THURSDAY 3
Event: St. Paul’s Flower Fair
Ask any gardener and she’ll tell you that by Mother’s Day, the weather should be right for planting. For 40 years, St. Paul’s Flower Fair in Cambridge has readied yards for that deadline with its early May market. Shoppers can find flowers, bedding plants and more for their backyard paradise. And festivalgoers won’t go hungry — the fair also sells crab cakes and oyster sandwiches. Let’s head to the shore.
May 3-4, 205 Maryland Ave., Cambridge. Free.
Theater: SOUL: The Stax Musical
As sad as we are to see Baltimore Center Stage artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah go, his exit couldn’t come with better music. The British actor and playwright will pay homage to the States with never-before-staged “SOUL: The Stax Musical.” The production tells the tale of the iconic label Stax Records, which launched the careers of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, David Porter and others and helped bridge the cultural gap during the civil rights movement.
May 3–June 10, Baltimore Center Stage. $20-$74.
Film: Maryland Film Festival
The beloved celebration of the silver screen is back. As per usual, the first night kicks off with original shorts. See the rest of our picks here.
May 2 -6 at the SNF Parkway. Ticket prices vary.
FRIDAY 4
Festival: FlowerMart Festival
Spring into the season at the FlowerMart Festival. While this is the perfect day to wear a bloom-filled chapeau, the festival, contrary to its name, offers so much more than flowers. Last year’s FlowerMart included a dog show, a dance competition, live music, local crafts and more. Of course, if you want to stick to theme, be sure to enter the festival’s hat contest.
May 4-5 at Mount Vernon. Free.
Theater: Kiss Me, Kate
The winner of the very first Tony for Best Musical, Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate” is nothing short of classic — from its play-within-a-play structure (the first of many “The Taming of the Shrew” spinoffs) to its award-winning score. This spring, Fred/Petruchio and Lilli/Katharine’s push-and-pull finds itself on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay when the Annapolis Shakespeare Company performs it May 4–June 3. $39+.
Shopping: Harbor Market
The Waterfront Partnership’s pop-up market returns for the season in McKeldin Square with food trucks, live music and local vendors.
May 4 – Oct. 26 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at McKeldin Square.
Event: Be a Hero Gala and Party
Support the Baltimore Child Abuse Center at the Be a Hero Gala and Party. Tickets are still available for the party, which features an open bar, local food vendors like Iron Rooster and Insomia Cookies, and DJ Biz Markie.
9: 30 p.m. at Port Discovery. $50 in advance, $75 at the door.
SATURDAY 5
Festival: Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival
Flock to the 2018 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival to celebrate sheep and wool in all ways imaginable, including spinning demonstrations, a sheep photo contest and shepherd workshops. While you’re there, you can catch some shepherd music, buy a sheep (or just their fleece) and taste some lamb-based dishes. This festival offers fun for the whole family.
May 5-6 at the Howard County Fairgrounds. $5.
Music: Salute to Bernstein
What goes together better than NPR and Leonard Bernstein? The iconic pair plus the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, of course. NPR’s Scott Simon joins the orchestra in a Salute to Bernstein, featuring Bernstein protégé and BSO conductor Marin Alsop. Alsop and Simon will discuss Bernstein, accompanied by orchestra performances of hits from “West Side Story,” “Candide” and “On the Town.”
May 5, the Meyerhoff. $25-$65.
Event: Pawject Runway
For a terrifically wholesome event, BARCS and Show Your Soft Side’s Pawject Runway has a pretty racy tagline. But we’ll give “the only fashion show where you can go home with a model” a free pass — after all, when the models are so cute and cuddly, who could resist? As always, the shelter pet-fashion show will feature some famous two-legged models as well, including former Raven Torrey Smith and other sports and media celebrities. We’ll admit: They’re all pretty adorable.
May 5, Royal Farms Arena. $35.
Festival: Ladew Garden Festival
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Ladew Garden Festival, and it’s ready to celebrate with honorary co-chairs Bunny Williams and John Rosselli and a cocktail party preview. The one-day specialty plant and garden ornaments sale features 45 vendors peddling “hard-to-find perennials and annuals, unusual exotics and container specialties, decorative garden furniture, urns, statuary and other architectural treasures.”
May 5, Ladew Gardens. $15-$20.
Festival: Festival for the Animals
Come out to celebrate and support furry friends of all kinds at the SPCA’s Festival for the Animals. The event kicks off with a walk-a-thon, followed by a day of pet activities, contests, vendors, and music from The Original Wailers, Electric Love Machine, J Pope and the Hearnow and more.
10 a.m. – 9 p.m. at Port Covington. Prices vary for registration and concert.
Kinetic Sculpture Race
Prepare for the unexpected at the 20th Annual Kinetic Sculpture Race. This year’s theme, “Mysteries and Tall Tales,” will have artists and inventors going above and beyond to create human-powered works of art that can (hopefully) travel on land and sea.
May 5, American Visionary Art Museum, 10 a.m., free, avam.org
SUNDAY 6
Music: Durufle Requiem
The Baltimore Choral Arts society presents the original Requiem from Durafle, accompanied by Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and other Duraufle selections. The Requiem will feature celebrated organist Jeremy Filsell, playing the “magnificent organ” at St. Paul’s.
3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Tickets: $20-$28.
Event: AIDS Walk and Run
Get fit for a good cause at this walk/run, presented by Quest Diagnostics. Proceeds support “increased peer advocacy, appointment copays, medications, and health and wellness essentials.”
Registration begins at 7 a.m. and the walk/run begins at 7:45 a.m. at the Maryland Zoo.
Art: Religious Pluralism in the Museum
The Boshell lectures’ Constructing Cultural Context series continues with a conversation between artist Jamelie Hassan and Amy Landau, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Islamic and South & Southeast Asian Art, exploring “how museums contextualize and display religious and sacred objects.”
2 -3:30 p.m. at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Free.
