2025 Democracy Festival

Save Saturday, August 2, 2025 for an afternoon of food, music by Folksoul Duo, Eve Pierce & others, speakers and activities for a Democracy Festival: Steps Toward a Democracy Money Can’t Buy!

If you're looking for info on the morning's Granny D Walk, which is the start of the Festival, please CLICK HERE

WHERE: Putnam Park, Peterborough, NH

WHEN: Noon Please bring a chair if you need one!

Speakers:

Matt Keller is a Senior Advisor at Democracy 21. Keller currently serves as the Director of Impact and Inclusion at the Algorand Foundation, where he is focused on bringing web3, blockchain-based solutions to UN agencies working in distressed areas of the world. Keller previously served as Executive Director of the Global Learning XPRIZE, as Vice President of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), as legal counsel for the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome, Italy, and as Legislative Director for Common Cause, where he led the organization’s efforts to enact the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

When Matt was legislative director of Common Cause during the battle to enact McCain-Feingold, he walked over 500 miles with Granny D and hosted her on completion of her walk with a rally on the East Steps of the U.S. Capital Budling in Washington, DC.

Michael "Lefty" Morrill is currently Organizing Director for NH Peace Action & NH Peace Action Education Fund. He is a community leader with a lifelong dedication to social and economic justice.

Lefty was arrested with Granny D in 2000 when she was manacled and jailed for reading the Declaration of Independence in the Capitol Rotunda.

Lisa Beaudoin has spent her life making good trouble—from disrupting a New York Times shareholder meeting in 1994 over old-growth rainforest destruction to being arrested in Washington, D.C. defending Medicaid and the ACA during the 1st Trump admin. Today, she's one of the state’s top disability policy professionals who formerly ran ABLE NH, she now leads the NH Council of Churches and chairs the Concord City Democrats, continuing a fierce legacy of strategic, equity-centered, justice-driven advocacy. Let’s welcome NH’s Hands Off Medicaid jail bird who will be sharing with us the unholy impacts of Christian nationalism in NH.

Madi Paige is a sophomore at Rochester University where she is studying political science. Madi is also a student athlete who plays on the varsity softball team. She has recently joined Open Democracy NH as the new High School Voter Registration Fellow for the upcoming fall semester.

Madi started her work with high school voter registration during her senior year at Exeter High School where she registered 45 of her peers as well as establishing a tradition that has carried on every year since her graduation. She has since helped dozens of volunteers, students, and teachers learn the skills necessary to support these efforts in their own communities across the Granite State. She was a page for US Senator Maggie Hassan where Madi worked across the aisle to support New Hampshire residents.

Madi is a pioneer for high school voter registration work in the state and was awarded the Civic Leadership Award in 2024 at the Open Democracy Annual Meeting.

Entertainment:

We'll have music by FolkSoul Duo: Leslie Vogel and Fred Simmons live in Greenfield, New Hampshire. With their home umbrella organization, Folksoul Music, which includes their Folksoul Duo, the band Tattoo and the Folksoul Band, they have been bringing American Roots music of all styles to the communities of the Monadnock Region and beyond for the past three decades. During Doris “Granny D” Haddock’s run for US Senate in New Hampshire Fred and Leslie and a couple of other friend musicians decided to become Granny D’s personal marching band as she walked into the many towns of this state to give her memorable campaign speeches in the village squares.

Eve Pierce is a passionate and charismatic singer-songwriter who currently splits her time between writing and performing her original songs, performing the lead vocals for the Celtic Rock band Waking Finnegan, and creating Folk Cabarets with her friend and fellow musician Gordon Peery. Her debut album "Save the Bell Tower" was released in 2021 and is available for purchase and download. She is currently working on her next solo album and Waking Finnegan’s first album. You can learn more about her at evepierce.com.

Artist Sophia Asbury will join us to do caricature art! Have your caricature done in a variety of sizes. They make great gifts! Check out all of Sophia's art HERE.

We need volunteers! Please fill out THIS FORM if you are willing to serve as a shuttle driver, a crossing guard, a setup or clean up person, serving lunch or ice cream or any of the other myriad of volunteer opportunities we will have!

The site is accessible, please email if you need special assistance/arrangements. Please park at the Riverwalk parking lot. 48 Grove St. It is a very short distance to Putnam Park.

Special thanks to our wonderful cosponsors for their financial, planning organizational support: League of Women Voters/NH, NH Council of Churches, NH Peace Action, Welcoming NH, Occupy NH Seacoast, NH Center for Justice & Equity, NH Youth Movement, National Committee to Preserve Social Security,