This year’s Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race–featuring “human powered sculptures racing for glory through stone, mud and water”–is Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. Admission is free. It’s one of my favorite spectacles in New England each year.
First held in 2016, the madcap contest challenges racers to create human-powered, all-terrain sculptures that can survive the streets of Lowell, Massachusetts, as well as sand, water, and mud. The contraptions are mutant hybrids of bicycles, rafts, art and comedy–sometimes resembling dogs, a snail, a train, ships, the Millennium Falcon, or a giant lobster.
Schedule:
9 to 11 a.m.: Check out the contraptions and racers on Market Street between Shattuck and Palmer streets.
11:30 a.m.: Race begins, heading down Middle Street, into the Merrimack River, etc., to finish back at the beginning.
Hightlights:
- Racers struggling through the Mud Pit in the parking lot outside of Jeanne D’arc Credit Union, 1 Tremont Place.
- Racers splashing into the Merrimack River at Lowell Heritage State Park.
Previously:
2019: Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race Braves City Streets, Mud, Merrimack River, Art
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