September 8th - 14th 2016 Triangle

by Pam & Michael Davison

Welcome to a fabulous fall festival weekend! There are so many awesome festivals throughout the parks and museums this weekend to pick from with a great variety of music, culture and activities.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is hosting a special Science Thursday featuring Star Trek: The Golden Anniversary.

Join them at Chavis Park for the debut of Film Shorts in the Park, a series of free outdoor movies by Triangle film makers! Featured Thursday night are two short documentaries: Patrick Shanahan's The No Hand King and Kimberly Best's That Deputy Sheriff Might Surprise You.

Every Thursday afternoon and evening September through November, you are invited to head over to Knightdale Station Park for a Food Truck Rodeo. Click through for the line up of trucks.

Back Porch Music on the Lawn of the American Tobacco Campus closes out the concert season with openers the South Carolina Broadcasters and headliner the Dom Flemons Duo.

Love Tribe will be playing a Follow Me 2 Fuquay-Varina Concert Thursday along with local craft breweries, vineyards and eateries.

Sunday commemorates 9/11 in the Triangle with several opportunities for service. Activate Raleigh 2016 aims to mobilize 2,500 volunteers over the course of the weekend with over 100 service projects and then culminates with a commemoration on Sunday at Red Hat Amphitheater. The Durham YMCA will be helping at the Ronald McDonald House. You can help them shop on Saturday or serve on Sunday. Both offer online registration.

Join the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association NC Chapter 15-6 and American Gold Star Mothers - Gardenia Chapter at Veterans Park in Holly Springs Sunday morning. The motorcycle association will begin with a ride to the park and the ceremony will conclude with a moment of silence at 9:11am.

Festivals Throughout the Triangle

The Harvest and Hornworm Festival at Duke Homestead Historic Site will provide demonstrations of historic tobacco harvesting, stringing, and curing in the morning and a tobacco auction in the afternoon. There will also be hornworm races, MoonPie eating contest, musical entertainment, craft vendors and refreshments.

Come check out the annual Open House at the Harris Nuclear Power Plant Saturday. You can tour the control room simulator, get up close to live animals from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, learn about Plant Security, meet plant experts and eat ice cream.

The State Fairgrounds will host the annual Holy Trinity Greek Festival. Come enjoy authentic Greek food, homemade Greek pastries, marketplace, live Greek music, Greek dance groups & more.

Saturday and Sunday at the State Fairgrounds is also the 75th Annual North Carolina Gourd Arts & Crafts Festival! Come see the wide variety of growing, crafting, and artistic competitive categories as well as gourd crafting workshops and vendors of gourd crafts, dried gourds, seeds, books, t-shirts and gourd crafting supplies.

There will be a Saddlebred, Roadster, Morgan Horse Show Friday and Saturday at the Hunt Horse Complex.

The Light 103.9 FM, The Triangle's Inspiration Station, is hosting its annual Unity in the Community Day Saturday at the Fairgrounds with a day of family fun with vendors, activities for the kids, and an inspirational concert featuring both local and national recording artists.

Bring the entire family to Hillsborough on Saturday to explore more than 250 years of North Carolina history during Piedmont Living History Day. Learn crafts such candle-making, butter-churning, and quilt-making, see demonstrations, play 19th century games, and take tours of several local historic sites.

Come on out to the brand new Jack Smith Park Saturday morning for the Park Dedication. In addition to all the features of the park including a playground, spray ground, dog park, climbing rock, trails and park shelters, Saturday's event will also boast a ribbon cutting, art by Vollis Simpson and William Moore and both dog and kid friendly activities.

WUNC will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary with a celebration at Regency Park Saturday featuring food trucks, kids activities, your favorite WUNC personalities and music including Chatham County Line and the Red Clay Ramblers. There is an admission fee, but kids 12 and under are free.

Enjoy student talent showcase, local artists, interactive art stations, local performers, local bands, food trucks, inflatables, games, backpack/school supply giveaway, food drive, bookmobile & reading corner, farmers market, IdentAKid, early childhood zone, and health living information at Saturday's K-Fest (Knightdale Kids Education Festival).

Fun Fall Events at the Parks

Bring your little ones to Durant Nature Park Friday morning for a Nature and Sensory Play Day. Come back Saturday afternoon for a Family Paddle.

Come to Bass Lake Park Friday evening for a little friendly competition as you play Family Bingo. Come back to Bass Lake Saturday evening for their all ages Catfish Tournament. Prizes will be given out to the top three places.

Geocaching is like a treasure hunt where participants use GPS coordinates to track down hidden "caches." Learn all about Geocaching 101 Friday afternoon at Harris Lake County Park.

Historic Yates Mill Pond County Park will be giving Saturdays at the Old Mill Tours and Mill Heritage & Local History Tours on Sunday. On Friday, you can explore Late Summer Sounds and tips on observing wildlife.

Prairie Ridge Ecostation welcomes young children to their Nature Stories on Thursday mornings and the whole family for Citizen Science Saturdays.

Celebrate Grandparents Day at the State Parks with a Bring a Grandparent Turtle Hike at Eno River State Park and Grandparent's Day: Butterflies at Raven Rock State Park on Saturday. Sunday brings Grandparents Fishing Day at Jordan Lake and Falls Lake will host Grandparents Picnic in the Park/A Brief History of Falls Lake.

Come join an Umstead Park Ranger Saturday as you take a short walk through the forest and discover the tales, folklore, and myths that surround the Woodland Inhabitants.

Take an informal tour of the constellations with Morehead Planetarium educators after dark Saturday during Jordan Lake's Skywatching.

Bring your kids ages 3-5 for a Playdate at Pullen on Monday. There are Playdates offered twice a month with activities based on a different theme.

Culture in the Triangle

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is hosting an Educator Open House Friday evening. Attending educators can preview Museum exhibits and activities while working out the logistics of a school field trip, talk directly with museum educators and research staff about on site programs, and find out first-hand about distance learning, outreach and professional development opportunities.

The North Main Athletic Complex will host their second Friday Flick on the Field with the family classic Raiders of the Lost Ark under the stars. Come early for fun and games to benefit loal non-profits and enjoy food and cold beer available for purchase.

The North Carolina Museum of Art kicks off the weekend Friday with music by the David Dyer Trio for Art in the Evening and

The Fireside Collective will be performing at the Carolina Inn Friday along with the food trucks Barone Meatballs and Heavenly Smoke.

Come on out to Fuquay-Varina Friday night for the monthly Art After Dark.

On the second Friday night of each month the streets of Downtown Wake Forest come alive with food, merchants and music for Art After Hours.

The 2nd Friday Artwalk also takes place this Friday in Carrboro. Many of the galleries will have live music and other art related entertainment.

The North Carolina Museum of Art invites you to Family Fun Saturday all about Hearing What We're Wearing. Maria Hayward will present a lecture Sunday examining the clothing worn in nine Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits in the History and Mystery exhibition

Marbles Kids Museum will present a Positive Parenting Workshop Sunday afternoon.

Sundays In Hillsborough, Concerts & Carriage Rides continues again this week with an afternoon concert on the Old Courthouse Lawn.

Come to the Holly Springs Cultural Center Monday morning for Jetsons, the Movie