The Summer Stroll vendor's booth of Tina Alexopoulos, owner of an events-based business with an online following known as LuLaRoe Tina Alexopoulos, caters to ladies who browse the catalog offered by the home-based entrepreneur and mother of three boys at ShopTinaTheGreek.com. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

NASHUA – The Nashua Summer Stroll presented on July 25 by the Downtown Nashua Association (DNA) set aside two blocks of Main Street as a pedestrian promenade lined with more than 50 vendors and attractions including a roller skating rink, food trucks, live music, arts, crafts and handmades.

“This year’s Summer Stroll was another fantastic celebration of our downtown community — it’s so wonderful to see crowds enjoying one of our biggest events of the year,” said Alyssa O’Mara, DNA director.

The assortment of diversions, available 4-8 p.m., was geared to providing fun, cultural, educational or whimsical entertainments for all ages.

Dozens patronized the street space reserved for Team Phoenix 4-H FIRST Robotics Club 2342 of Nashua. A low-slung, remotely controlled robot was programmed with a trap door in the front whose gears shot out a soccer ball with some force. Many children playing the game were successful in rolling the ball back into the mechanical mouth of the robot.

Elsewhere, local musicians from the School of Rock Nashua, plus Ruby Shabazz & Fee the Evolutionist, found audiences whose gyrators danced as if nobody was watching.

A promising music career may be in store for some of the Summer Stroll visitors, including these musicians from the Felix Family and the Castacio Family, both from Nashua, whose young players showed some righteous skills on one of two public pianos provided for people's summertime enjoyment by Darrell's Music Hall and Piano Gallery on Main Street. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Two public pianos provided by nearby Darrell’s Music Hall and Piano Gallery during a recent Taste of Downtown festival, were well played by passersby.

Some of the most enthusiastic musicians were some highly talented youngsters from the Felix Family and the Castacio Family, both of Nashua. A future in music for a few surely is promising.

A short detour from the event took families and friends a few blocks away to listen to one of the nearby Summer Music @ The Riverwalk performances, a series sponsored by the Nashua Arts Commission.

The featured musicians at the Riverwalk Pavilion, 23 Water St., were members of “Wheelhouse,” a band whose forte is rock, pop, and originals that surely ensure repeat performances.

The major sponsors of Summer Stroll 2026 include Triangle Credit Union, St. Mary’s Bank and the University of New Hampshire.

On hand at the Nashua Summer Stroll was this group of representatives from Mel's Funway Park, 454 Charles Bancroft Highway (Route 3A) in Litchfield, a venue known for its arcade, mini golf, bumper boats and go-karts but one currently preparing for its "Spooky World Presents Nightmare New England" with some job fairs for age 16 and age 17 ghoulies, ghosties, monsters and bump-in-the-nighters, upcoming on Aug. 9 (2-4 p.m.), Aug. 16 (2-4 p.m.), and Aug. 29 (5-7 p.m.). (melsfunwaypark.com) Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

The innovative debut of an artificial roller skating rink, complete with free skate rentals, was a summertime edition of an ice skating rink replicated on Main Street during last year’s Nashua Winter Stroll.

“We are incredibly grateful to our volunteers, sponsors, performers, vendors and especially the City of Nashua for the partnership, support and trust that makes this event such a success,” O’Mara added.

She invited everyone to come back to town for Coloring Main Street in September and the Main Street Monster Mash in October. Later, there arrives the Festival of Trees, Main Street Unwrapped, Plaid Friday and the annual Winter Stroll.

Meanwhile, the event wound down for Lindsay Colle of Hudson and her children, who found additional diversions in some games of hopscotch played upon a pink chalk grid sketched on a sidewalk near Pearl Street.

The energetic hopscotchers were Giulia Colle, age 3, Enzo Colle, age 6, and Isabella Colle, 9-years old, who surely made hop-hop-hop an art form at the Summer Stroll.

A major attraction at the recent Summer Stroll was a crew from Positive Street Art, a local nonprofit renowned for elaborate wall murals whose members helping visitors create a wall mural during the Stroll included these artists, Dina Akel, foreground, a volunteer from Nashua, on site here with fellow artists, standing from left, Cecilia Ulibarri, a Nashua resident and the executive director and co-founder of Positive Street Art, Ruben DeJesus a Nashua volunteer, Khaira Bagley, an art program facilitator from Manchester and Manuel Ramirez, creative director and co-founder of Positive Street Art. (positivestreetart.org) Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

“We had a great time checking out all of the vendors and sampling some yummy food,” Colle said.

More information on the Nashua Summer Stroll 2026 and the roster of upcoming events is available by visiting downtownnashua.org.

Robotics demonstrations by members of Team Phoenix FIRST Robotics Competition Team (FRC) 2342, a Nashua-based robotics competition team, entertained crowds as at the Nashua Summer Stroll as a part of the program hosted by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a global nonprofit fostering skills for future engineers and elite technicians in robotics and related fields. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

The Nashua Summer Stroll of 2026 along Main Street, hosted on July 25 by the Downtown Nashua Association, drew hundreds of patrons including these visitors, from left, Diane, Kristy, Angel and Clohe, shopping for souvenirs on Main Street. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

A Summer Music @ The Riverwalk series concert, sponsored by the Nashua Arts Commission, was performed by Wheelhouse, a classic rock band based in Lunenburg, Mass., whose members, except for drummer Matt Peplowski, busy elsewhere, include, from left, Rob Waltz, Rob Shapiro and Michael Pistone, composers and producers of original music, available online — wheelhouserocks.com. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Officers from the Nashua Police Department, along with emergency personnel from Nashua Fire Rescue, were on hand at the recent Summer Stroll, an event whose amenities included patrol services and resources for assistance in case of potential medical emergencies. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON