Overview Prescott Park Arts Festival runs a summer of concerts, a season musical, movie nights and family shows on an outdoor stage beside the Piscataqua River in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and admission is a recommended donation: no one is ever turned away. Concerts run several nights a week through the season, and the festival also stages the Chowder and Brew festivals and runs a youth theater camp. It is an independent nonprofit serving the Seacoast of New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. It began in 1974 with a production of Peter and the Wolf, and its 50th anniversary season ran in 2024. On site The concerts, the musical and the movies play on the Wilcox Main Stage at the water's edge, with the river behind it. The River House Restaurant Concert Series starts at 7 p.m.; the season musical runs on the same stage, and in 2026 it was Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. Movie nights, Josie's Family Jams for kids and families, and the Rain or Shine Series fill other nights. The Prop is the festival's own on-site kitchen, and concertgoers can pre-order dinner from partner restaurants or reserve a VIP table. Each Camp ENCORE! session ends in a fully staged musical on the main stage, and the Chowder and Brew festivals draw nearly 2,000 people each. Audience The festival draws from across the Seacoast, and it says many people see their first live performance in the park. Families are a core of it: in 2025 it donated more than 900 season passes through its Family-in-Need program, working with KEY Collective to reach low-income families, and Camp ENCORE! takes kids aged 6 to 17. Talent and Influencers The festival books the concert series as a mix of Grammy winners and emerging acts. The 2025 run booked Neal Francis, Trampled by Turtles, the Mallett Brothers Band, Darlingside, Town Mountain and Martin Sexton's Abbey Road show, and Dawes has played the park. The festival employed 485 artists in 2025. Its musicals have run from Carousel, Oklahoma and Annie to Grease and Peter Pan. Track record A permanent stage went up in 1975, designed by architect Tom Johnson, and the festival incorporated as a nonprofit in 1983; it came through a financial crisis a year later. The first capital campaign opened in 2011, and ground was broken on a support building in 2012 and on a pavilion with public restrooms and a commercial kitchen in 2013. Its 2026 brochure cited a 96% rating from Charity Navigator. Brand presence Gate donations cover only about 10% of what the festival costs to run in a year, and corporate sponsorship is its largest single source of revenue. Title positions are sold on the main stage, the concert series, the season musical, movie night, VIP seating, Camp ENCORE! and housing for the musical company. Title partners get their logo projected onstage by light gobo, thanks from the stage at every show, co-branding each time the stage or series is named, and mentions on 92.5 The River; the movie-night partner runs a 30-second video before each film, and the camp partner's logo goes on the T-shirt every camper wears. By 2025 River House Restaurant had held the concert series for 14 years. Josie's Family Jams and the Rain or Shine Series are sold with industry exclusivity.