EVERYONE:
Promising family fun, food-trucks, dance, music and art, Saturday’s 21st Annual Santa Monica Festival at Clover Park appears to have something for everyone. Festival highlights include performances by Dustbowl Revival, La Santa Cecilia, Lux Aeterna and Vaud & The Villains, fitness classes, eco-friendly workshops and a Santa Monica Farmers Market “Chef Challenge” cooking competition. Saturday, May 19 from 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM – admission and bike valet are free! Food trucks include Border Grill, Coolhaus, India Jones, The Bun Truck, Go Chew Truck; brought to you by a variety of City, environmental and local non-profits.
Individual tickets to this summer’s Hollywood Bowl are now on sale, so study the calendar and get your planning on! Here is Gustavo Dudamel announcing this summer’s shows. Click here to learn which four shows are most appropriate for families.
ELEMENTARY:
Exposition Park will soon be overrun with winged creatures and creepy-crawlies who are convening at the Natural History Museum, along with our scientists, for North America’s biggest bug festival, BUG FAIR 2012: YEAR OF THE FLY Saturday and Sunday, May 19 & 20, at 9:30 AM – 5 PM.
MIDDLE SCHOOL:
In scouting for weekend activities this month, we discovered three different Japanese exhibits in Pasadena. Is there any better time than the present to head East and explore cherry blossom prints (Lessons of the Cherry Blossom: Japanese Woodblock Prints at the Norton Simon Museum), visit a gorgeous restored Japanese garden (Return of an Icon at the Huntington Library), or learn the language of the stately kimono (Kimono in the 20th Century at the Pacific Asia Museum)? Make a reservation at Sushi Ichi for an omakase treat.
HIGH SCHOOL:
Herb Ritts: L.A. Style opened April 3 at The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, and we are wowed by the aesthetic sensibility and visual talent of the photographer. Here’s our Sneak Peek review!
826LA is teaming up with Pen Center USA for an intensive writing workshop this summer -it’s a nice opportunity if your child wants to hone their craft under supervision of excellent mentors. Click here to learn more about The Bridge.
A new Teen Zone at the Beverly Hills Library has just re-opened, providing a really nice space to – ahem – get some work done. Consider dropping kids there when they’re studying for a big test or need to research a term paper.
PARENTS:
Now’s the time to think about buying tickets to musical events for this summer, and next season.
We heard all about Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance a the Music Center‘s line-up for the 2012-2013 season — for families we are excited about an Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland coming in October, and a unusual movement performance by Traces in the spring; adults should grab seats to the Joffrey and Alvin Ailey shows.
WORTH A TRY
The California Strawberry Festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday May 19 & 20 from 10:00 AM – 6:30 PM in Oxnard.
The Museums of the Arroyo throw open all their doors once a year and invite visitors to explore for free, from noon to 5:00 PM on Sunday, May 20. Here is a list of the museums and activities this year – the theme is early California.