The ParkGeek Passport Challenge continues this weekend! Come join the fun by attending a featured event or visiting a Wake County Park. Find the Challenge Destination Sign, scan the QR Code with your phone and log in as much free fun as you can between now and New Years! If you don't have a scanable phone, each sign also has a website you can log in with. This week's featured event is Heritage Day at Historic Oak View Park. See more below.

 

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Thursday at the NC State Farmers Market, the Great Pumpkin Contest will feature a kids decorated pumpkin contest, the largest pumpkin contest and free pumpkin recipes along with the amazing collection of pumpkins, fall squash and mums that local farmers have to offer.

 

Thursday evening, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences hosts a Science Cafe all about Science Trivia. The NC Museum of History invites you to join a panel of analysts who will look at how NC is a Battleground State with national attention focused on the races for president, governor, and Congress. Morehead Planetarium will present Dr. Stan Riggs speaking on Climate Change and Sea Level Rise.

 

Friday night, head over to City Market and enjoy a Music on the Market Concert featuring the band Day 2. Moore Square will be the site of a Jewish Sukkot Fall Festival on Friday.

 

First Friday in downtown Raleigh features extended hours at Marbles Kids Museum and the Raleigh City Museum along with a Gallery Walk.

 

Along with extended hours at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the Nature Research Center, First Friday treats visitors to live music, an opening reception for Charlotte-based painter Ruth Ava Lyons and a Teen Science Café about fear and anxiety in animals. This month's classic sci-fi flick will be Time Bandits.

 

The North Carolina Museum of Art hosts Art in the Evening every Friday with extended hours, music by the Davis Dryer Trio and light fare. Browse the galleries, join a Gallery Tour on how night is captured on canvas and then stay for the 1942 film, This Gun for Hire.

 

Want to enjoy a First Friday out in the crisp fall air? Crowder District Park invites you to join them for Going Batty and Bass Lake Park wraps up their season with one last Family Fun Night and Trish Miller Concert.

 

Future Hall of Famer LCD Soundsystem bids farewell in the film Shut Up and Play the Hits, showing Friday night at the American Tobacco Campus Amphitheatre.

 

 

Heritage Day at Oak View County Park is everything an old time fair should be. Live entertainment, heritage crafts, re-enactors, hay rides, historic farm equipment, cane pole fishing, festival foods and lots of live animals! Come on out and cheer on the 4-H kids as they compete for ribbons. Heritage Day is the Passport Challenge Featured Event. Come find ParkGeek at the Festival and scan in one more great free event.

 

Bass Lake Day celebrates environmental education with interactive displays and exhibits about North Carolina's environment. Learn about soil types and water quality, touch pelts from a variety of our native critters and explore the wide diversity of aquatic life we enjoy. The evening will end with a concert.

 

Saturday also boasts Heritage Day at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. The annual fall festival includes hands on activities, live entertainment, exhibits and live demonstrations. Craft projects include making corn shuck dolls, bird houses, pine cone feeders, and tin punching.

 

Bring the kids and the dog out to Hank Anderson Park on Saturday for a Kid's Dog Show & Pet Expo. In addition to the dog show, there will be vendors and local pet organizations as well as a free demonstration by a local Dog Trainer.

 

In celebrating Hayti's legacy, the annual Phoenix Fest will again live up to its reputation as Durham"s funkiest street music festival on Saturday.

 

Saturday is Downtown Family Get Down at the Red Hat Amphitheater. Dance and local theatre groups will be performing throughout the day along with balloon artists, face painting, magicians and more. Red Clay Ramblers will headline this event.

 

Durham is also going to the dogs Sunday for Woofstock. The event at Duham's Central Park will feature canine demonstrations, games, contests, live music, adoption opportunities, a pet market and a Kid's Zone.

 

Sunday brings the annual Festifall to Downtown Chapel Hill. One of North Carolina's longest running events, there will be over 100 area and regional artists showcased along with a wide variety of live music, poetry, hands on art opportunities and the Chapel Hill Festifall Scavenger Hunt.

 

The FOX 50 Family Fest returns Sunday to the American Tobacco Campus. Bring a blanket and a picnic to enjoy live animals, local mascots, field games & family activities and the Great American Tobacco Duck Race.

 

Bring your entire family out as they Double Dutch for Diabetes Sunday at Moore Square. Enjoy hot dogs, popcorn, bouncing stations, face painting and other fun family activities during the fundraiser for the Children with Diabetes Foundation.

 

Music, History & Moving

 

Shape Up Downtown with O2 Fitness will continue all month in Raleigh's City Plaza. There will be a variety of free classes offered at various times and days. Come check out a CxWorx class during lunch or take a Body Combat or Yoga class after work. Click through for the complete schedule.

 

The Week of Well-Being Events continues through Sunday at the American Tobacco Campus. Thursday features the Grand Opening of the CAGE and admission is free all day Friday at the American Tobacco YMCA.

 

Celebrate Nickelodeon's annual Worldwide Day of Play with zany games and old-school recess fun on Saturday at Marbles Kids Museum. While you are there, become a Music Maker with the NC Symphony.

 

Learn how the Memory and Myth of the Civil War has been manipulated and its history reinterpreted with author David Sachsman on Sunday afternoon at the North Carolina Museum of History

 

The Wake Forest Unplugged...Get Connected weekend will culminate on Sunday, with a concert in Joyner Park featuring Roy Book Binder. Residents are encouraged to arrive early, bring a picnic and take part in an array of planned games and activities.

 

 

 Big Sweep & Fall Fun in the Parks

 

Join volunteers around the globe to help clean the world's waterways during this weekend's Big Sweep. Several area parks offer volunteering opportunities. The events are all free, but they do ask that you call to register so they have an idea of how many people will be helping.

 

Lake Crabtree County Park will host a Big Sweep event Saturday morning along with a guided hike with bird enthusiast, Vernon.

 

Join ranks to help clean up the Falls Lake shoreline around Blue Jay Point County Park during Big Sweep.

 

The Big Sweep will also take place at Durant Nature Park on Saturday.

Big Sweep opportunities come to Historic Yates Mill County Park on Sunday morning. On Saturday, you are invited to Paddle the Pond and they will offer Mill Heritage & Local History Tours all weekend.

 

Did you know that Saturday is National Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day? This is an opportunity for parents and kids to try out mountain biking at Hank Anderson Park.

 

Head on over to Falls Lake State Recreation Area on Sunday for a Monarch Tagging Field Trip. You will visit several areas around Falls Lake looking for and catching Monarch butterflies. Each Monarch will be tagged and sampled for parasites.

 

Come to William B Umstead Park Monday morning to take Canoeing Skills I. Get some basic instruction and then try out your newly learned skills on Big Lake.

 

Crowder District County Park is launching a new family series on Tuesday afternoon. Camo Critters will explore the amazing ways our neighbors in nature can hide in plain sight.