The 4th Annual Indian River Nautical Flea Market and Seafood Festival/Marine and Wildlife Art Festival and Craft Show returns to the Indian River Fairgrounds this Saturday and Sunday. You can browse fishing and marine accessories and equipment from hundreds of vendors ’til the sea cows come home. If you “think you’re gonna need a bigger boat,” check out the Boat Corral, where you’ll find, says the festival flyer, “overstocked, new and used marine equipment at a fraction of the original retail cost.” Or peruse the marine and nautical arts, crafts and jewelry at the Marine and Wildlife Art Festival and Craft Show. This year, the Festival highlights the local aspect, with local craft beer, local bands and proceeds for local charities. Admission: $7; 12 and under, free. The festival opens at 9 a.m. and ends at 5, both days.
Works by classical music giants Bach, Beethoven and Brahms will be performed by the Brevard Symphony Orchestra under conductor Christopher Confessore this Sunday at Community Church in Vero Beach. Presented by the Indian River Symphonic Association, the program opens with Bach’s Orchestra Suite No. 3, including the well-known “Air on the G String.” Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, features American violinist Elmar Oliveira, the only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow’s prestigious Tchaikovsky International Competition, and the first violinist to receive the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
The big Hibiscus Festival weekend, a tradition in Vero Beach’s historic downtown for 14 years, kicks off this coming Thursday with the Miss Hibiscus Pageant at the Heritage Center at 7 p.m. Admission to the always-packed pageant is $5. The festival, presented by Main Street Vero Beach, cranks it up Saturday, bright (hopefully) and early (7 a.m.), with the Third Annual Hibiscus Ride, in partnership with Vero Cycling. The weekend – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – will be wall-to-wall family fun: live music, heaps of food, the Fine Art and Fine Craft Show, a Children’s Art Show, and lots of kid-friendly activities.
What is a palindrome, anyway? Poetry (and BBQ) buffs will get a figurative and literal taste this Sunday when they attend the “Madam, I’m Adam: The Male Dilemma” Poetry and Southern BBQ at the Environmental Learning Center, 255 Live Oak Dr., Vero Beach. Presented by the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation, “Madam I’m Adam” (a palindrome) includes live music and southern-style barbecue. Last April, during National Poetry Month, the Foundation presented “Three Daughters of Eve,” readings by three women poets, so it was logical, this year, to present another trio of published, award-winning poets of the male variety – Ken Hart, Brian Turner and Tony Hoagland. Hart’s poem, “Keep America Beautiful,” was read by Garrison Keillor on “The Writer’s Almanac.” Turner’s book, “Here, Bullet,” chronicles his time in Iraq as an infantry team leader with the Army’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The New York Times calls Hoagland’s collection, “What Narcissism Means to Me,” disarming, “with the appeal of a mean-but-funny friend, a smart aleck you can’t dismiss.” Donation, $25; event time: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
