Window Display Contest 2026 Results
First place: Harbor Creamery, “Harbor Love”
Defending champion Harbor Creamery does it again! This fun and whimsical window captured people’s hearts and taste buds with floating scoops of ice cream representing trans and pan flags, rainbow sprinkles, and hearts galore.
Second place: Dome “From the Seas to the Skies”
A description of this beautiful, moving window display theme from Dome:
“This year’s Pride window celebrates a simple truth: LGBTQ+ people have always been here.
On one side sits the William, a sloop stolen in 1720 by Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two of history’s most fearless female pirates. Above it all stands Sally Ride, the first queer woman astronaut, holding a Pride flag in space.
Between them is the natural world: a New England salt marsh, coastal seabirds, and the landscapes that connect us all. A reminder that our choices ripple across our three Domes: our bodies, our homes, and our planet. Every choice becomes part of a larger ecosystem, and that ecosystem belongs to everyone.
This window celebrates these connections through nature, while honoring LGBTQ+ people who have always been part of the story.
Because queer people belong everywhere. On the water. On the land. In the sky. And among us, every day.”
Third Place: Shanti Salon “Rainbow Harbor/LGBTQIA+ Wildlife”
A description of this educational and adorable window display from Shanti Salon:
“Many creatures, both big and small, on land and in the sea, exhibit “queer” behavior. Those pictured here represent just some of the many aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures you may already be familiar with. Their descriptions presented here are just a brief summary of how they mirror the spectrum of human sexuality and gender. We invite you to dive deeper into other ways queerness is represented in the natural world.”
Newburyport Pride Co-Chairs’ Choice: The Paddle Inn
From the co-chairs: “The Paddle Inn consistently goes above and beyond with their joyful and playful window displays for Newburyport Pride. This year’s window was no exception! Missing third place by only a few votes, they deserve a special shoutout for the buoys representing the diversity of identities in the LGBTQIA+ community, the sweet little boats representing the different restaurants in their group, an the great white shark, which we assume is either a reference to the 50th anniversary of Jaws or the precarity of queer joy against the backdrop of the rise of fascism. Or maybe it’s just a shark hungry for Paddle’s delicious Crab Rangoons.”
