Savoring summer, one meal, festival, beach day, and outing at a time

From the editor ~ July/August 2025

Dear readers,

By the time this issue arrives in your hands, summer will be in full swing — at last!

My favorite way to enjoy (hopefully sunny!) summer weekends is having breakfast on my building’s balcony, where the view includes ample people-watching and a sliver of the harbor (along with the ever-present sound of seagulls), followed by a bike ride to the beach and several dips in the sea, whether with company or in solitude. Evenings are best enjoyed back on the balcony, in a friend’s backyard, or at a rotation of bars — where the people-watching and conversation continues.

I don’t take such leisurely — or luxurious — days for granted, but I do look forward to them all year long. And it is days such as these that make living here worthwhile — dare I say enviable — despite the madness of tourist season. In these pages we celebrate the best of what summertime offers: live music, competitive sports, and the freshest seafood, locally caught.

Cathy Callahan spotlights Newport Live, which launched five years ago and builds on the legacy of Common Fence Music. The group will host several musicians this summer, with concerts at the Norman Bird Sanctuary and Greenvale Vineyards.

We also have a story on local rising musicians: Met School students enrolled in the Newport Festivals Music Lab, a program of the Festivals Foundation, which oversees the Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival. For their culminating project, the youths will perform on the Foundation Stage at Folk Fest
this July. (Not to be too biased, but when I sat in on a rehearsal at the Firehouse Theater in early June, they sounded really good).

Andrea McHugh breaks down the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s new museum exhibition space, tournament(s), and expanded induction ceremony, all of which feature new elements — including women returning to the courts for competitive play.

Our profile subject, Erica Lush, is a competitive athlete of another kind: a sailor heading to France to compete in La Solitaire du Figaro, a rigorous offshore race that she began training for in January. Lush, from Jamestown, has long been paving the way for women in the sport, and will bring that energy to France this August.

Then there is our cover story: Bob Curley’s feature on local seafood and the work of Eating with the Ecosystem, a nonprofit with “a place-based approach to sustaining New England’s wild seafood.” They work with chefs, fishermen, and consumers, and host an annual fundraiser called Fishes at the Fort, this year held at Fort Getty in Jamestown. And because we couldn’t do a multipage spread on local seafood without sharing recipes, we include two — one of them is for a Green Crab Caesar, a twist on a Bloody Mary. (See also our Favorite Finds spread, which offers Newport Life’s take on “California Sober,” including
alternative ways to have fun & relax, sans alcohol).

I, along with my colleagues, hope you savor these stories wherever you most enjoy your summer reading.

Until September,

Helena

Managing Editor

p.s. Newport Life is excited to bring back the beloved Best of Newport County awards! Nominations for all your local favorites are open through Aug. 1 (see page 22 for details). Finalists will be named in our September/October issue, and voting will take place from mid-September to early December, with winners announced in our January/February issue!

p.p.s. Wondering where to find the magazine? Check out this list of retail locations: https://www.newportlifemagazine.com/where-to-buy-nlm/

p.p.p.s. Interested in subscribing? You can do that here: https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/newport-life-magazine