Join the Lowell Festival Force

It’s just a quick sign-up to receive email updates of festival volunteer opportunities, track the festivals you volunteer for, and earn badges for volunteering!

What is the Festival Force?

When you join the Festival Force, we’ll send you a Lowell Festival Force button and start sending you a twice-monthly email digest with upcoming festival volunteer opportunities. If you volunteer at any of the festivals, proudly wear your button at the festival and scan the QR code that you’ll be provided. You’ll earn a virtual badge.

We’re currently working with partners to get special prizes to folks who complete challenges such as earning a certain number of badges in a certain number of months, earning badges in each neighborhood, and more fun ideas. Those prizes may include coupons to local businesses, discounted or free services, and more.

Get competitive! We’re working on the technology to share leaderboards and more.
Get social! If there’s interest, we might start organizing meet-ups, possibly before or after big festivals.
Get sharing! We’ll work to make showing off your badges or sharing opportunities on social media easy.

Do you organize or volunteer in a festival that isn’t participating yet? Email us with interest at info@diylowell.org – It’s free to participate!

Participating Festivals

Volunteer at any of these events or festivals to see other Festival Force members and earn a badge!

Lowell WinterFest

Don’t hibernate- come celebrate WinterFest in the heart of Downtown Lowell! A beloved Lowell tradition, WinterFest lets everyone to get out of the house and have fun for two days packed with live bands, children’s entertainment, ice sculptures, an artisan market, fire performances, and more. The Richard Rourke Memorial Soup Competition is one of the most popular events at WinterFest, drawing nearly 1,000 attendees to try soups from local restaurants. It takes place in February.

DIY Lowell Community Chill Night

The Community Chill Night is DIY Lowell’s annual chili and stew cook-off event! Experience music, games, community awards, and a DIY “Chilly” Dessert fun for everyone! DIY’s goal is to build community in Lowell by bringing together young people and elders, downtown and neighborhoods, townies and newcomers, celebrating the projects that have activated our underused spaces. It takes place annually in March.

Points of Light Cultural Celebration

Points of Light is a spring celebration of unity and renewal that brings together the food, music, and traditions of Lowell’s diverse cultures. The centerpiece of the night is a special ceremony in which participants personalize water lanterns that will be released onto the Western Canal, creating hundreds of floating points of light. It takes place the first weekend of May, except when that weekend is Easter.

Greater Lowell Pride

Celebrate Pride month at Greater Lowell Pride! This annual event honors the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Lowell through live music, drag performances, children’s activities, tabling organizations and more. The day kicks off at Lowell City Hall with the raising of the Pride Progress flag, and culminates in the festival at DCR Lowell Heritage State Park. All are welcome to celebrate at Greater Lowell Pride. This takes place in early June every year.

Lowell Folk Festival

Following the success of hosting the National Folk Festival in Lowell for three years, the producing partners and community continued the excitement with the Lowell Folk Festival in 1990. With hundreds of thousands of visitors attending annually, the experience is ever-changing. The six producing partners have continued organizing and presenting the Festival annually during the last full weekend in July.

Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race

The Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race (LKSR) is an annual STEAM event held on the third Saturday of every September in Lowell. Kinetic sculptures are human-powered, all-terrain sculptures made from new and repurposed materials and engineered to race over streets, water, mud, and sand. LKSR strives to inspire artists, engineers, performers, and visionaries of the future by promoting the synthesis of the STEAM fields, disruptive innovation, and physical activity.

Lowell Hispanic and Latinx Festival

The Lowell Hispanic Festival, organized by the Latinx Community Center of Empowerment (LCCE), is a vibrant and culturally rich event that takes place annually in Lowell. This festival is a celebration of the diverse and dynamic Latinx community in the region, showcasing the heritage, traditions, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx cultures. The event attracts thousands of attendees from Lowell and beyond, creating a lively atmosphere filled with music, dance, art, and food.

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac features tours of Kerouac’s Lowell places – including many sites describes in his Lowell-based novels-panel discussions, reading, jazz and folk music, films, open mike events, as high poetry competition, book signings, and more. Kerouac fans and scholars from across the United States and around the world travel to Lowell for the festival. It takes place in October.

City of Lights

Usher in the holiday season with the City of Lights parade through Downtown Lowell. Spend the day with family and loved ones while taking photos with Santa, voting for the best hot chocolate in Lowell, marveling at decorated window displays, enjoying seasonally themed storytime, then watch the parade as it moves from Jackson Street and ending at City Hall. The night ends with the ceremonial lighting of City Hall and Wannalancit Mills. It takes place annually on a Saturday at the end of November.

Photos by Thomas O'Hearn, Britt Boughner, Sally Chapman, Aurora Erickson, Centralville Food Truck Festival, Lowell Folk Festival. Photos of specific festivals are provided by that festival.