Feeling adventurous? Maybe you’d like to attend an off-color pole dancing version of “The Wiz” or a performance by “the most bonkers live band on earth.” You’ll find plenty of mellower forms of entertainment below. Whatever you choose, if you head out on Saturday, check the routes of the Baltimore Running Festival for road closures.
Thursday, Oct. 15
Annapolis Sailboat Show
Sailboats from around the world will line floating docks in Annapolis this weekend as part of the nation’s largest in-water sailboat show. Multihulls, monohulls, cruisers, racers, sailing dinghies and more will be open for visits. The schedule includes events for beginners, live-man-overboard demos, free seminars and lots of partying.
Time: 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Price: $32; children six and under are free; children 7-15 are $10
Location: City Dock (1 Dock St., Annapolis)
Family friendly? Yes
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Bechdel Live Podcast
The famous Bechdel test, named after cartoonist Alison Bechdel, asks whether a film includes at least two women having a conversation about something other than a man. (More stringent testers require those women to have names.) A decade ago, comedians Jamie Loftus and Caitlin Durante created a podcast riffing off this idea. Each episode takes on a different movie, and, these days, the hosts apply the test to other marginalized genders as well. Join the hosts during their 10-year anniversary tour, “Whoops We Didn’t Dismantle the Patriarchy.” The evening will include games, fan fic and comedy. Movie-inspired costumes welcome.
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Price: $40-$51
Location: The Creative Alliance (3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore)
Family friendly? Probably not.
Boos and Bites
Make your way from bar to restaurant on this scavenger hunt, finding hidden items, completing challenges and checking off as many squares as you can. Pick up a bingo card from one of the participating venues, which include Clavel, Dutch Courage, No Land Beyond and Pink Flamingo, and The Abortion Fund of Maryland receives a percentage of the proceeds from select menu items as you proceed. Routes for sober participants as well as drinkers are available.
Time: 5-9 p.m.
Price: Free to participate; food and drink cost money
Location: Various
Family friendly? No
Rhett Miller
Rhett Miller, the lead singer of alt-country pioneers Old 97’s, also performs solo — and is a writer of children’s books, essays and short stories, for good measure. On Thursday, he plays his sophisticated brand of pop at the recently reopened 8x10, with local folkie Caleb Stine as opener.
If you’re in the mood for a whole weekend of singer/songwriters, check out Jason Narducy of Bob Mould/Superchunk/Sunny Day Real Estate fame on Friday at 8 p.m. ($44; Club 603, 603 Edgevale Road, Baltimore) and Noah Gunderson on Sunday at 6 p.m. ($27; Metro Baltimore, 1700 N. Charles St., Baltimore).
Time: 8 p.m.
Price: $35-$64
Location: The 8x10 (10 E. Cross St., Baltimore)
Family friendly? No
Friday, Oct. 16
Maryland Fall Home and Garden Show
A one-stop shop for salivating over home and garden items, the Maryland Fall Home and Garden Show includes a tiny-house exhibit, a maker marketplace, a petting zoo, demos from the Baltimore County Master Gardeners on topics like composting and growing herbs indoors, and exhibitors hawking everything from doorknobs to hot tubs. Plus, home reno personalities and cabin rejuvenators will be doing some in-person influencing.
If you’d rather appreciate a fine home than create one, take the Butchers Hill House Tour on Sunday instead ($20-$25; starting at Superintendent’s House in Patterson Park, 2746 St. Paul St., Baltimore).
Time: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Price: $8-$10; children 6-12 are $4; children 5 and under are free
Location: Timonium Fairgrounds Cow Palace (2200 York Road, Timonium)
Family friendly? Yes
Sound and Shadow
What does it mean to see like an animator? This event is part of an ongoing exhibition that asks that question in the run-up to November’s Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival. The evening features storytelling, performances and musical acts hosted by a local group of animators. Performers will include artist, musician and shadow puppeteer Maisie O’Brien, sculptor and puppeteer Lou Hemler, musician and folk artist Georgia Beatty and animator and artist Jesi Jordan.
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Price: Free
Location: Area 405 (405 E. Oliver St., Baltimore)
Family friendly? Technically, but this ain’t “Peppa Pig.”
PlayTest Interactive Stories Live
This Free Fall Baltimore event invites the audience to participate in narratives as they are told on stage, a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure tale. Local literary games publisher Scryptid Games helped design the evening, during which participants will take part in written word games, oral storytelling, songs, chanting and “improvised noisemaking.”
Time: 7-10 p.m.
