UFO Festival Events
Saturday and Sunday Events:
- Town Hall Speaker Series (see Festival Speakers section for details): 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday. Speaker presentations take place on the first floor of the Exeter Town Hall.
- UFO Festival Souvenir Shop: 8:30 am until 5:00 pm, outside Exeter Town Hall. Featuring T-shirts, Mugs, Tote Bags, Posters and more. All items are inscribed with the 2025 UFO Art drawn by the distinguished local artist Sam Paolini.
- Trends Gift Gallery, 85 Water Street: The same merchandise sold at the Festival is also available at Trends. Find out why everyone says "This is the BEST gift shop I've ever been in...The perfect Gift Shop for everyone on your gift list from children to grandparents!" Trends prides themselves on great prices and super friendly and knowledgeable customer service.
- Food & Refreshments: Coffee - 8:30am to 10:00am; Food and Drinks (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies, drinks; 10:30am to 4:00pm (near the Gazebo, downtown Exeter)
- Kids' Activities: lawn games, face painting, "UFO Crash Site" creations, gifts, free kids refreshments (Town Hall Common)
- Exeter Incident Site Trolleys (starting near Town Hall Common): $5/person. 9:00am to 3:30 pm for half-hour rides to the site of the Incident at Exeter in Kensington. Also other sites of interest in Exeter are pointed out. There are two trolleys running both Saturday and Sunday, and tickets are sold at the Trolley Station next to the Trolley Stop on Front Street. Get your tickets early. These rides sell out quickly!
- Historic Videos regarding the "Incident at Exeter" (Town Hall, second floor), Free. Video presentation is shown continuously on the second floor of the Town Hall from 9:00am to 4:00pm and is about 10-minutes long.
Saturday-only Events
- Exeter Police Department and Exeter Fire Department 2025 Patch sales: the Exeter Police Department sold their annually-updated patch on Saturday mornings, beginning at the opening of the Festival. All proceeds associated with these patch sales go to support Maple, the EPD comfort dog. These patches sold out very quickly in 2024. Beginning in 2024, the Exeter Fireman's Association offered patches, as well.
- Exeter Public Library, Perspectives Book Group: Time, 10am. The Martian Chronicles (by Ray Bradbury) book discussion with special facilitator Joshua Tepley. This program is free and open to the public. See https://www.exeterpl.org/_files/ugd/48fbf9_251d81bc71074220951153500c9b81f0.pdf?index=true.
- Alien Costume Contest: Free, Time: 12:00 Noon. The parade formed up on the sidewalk adjacent to the Town Hall Common park and proceed to the Town Bandstand (about 1/8th of a mile). There will be monitors to direct parade participants along the parade route.
- Alien Pet Contest: Free, Time: 12 Noon at the Town Hall Common park.
- Dance Party with Johnny B: Free, Saturday afternoon after the Parade (12:30pm-ish estimated time) in the Town Hall Common park. Rock 'til you drop with Johnny B.
- Jazz Pianist Concert with Eric Mintel: Free, Saturday, 8/30; 7:00pm to 8:00pm at the Congregational Church, 21 Front Street, downtown Exeter. Eric Mintel has played the piano all of his life. Career highlights include performances at the White House, Kennedy Center and United Nations. Come listen to Eric on Saturday evening at the Congregational Church. Eric was a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s award-winning program Piano Jazz on NPR and his music is regularly played on XM and Sirius radio. Jazz legend Dave Brubeck has said “As long as the music attracts dedicated young musicians like Eric Mintel, jazz will continue to thrive and progress as a voice of freedom”. Eric Mintel continues to thrill audiences of all ages and continues to connect with people all over the world.