You are not allowed to say there’s nothing to do this weekend, at least not if you live in or near Wake Forest. The weekend is brimming with activities.
It begins, of course, with the concert, ribbon-cutting, reception and tours at the new Wake Forest Town Hall between Brooks and Taylor streets.
About the time those festivities are concluding, the monthly Art After Hours sponsored by the Downtown Revitalization Corporation and downtown merchants will get cranking. The DRC will provide the ever-popular free horse and carriage rides if the weather is as fair as predicted.
Fair weather will also bring out the music. Linda Burrell at Sunflower Studio often moves the musical group – sorry, no information about the group – to the porch and provides chairs on the lawn. The featured artist at Sunflower Friday will be Mary Jane Haley, and the wine tasting will be catered by Wine for Humanity.
Albert Barneto at the Wake Forest Coffee Company prides himself of sponsoring a local musical group for every Art After Hours, and they are usually in the nook where South White Street and the sidewalk make a little jog. You can also enjoy the music upstairs at the Twisted Vine wine shop, and a lot of people gather to hear musicians and poets at the open mike around the corner on the depot parking lot stage.
Across the corner, Beth Massey at Wake Forest Art & Frame will welcome artists Loretto M. Thompson and Ed Hardy. The food for the reception will be catered by PLANit! Meetings & Events.
The featured artist at The Cotton Company will be Stephen Filarsky, and there will be a reception and wine tasting.
The receptions, the food and the music generally run from 6 to 9 p.m. although the live music at the Wake Forest Coffee Company begins at 8 p.m.
There will be open house and welcomes at other downtown businesses from The Storyteller’s Bookstore around the corner on Roosevelt Avenue next to the Underpass, to Sprig and the Lemon Tree, NC General Stores, Next Consignment Boutique, Old Magnolia Trading Company, Red Door Interiors, For Old Times Sake, GC5 Vintage and Gifts and the Lede Studio.
All the walking and exploring should help build a healthy appetite, so many people will choose to end the evening with dinner at Backfins Crabhouse, LaForesta Italian Café, Over the Falls Deli, the Seafood Shack or Las Margaritas.
Saturday
The day starts Saturday, Sept. 11, with the commemorative race where everyone wins, The Tunnel to Towers 5K Walk/Run. Wake Forest firefighters in full turnout gear will run and be joined by many who want to remember 9/11 in a positive fashion. This year’s run, which begins at 8 a.m., will benefit three organizations: the Stephen Siller “Let Us Do Good” Children’s Foundation, the children’s burn unit at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center, and “Luggage with Love,” a local group which strives to provide a new or gently used piece of luggage to every foster child in the area, giving them something of their own to carry their belongings when they move to another foster home.
There are several reasons to visit the Wake Forest Farmers’ Market Saturday morning between 8 a.m. and noon, but the special reasons this week are the presentations about compost in the home garden and landscape by Novozymes and a new version of the Taste of the Market, featuring meats and vegetables available to shoppers.
Shop fast, because by 9 a.m. or so you will want to be heading out Wait Avenue and N.C. 98 to Jim and Tricia Bell’s tenth annual Pottery Fest 2010 at their Under the Oaks shop. You will find the Bells and their pottery as well as 28 other local potters who live within 25 miles of town. (We all know there are a lot of artists and potters, but who knew there were 30, counting the Bells, within 25 miles.)
Admission to the event is free, and there is plenty of parking. It runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and there will be some other features. Derwin and Faye Creech from Johnston County will host a pig picking, Lumpy’s Ice Cream will sell treats, and children can experiment with clay in the Children’s Tent. Wear walking shoes; there are no sidewalks.
Sunday
Take your family and join your friends at the pancake and sausage breakfast provided every second Sunday by the men and women of American Legion Post 187. At the legion hall on East Holding Avenue you can enjoy all the pancakes, sausage, orange juice and coffee or cocoa you want for $5 a person, maximum of $20 for a family.