Price: Free
Location: Station North Tool Library (417 E. Oliver St.)
Family friendly? No
Saturday, Oct. 17
Baltimore Running Festival
Around 15,000 runners will pound the pavement on Saturday as participants in the Baltimore Running Festival’s 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon. The routes showcase the city’s waterfront views and its famously supportive crowds. Join the huffers and puffers or expend your energy in cheering them on instead.
Time: Staggered start times between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Price: $75-$160
Location: Inner Harbor; begins and ends in different locations depending on race distance
Family friendly? Yes, but strollers are prohibited and there are different age requirements for each race.
Color Columbia Plein Air Event
Fifty artists will station themselves around Lake Kittamaqundi and Wilde Lake in downtown Columbia on Saturday. Passersby are welcome to watch as the artists paint and draw. Each of the lakes is about 1.4 miles around and largely paved, so seeing all the artists over the course of several hours is quite doable.
For more outdoor art, check out Art at the Park at Quiet Waters Park Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ($8 per vehicle; 600 Quiet Waters Park Road, Annapolis).
Time: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Price: Free
Location: Lake Kittamaqundi and Wilde Lake, Columbia
Family friendly? Yes
Captain Avery Museum Oyster Festival
Knock back fresh-shucked oysters at the historic home of 19th-century waterman Salem Avery, who no doubt did much of the same. Follow up with a Chesapeake Bloody Mary, an oyster shooter or more prosaic beverages, as well as Chesapeake favorites from local restaurants. Also on offer: live music, a 50/50 raffle, children’s activities and vendors selling handmade goods.
Time: 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Price: $20; kids 8 and under are free
Location: The Captain Avery Museum (1418 E. West Shady Side Road, Shady Side)
Family friendly? Yes
Celebrate Nigeria, Latin America and Italy
Did you know that Nigerians drink more Guinness than the Irish? Join thousands of visitors from across the mid-Atlantic to celebrate that connection at the Nigerian American Festival. Live music, food and performances will be on tap (4-9 p.m. Friday, noon-10 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday; Guinness Open Gate Brewery, 5001 Washington Blvd., Halethorpe). Or eat, drink and listen to music at the Hispanic Heritage Festival on Saturday, noon-4:30pm (The Chrysalis, Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, 10431 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia). Or take part in the sausage-eating contest or Venetian mask painting at the enormous Italian Heritage Fall Festival Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (Towson Courthouse Square, 400 Washington Ave., Towson).
Time: Various
Price: Free
Location: Various
Family friendly? Yes
Baltimore Improv Group takes on the Park Service
The wild card of the weekend, this event involves members of the Baltimore Improv Group riffing off an interview with Angela Crenshaw, director of the Maryland State Park Service. Drunken campers? Animal shenanigans? Drunken animal shenanigans? Hard to know what to expect, but it sounds promising.
Time: 8-9 p.m.
Price: $10
Location: Baltimore Improv Group (1727 N. Charles St., Baltimore)
Family friendly? Improv is always a gamble.
Sunday, Oct. 18
Punk Rock Flea Market
Ottobar’s punk rock flea market is your most likely place to find, say, a taxidermy squirrel with an ear piercing. Browse the wares of more than 50 local artists, makers and vintage collectors while partaking in locally made food and drink. Wander over to the Halloween Market at R. House on the same day for creepy goods with less of an edge (11 a.m.-3 p.m.; 301 W. 29th Street, Baltimore).
Time: Noon-4 p.m.
Price: Free
Location: Ottobar (2549 Howard St., Baltimore)
Family friendly? I mean, it’s a flea market. Just distract them from the sexy stuff.
‘American Belonging’
The Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s first concert of the season explores what it means to belong in America, a timely topic if ever there was one. The repertoire will include immigration stories, classic pieces like “Give Me your Tired, Your Poor” by Irving Berlin, and new compositions by Saunder Choi, Caroline Shaw and others.
The acclaimed British choral group Voces8 happens to perform the same night, 7-9 p.m., singing compositions by everyone from 16th-century composer John Sheppard to Simon and Garfunkel ($15-$75; Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 811 Cathedral St., Baltimore).
Time: 4 p.m.
Price: $26-$52
Location: Goucher College – Kraushaar Auditorium (1021 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson)
Family friendly? Yes
The big names
Here are a few of the national acts making stops in local venues this week:
King and Country at the Lyric on Thursday; T.I., Fabolous and Trina at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena on Friday; and Disney on Ice at CFG Bank Arena Thursday through Sunday.
Andrea Appleton is a Baltimore-based writer and journalist.
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