Tour Details
Local architects will be competing in a fairy house design contest with their works, including concept drawings, displayed in the Sheafe Warehouse at Prescott Park. Visitors on the garden tour will be encouraged to cast their vote for the “People’s Choice Award” in the design contest. Also, due to heightened interest of people in the horticultural community, at least one garden will be devoted to a non-competitive display of fairy houses built by local professional gardeners, landscapers, florists and nurseries.
                        
There will be games, bubbles and music. Fairy costumes or fairy wings are encouraged. The tour will conclude on Peirce Island where families are invited to build their own fairy houses using natural materials provided by organizers of the event, or natural materials they have chosen to bring themselves. Also visitors will be able to meet Tracy Kane, children’s book author and illustrator, who will be present to help families build Fairy Houses.

The event is being presented by one of Portsmouth’s neighborhood associations, Friends of the South End, and all proceeds will go to local non-profit organizations, including the Governor John Langdon House, Prescott Park and Strawbery Banke, all of which are actively involved in planning and hosting the tour. Proceeds will also go to the neighborhood’s Little Harbour School, whose students will be seen all weekend helping to make certain the event goes smoothly.

The Fairy Houses Tour is the brainchild of Portsmouth grandmother, Judy Nerbonne, who bought Tracy Kane’s “Fairy Houses Series” books for her grandchildren and was inspired to build fairy houses with the children. She then discovered that the books’ author lived in nearby Lee, N.H. Judy and Tracy met; and along with Susan Benedict, Judy’s friend and then president of Friends of the South End, and with more than 200 other enthusiastic volunteers, they created the highly successful 2005 Fairy Houses Tour. Over 3,000 people attended the two-day event which generated over $14,000. Net ticket proceeds were donated to local non-profit organizations. It was a great success and by popular demand, the Fairy Houses Tour is being presented again this year.

Although fairy folklore was prevalent during the Victorian era, the New England Seacoast tradition of building fairy houses began over fifty years ago, most notably on islands off the coast of Maine. As a visitor to these islands, Tracy Kane was inspired to create her multi award-winning “Fairy House Series” of picture books and video, that encourages families to go outside and share the wonders of nature through the building of fairy houses. The series has sparked the “Fairy Houses” phenomenon that is quickly catching on across the country.

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FOSE Tour Event contact:
Karen Whelan  [email protected]   603-427-0401

Media: Pre-Event Photo/Background Story Opportunities:

Strawbery Banke Garden Harvest Weekend
September 16-17 (Saturday & Sunday)
Families build fairy houses with children’s book author, Tracy Kane.
Fairy Houses built this weekend will be part of the display for the "Tour of Fairy Houses in Gardens of Portsmouth, NH."
Call 603-433-1108 or email [email protected] for further details.

Check closer to the event for further developments and opportunities.

Media Information
Visit the Light-Beams Publishing Media Center, (publishers of "The Fairy.Houses Series,") for Media documents and images.
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