May changes the rhythm of the Northeast Kingdom.
The days stretch longer. The back roads soften. The first lawn signs for community suppers, outdoor concerts, and summer festivals start appearing along the roadsides. Farms, shops, trails, and downtowns all begin to feel that familiar lift when visitor season returns.
Here in the Northeast Kingdom, visitor season is not just about tourism, it is about pride.
It is about remembering what we have here.
For those of us who live in the NEK year-round, it can be easy to move through our days focused on the challenges in front of us: workforce shortages, housing pressures, rising costs, and the daily realities of rural life. Those challenges are real. The Chamber talks about them often because they matter deeply to the future of our region.
But May is also a good time to look around and remember something else that is equally true: people travel from all over to experience what we sometimes take for granted.
They come for our mountains and lakes, for dirt roads and village greens, for music under open skies, for food made by people who know the farmers who grew it. They come because the Northeast Kingdom still feels like a place with a soul; and truly, there is no more beautiful place to spend your days.
This summer, there will be no shortage of ways to spend them.
The season ahead is full of festivals, live performances, farmers markets, community celebrations, and local gatherings that show the best of who we are. Some events are large enough to draw visitors from well beyond Vermont. Others are small, volunteer-driven traditions that bring neighbors together year after year. Both are important. Both are part of the texture of this place.
That is one of the things I love most about the Northeast Kingdom: you do not have to choose between natural beauty and cultural life. You can hike in the morning, hear live music in the afternoon, and end the day watching the sunset over a lake or mountain ridge. One weekend at a festival, another on a rail trail, another discovering a town you somehow still have not explored.
And if you are someone who says, “There’s nothing to do up here”, you are not looking closely enough. There is always something happening in the Northeast Kingdom!
That is part of why the Chamber is putting renewed energy into NortheastKingdom.com— a central place where residents, visitors, businesses, and community partners can find what is happening across the region all season long. If your business, town, nonprofit, or organization has an event to share, make sure it is listed. The more complete the calendar, the stronger it becomes for everyone. Tourism, at its best, is not separate from community life. It supports local businesses, artists, and downtowns. It introduces people to the region who may later return, relocate, invest, or start businesses here. It gives local residents more to enjoy. It helps sustain the very places that make life here richer.
But tourism also works best when it feels authentic. The Northeast Kingdom does not need to become something else to attract people. Our strength is in our variety: the wildness of Essex County, the lakes and villages of Orleans County, the historic downtowns of Caledonia County, and all the hills, farms, and gathering places in between.
We are rugged and creative. Practical and artistic. Independent and deeply connected. We are a place where a world-class performance can happen in a small-town venue, where a brewery can become a community hub, where a farmers market can feel like a reunion, and where a summer evening outdoors can remind you why people fight so hard to stay here.
Last month, in this column, I wrote about growth, renewal, and fresh starts. May feels like the natural next step. Growth is not only about buildings, budgets, and business plans. Sometimes it begins with seeing what is already here more clearly. Sometimes renewal begins when a community remembers its own value.
That is what visitor season offers us.
It is an invitation to welcome others, yes. But it is also an invitation to reintroduce ourselves to our own home.
So this summer, go somewhere in the NEK you have not been in a while. Take the long way. Buy the ticket. Bring your friends to an outdoor concert. Spend the afternoon in a neighboring town. Stay for the music, the food, the conversation.
And when people ask what there is to do in the Northeast Kingdom, tell them the truth:
Plenty.
More than plenty.
The Northeast Kingdom is full of beauty, creativity, and joy. You just have to step outside and find it.
Watch NortheastKingdom.com for events throughout the summer and then go be part of them.
— Loralee Tester is Executive Director of the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, serving Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties.

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