Lowell keeps popping up in the headlines of clickbait articles about “top places to live.” The Town and the City Festival (named after Jack Kerouac’s semiautobiographical novel about his childhood in Lowell) is on the long list of reasons why. The multiday music festival returns every year...

There’s a new Irish festival in town: Tunes on the Charles. Information is still trickling in. The Instagram account has only eight posts. Media inquiries have so far gone unanswered. But you know the drill. This is a traditional Irish music festival in a metro area that...