Our amazing Fall Festival season is here! Next  Wednesday is officially the first day of Fall and the fun in the Triangle starts Thursday.

 

Fun starts Thursday morning with Mr. Steve in Concert at Marbles Kids Museum. Stay after hours with reduced admission during Twilight $2 Thursdays.

 

Take the night off and bring the whole family to the Halle Cultural Arts Center Thursday night for Pizza and a Movie to enjoy the new Cinderella.

 

Thursday brings another Follow Me 2 Fuquay-Varina Concert to Centennial Square. Emily Minor will be performing and there will be local craft breweries, vineyards and eateries on hand.

 

Friday at lunchtime, they will be celebrating Grape Day at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh. There will be local Wine Tasting, Grape Sampling, Free Recipes and lots of NC Grapes for sale!

If you have never been to Bugfest, you can't imagine how an incredible collection of bugs can make for a fantastic event packed full of activities. If you have been to Bugfest before, you already know what an awesome event it is. Bugfest is the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science's biggest and wildest annual event. Promising to be bigger and better than ever, Bugfest fills the museum as well as the outdoor mall with everything buggy. This year's theme is the Cicada. For the really brave, there will be an assortment of delicious bug-filled delicacies at the Café Insecta. For the slightly more adult crowd that doesn't want to fight the crowds, Bugfest transforms into the Evening Insectival at 5pm. The evening crowd can relax with a new round of activities and live music to finish out the evening. ParkGeek is excited to be at BugFest! Come find our booth outside on Jones Street, and learn how to make an origami cicada!

 

The North Carolina Museum of History joins in on the fun across the plaza this year as they explore the Birds and the Bees with a Make It, Take It at the Museum of Natural Sciences.

The official start to BugFest is the BugFest Critter Cook-off Friday morning. Two local chefs, Sam Bradford from Plates Kitchen and Matt Lowery from Mura North Hills go head to head in a bug-cooking battle. They have 50-minutes to prepare an appetizer, entrée and dessert using mealworms, superworms, crickets and cicadas!

 

Thursday evening at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences features family Game Night and a Science Cafe on understanding a Teenagers Mind.

The Fall Harvest Celebration Saturday at Historic Yates Mill County Park features Costumed Corn-grinding Tours of Yates Mill, a fun children's scavenger hunt activity, live music and dance, story-tellers, community displays, hand-craft demonstrations and sales, antique vehicles, farm tool displays, food vendors, and much more! During the Festival, the park will also feature Historic Tradesmen and Tradeswomen that learned their trades through apprenticeships.

 

CenterFest will feature 30 diverse performance groups with over 200 talented performers filling three stages with continuous music, dance and entertainment in Downtown Durham on both Saturday and Sunday.

 

Come downtown to experience four days of the art, design + creativity festival, SPARKcon. Activities include 700 street painters, a fashion show, film screenings, creative projects for kids, as well as music, theater, dance, and athletic performances. SPARKcon is actually 13 festivals wrapped into one amazing Downtown event. Click through for all the information.

 

The 2nd annual Dragon Boat Festival returns to Regency Park Saturday with dragon boat racing, Asian food and performances

 

Members of the 6th and 26th NC Regiments will be at Bennett Place State Historic Site both Saturday and Sunday sharing the stories of the common solider in the field and show you how life was during the four years of the War. Events will include Marching Demonstrations, Field Music presentations, Bayonet Drills and musket firing demonstrations.

 

Also for you and your dog, Dog Day in the Park in Holly Springs will be held again this year at Sugg Farm Park. There will be food, fun, entertainment and adoptable dogs.

 

At the Fairgrounds, Saturday is AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day. The event will include the ever popular "My Dog Can Do That," meet the breeds, Canine Good Citizen Testing, dog sport demonstrations, vendors, rescue groups, children"s area, face painting, dog games and contests.

