Five Reasons to Leave the House This Weekend
What the Fluff photo by Steve McFarland on Flickr
FOOD FESTIVAL
What the Fluff?
One fateful day in 1917 at Union Square, mad genius Archibald Query invented the marshmallow spread Fluff—and the rest has been ooey, gooey history. To celebrate, gather with your fellow Fluff-aholics for Somerville’s 10th annual “What the Fluff?” festival. There’s Fluff jousting, Fluff lick-offs, and even Fluff hairdos. Too sticky? Compete in the cooking contest with various categories in Fluff-centric food crafting. Too tame? The ladies of Rogue Burlesque will perform their “nerdy, comedic, offbeat” routine as the Flufferettes—dancers who are all about that Fluff.
Free, Saturday, September 26, 3-7 p.m., Union Square, Somerville, flufffestival.com.
Working Waterfront photo by Gary Brownell on Flickr
BEYOND BOSTON
Working Waterfront Festival
If you’ve never seen a Fishing Gear Fashion Show, seize your chance by attending the Working Waterfront Festival. As informative as it is fun, the festival offers cooking demos, author readings, tours of historic and authentic fishing boats, and tutorials on fish filleting and net mending. But this shindig isn’t just for the laymen. Seasoned professionals can compete in a scallop shucking contest and a survival suit race, and vie for best nautical tattoo.
Free, Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, 52 Fisherman’s Wharf, New Bedford, workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
Maya Beiser Comes to Art Week / Courtesy Photo
FINE ARTS
ArtWeek Boston
The Citi Performing Arts Center’s ArtWeek has one goal: to get you an up close and personal look at the creative process. Starting this Friday—and continuing on into the next two weeks—see Maya Beiser mix Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and others with cello at the MIT Kresge Auditorium; a preview of Bridge Repertory Theater’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salome set against the backdrop of America’s sexual revolution; and the new documentary Crumb at Coolidge Corner Theatre, a profile of the famous cartoonist. If you prefer your art stationery, you can admire three generations of paintings by the Wyeth family at the Heritage Museum and MIT’s latest photography exhibit “Public and Private: East Germany Tour.”
Prices vary from free to $50, September 25-October 4, multiple venues. For more info, visit artweekboston.org.
Mapparium photo by Smart Destinations on Flickr
HIGH CULTURE
Museum Day Live
The Smithsonian has gone Willy Wonka with their Museum Day Live. Except when you get this golden ticket, you receive free access to some 60 local institutions. Take the opportunity to explore some lesser-known gems like the Longfellow House, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, and the Harvard Semitic Museum. But for the true Wonkaesque experience, visit the Mary Baker Eddy Library and walk through the Mapparium, a three-story tall-globe made of technicolor stained glass.
Free, Saturday, September 26, Boston. See the full list of of participating museums.
Bee Smoking photo by Moosicorn Ranch on Flickr
THE SIMPLE LIFE
Urban Agricultural Fair
Show off your green thumb at the Urban Agricultural Fair, a celebration of gardening, beekeeping, seed saving, chicken raising, and more. Whether you can it, grow it, or brew it, the fair has a ribbon for it. And where there’s smoke, there’s bees—compete in the Bee Smoker Contest and earn apiary bragging rights.
Free, Sunday, September 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Loring Greenough House, 12 South St., Jamaica Plains, aghall.com.
