There is more to do in Lowell than most people expect: a national historical park woven through downtown, River Hawks hockey at the Tsongas Center, shows at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the largest free folk festival in the country every summer, and a state forest and river at the edges of the city. I take my family to a lot of it myself, and it is a big part of why I have never stopped loving this city.
Start With the History
Lowell National Historical Park is unlike anything else in Massachusetts. The Boott Cotton Mills Museum puts you on a working weave room floor, seasonal canal boat tours and trolley rides connect the downtown sites, and the mill buildings, canals, and boardinghouse blocks tell the story of America's first planned industrial city. It is the tour I give every newcomer, because once you understand what Lowell was, everything you see today makes more sense.
Hockey, Shows, and the Auditorium
The Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell is the region's arena, home to UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey, which my family follows all winter, plus concerts and events through the year. Across downtown, the Lowell Memorial Auditorium hosts touring shows, comedy, concerts, and the New England Golden Gloves, carrying on Lowell's deep boxing tradition. Between the two venues, there is something on the calendar in this city nearly every week.
Summer in the City
Late July brings the Lowell Folk Festival, the largest free folk festival in the country, with stages spread across downtown and food from the whole world. The Lowell Summer Music Series fills Boarding House Park with concerts on summer nights, and the Sampas Pavilion on the Pawtucketville riverfront hosts its own riverfront shows. Add the Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsborough State Forest, the Merrimack River, and a downtown full of restaurants, and summer is the season when Lowell shows off.
The Quieter Pleasures
Not everything needs a ticket. Lowell is Jack Kerouac's hometown, and Kerouac Park and the literary sites draw readers from everywhere. The Pollard Memorial Library runs programs year round, galleries and small theaters keep a local arts calendar going, and the neighborhoods each have their own fields, parks, and gathering spots. This is a city that rewards people who get out into it.
Make a Weekend of It
Here is the weekend I suggest to anyone deciding on Lowell: Saturday morning at the Boott Mills Museum and a canal boat tour, lunch downtown, then River Hawks hockey or an Auditorium show at night. Sunday, coffee at Brew'd Awakening, a few miles in the state forest, and dinner somewhere you have never tried. People who take that weekend usually stop asking whether there is enough to do here.
If you are thinking about moving to Lowell and want to live near the parts of the city you will actually use, let us talk. Call me at (978) 746-0124 and tell me what your weekends look like; we will find the home that matches them.
Chris Doherty is the #1 selling agent in Lowell, ranked #1 in the city again and again, including in 2024 and 2025, and he is one of Greater Lowell's top-producing agents. He personally sells 100+ homes a year, with 3,000+ career transactions, and Doherty Properties, the company he leads, has handled over $1 billion in real estate transactions.
Doherty Properties LLC, 14 Jackson Street, Lowell, MA 01852 | 160 Main Street, Unit 7, Haverhill, MA 01830 | 4 Courthouse Lane, Suite 2, Chelmsford, MA 01824 | (978) 746-0124 | [email protected]
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