We need three days of fair weather for three fairs to go to, all signature events for the area and something to experience if you haven’t been.
The annual Firefighter’s Fair is a classic county fair with livestock, a midway, a magic act and a country music comedy group. And of course, there’s old-timey carney food, otherwise known as Ferris wheel ammo. The fair runs through next weekend.
For art lovers, it’s Under the Oaks weekend, with more than 200 juried artists from around the country selling their works in the shade of Riverside Park. The Under the Oaks festival, staged almost single-handedly by the 500-member Vero Beach Art Club, is considered the largest event on the Treasure Coast, drawing on average 80,000 people to Vero in the course of the weekend.
And on a much more manageable scale, the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival takes place in Riverview Park in Sebastian.
The festival offers discounted rates of $15 a person for pontoon boat tours, running about every hour-and-a-half all day. There’s also a birding tour offered in the morning, meeting up at 7: 15 a.m. at Riverview and carpooling to the Indian River West Wastewater Treatment Ponds, where some of the best birdwatching in the area, led by Jens Tripson and Patrick Pitts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The birding tours are $35.
There’ll also be living birds of prey and reptiles on display. A photography exhibit will be set up, and there’ll be art vendors as well as children’s activities led by the Environmental Learning Center.
It’s the 112th anniversary of the Pelican Island Refuge, the first national refuge in the nation, as decreed by President Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy returns as this year’s emcee (channeled by Joe Wiegand, the historian and Roosevelt impersonator).
And as a fundraiser for the Indian River County Historical Society, Wiegand will appear tonight (Friday) at Sebastian River High School in a full-length performance, preceded by a dinner. Call 589-8611.
Sunday afternoon, there’s a free concert of our own community orchestra, the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra, featuring local music professionals as well as dedicated amateurs. The group – which by the way is always seeking new members – is led by Page Howell, who is one in a team of excellent classical music teachers at Vero Beach High School.
Founded in 2005 by Tom Fritz, Paul Becker and Linda Spiwak, the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra had only 11 members then; it has now swelled to 42 string players plus a full wind and brass complement available as the music demands. It also has come to include top high school students.
The group will be playing Gabriel Faure’s “Pelleas et Melissande, Op. 80” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 3” (the one he called “Scottish Symphony,” though no one is sure why.)
The concert is at the high school’s Performing Arts Center at 2 p.m.
The Emerson Center has teamed up with the Majestic Theatre to present a Lee Daniels film fest in conjunction with the Oscar-winning producer and director’s scheduled appearance here next Saturday (March 21.) The Majestic will screen three powerful Daniels films: “Monster’s Ball,” his debut as a producer, starring Heath Ledger, Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton; “Precious,” about an abused, obese and illiterate teenager who tries to better her life; and “The Butler,” starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, about a southern black man who works in the White House through eight presidencies. The films are next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Shows are only $5. Saturday, Daniels speaks at Emerson at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
While that’ll wrap up the Speaker season at Emerson, tickets are on sale for the series next year that will include humor writer Dave Barry; former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and her husband; astronaut Mark Kelly; and Marcia Coyle, an expert on the Supreme Court and one of my PBS Newshour favorites.
Also coming up Saturday, John Sebastian performs at Emerson. He’s the founder of the Lovin’ Spoonful, a 1960s rock band whose big hit was “Summer in the City.” This is the second act in the new Masters of Music series, which will wrap up with Janis Ian, next month.
And next week, a world-class trumpeter and his jazz band appear at the Sunrise Theatre’s Black Box stage. Longineu Parsons is a singer and flutist as well, but it is his horn that captured the ear of global notables like the king of Morocco, the Netherlands royal family, the president of Austria and the American ambassador to France. He has also performed with Cab Calloway, Nat Adderley, Nancy Wilson and Herbie Mann.
Educated at Florida A&M, where he is now associate professor of music, he earned a master’s degree in classical trumpet from University of Florida. He’s also studied composition on the graduate level.
