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Best of Boston: Festivals Part of the Places of a Lifetime series from Traveler magazine

Expert recommendations of the top events—with tips on how to best experience these celebrations.

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New England Spring Flower Show
Early March. An explosion of color at the end of a cold and colorless winter, Bayside Expo Center. www.masshort.org

Feast of St. Anthony
Weekend of the last Sunday in August. Live cooking demonstrations, Italian music and dance, an outdoor Mass, and a parading statue of Saint Anthony in Boston’s famed North End Italian enclave; festival starts on Friday evening but be sure to be there for the parade on Sunday—it’s a moving party that lasts all day long. www.stanthonysfeast.com

Patriots’ Day
Third Monday in April. Annual celebration of the “shot heard round the world”—the first battles of the American Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord—combines the running of the Boston Marathon, a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and much ado. www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/PatriotsDay.asp

Fourth of July

The Charles River Esplanade, the Boston Pops, fireworks, and lots and lots of people; it’s a New England institution unto itself. Keith Lockhart conducts the ever-popular Boston Pops Orchestra concert in the Hatch Shell. www.july4th.org

Head of the Charles Regatta
Third full weekend in October. About 8,200 athletes from around the country and the world compete in 55 different rowing events; gather along the banks of the Charles to watch the world’s best row by. www.hocr.org

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Know Before You Go: Boston

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