabrook, and operates the visitor welcome center at Hampton Beach. On site The festival's home base is Hampton Beach State Park at 160 Ocean Boulevard. Gates open at noon on Friday, 10 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday, and music runs on both the Sea Shell Stage and the Beach Cabana Stage all weekend, about 15 bands and orchestras in all. Friday afternoon the restaurants are judged and the winners are read out on the Sea Shell Stage. Saturday brings chef demonstrations in the Culinary Tent, a cornhole competition in the beach bar and fireworks at 8:30. Sunday starts with a 5K road race at 7:30 in the morning, and the lobster roll eating contest takes the Sea Shell Stage at 2. Free parking lots and shuttles feed the boulevard. Track record In 2025 the festival ran its 36th edition, with the fireworks presented by the Hampton Beach Village District. The chamber says the weekend supports dozens of nonprofit organizations. Brand presence The presenting sponsor gets "presented by" billing on the two main entrance signs, its logo on the volunteer crew T-shirts, a 30-by-10-foot booth and the back cover of the official program. Each stage can carry a company's name for the weekend, read out before every set. Other sponsors take tented booths of 10 by 10 or 20 by 10 feet and program ads, and single moments are sold on their own: the Friday-night culinary tent, the weekend cooking demos, the fireworks, the cornhole competition, the road race, the EMS tent and the Calm Room.