 

Celebrate the Worldwide Day of Play at Marbles Kids Museum Saturday as they partner with Nickelodeon for fun activities all day. Marbles is also hosting a free Positive Parenting Workshop Sunday. Click through for information on how to register.

 

Come out to Bass Lake Saturday evening and enter the Catfish Tournament Pro-Series. There will be prizes given out to the top three places.

 

Its Good Neighbor Day at Holding Park Sunday afternoon. By bringing together a mix of cultures, music, ages, and ethnicities, the event celebrates diversity and promotes goodwill among all of Wake Forest"s citizens.

 

Cops in the Park will celebrate the renaming of Lawrence Street Park with free food, safety & equipment displays, crime prevention information, a bouncy house, and prizes to to bolster neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships Wednesday evening.

Bring your young children to participate in Nature Stories on Thursday mornings at Prairie Ridge Ecostation for Wildlife Learning. Come back on Saturdays to learn how you can become a Citizen Scientist.

 

The State Parks will host a C.A.S.T. , a kids intro to fishing at Jordan Lake Saturday morning and Coyotes at Umstead Park on Saturday afternoon. Come back to Umstead Sunday afternoon for an Amateur Photo Hike or Monday for a hike On the Edge of the forest.

 

Decorate your wheels or wear a funny hat in preparation for the Kids Together Walk For Inclusiveness.The walk will span the 1.4 mile segment of the Hinshaw greenway, starting at KTP and connecting with MacDonald Woods Park via the pedestrian bridge over US1 & 64. Awards, refreshments, games and a great silent auction await participants when they end the course,

 

Discover the amazing lives of gorillas and chimpanzees during this weekend's Great Apes Days at the North Carolina Zoo Saturday.

 

Claws, Inc. is planning to release Rehabilitated Hawks that are now ready to go back to the wild Saturday morning at Hank Anderson Park and you're invited to watch. They will also have some of their permanent birds for the public to view and learn about.

 

Annie Louise Wilkerson Nature Preserve is hosting a Twilight Walk Saturday after the sun goes down.

 

Explore Raleigh"s newest park, Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve on a Family Scavenger Hunt Sunday afternoon.

 

They are not medical doctors, but as park rangers they help create their own fiery "prescriptions" to help keep the park healthy. Join them at Raven Rock State Park Wednesday to learn about prescribed fire plans and the equipment they use.

Traditional Dance Caller, Connie Carringer will teach fun dances for the whole family with music by an old-time string band for Friday's Family Dance at the Halle Cultural Arts Center.

Fridays on the Front Porch in Downtown Chapel Hill will put the Morning After on the stage along with the food trucks Porchetta and D"Burritos.

 

At Fuquay-Varina's newly remodeled Falcon Park, The Sandlot will be the featured flick for Friday night's Movie in the Park.

 

Live & Local Music & Art on the Plaza is a new series Friday nights in Chapel Hill. This Friday kicks off the series with the soaring vocal harmonies of the indie pop duo Season & Snare. The series will continue every Friday night through November 6th.

 

Art in the Evening kicks off the weekend at the North Carolina Museum of Art Friday with the sounds of the David Dyer Trio, a Sound Bite about Marvelous Marble. As an added treat this Friday, you are invited to join them for both a Contemporaries Third Friday Tour and an Artist Meetup with Peter Oakley and Elizabeth Brim.

 

Bring the kids back to the North Carolina Museum of Art Saturday for a Family Fun Saturday that will explore the Wonderful Weave.

 

The annual Apex Jazz & Music Festival will bring Downtown Apex alive this Saturday. A $10 wristband gets you entry to all the venues for the entire event.

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be Saturday morning's Movie @ Your Library at the Holly Springs Cultural Center. Come back Monday morning for Horton Hears a Who.

 

Third Sunday Children's Carnival returns this week in front of Raleigh Times Bar. Bring the whole family to laugh, play and enjoy fun and games.

 

The Pickin' In The Pines Bluegrass Series continues Wednesday night at Regency Park with L Shape Lot with The James Sisters.