FRIDAY, June 26th
Blues, Brews and BBQ Festival, Downtown Champaign, Friday-Saturday, $5 suggested donation
The BBBBQ fest is upon us once again, with local and touring bands, beer, hopefully those awesome wine slushies, barbecue food and some of the shiniest motorcycles you’ve ever laid eyes on. (MR)
Fire at Five Bonfire and Happy Hour, Research Park, 2100 South Oak Street, Champaign, 5-7 p.m., free
Join the Friday frolicking at Research Park from 5-7 p.m. Catch an outdoor movie (don’t know what it is, but please let it be The Lion King 1 1/2) and sample the lovely offerings of C-U’s own Pop Stop gourmet popsicles. They have a Rice Krispies Treat gelato pop, fools. (AH)
Penny Horses, The Inn Keepers, Justin Rondon, Mike N Molly’s, 9 p.m., $5
Maybe blues and barbeque aren’t your thing. That’s cool. This set should be outside in the MnM’s beer garden and is assuredly going to be a fun time. Penny Horses roots rock will mesh well with some of the acoustic jams from The Inn Keepers and Justin Rondon. (TP)
SATURDAY, June 27th
Tolono Fun Day, West Side Park, Tolono, IL, 7 a.m.-11 p.m., free
Tolono is a 15 minute drive from Champaign and looks like it’s going to be worth the trip. There will be a parade, live music, girls’ travel softball game, drawing for golf cart raffle, and fireworks. Not to mention food and a flea market. Click here for the digital fair program. (SL)
Give blood and buy some berries, Urbana’s Market at the Square, Illinois and Vine, 7 a.m. to noon
Community Blood Services of Illinois will be at the market, and instead of the juice and cookie deal after donating, perhaps you can treat yourself to some local berries and/or a doughnut and/or a popsicle. There are plenty of other things happening there, so check out our June edition of Market Watch for more details. (JH)
DIY Weekend Wizard, Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, 346 N. NeilChampaign, 1-3 p.m., free
Every Saturday is a new opportunity for kids ages kindergarten-fifth grade to learn more about science and exercise those DIY muscles. And they get to do so in the beautiful surroundings of the historic Orpheum theater. Bring your family out to learn more about our world and to continue preserving historic C-U in the process. (AH)
Resinater, Spandrels, Motes, Ben Wilson, Institute 4 Creativity, 9 p.m., $5
Evansville, Louisiana band Spandrels are kind of the missing link between the two local bands you see on this bill. They can be heavy like Resinater but have a shoegazey edge like Motes. With Darleen’s Ben Wilson also plays. (MR)
Pop Goes the Culture Variety Show, Vintage Villains, Danville, 8 p.m., $8
Yeah, it’s a trek; but this night of stand-up comedy, music, poetry and singing will feature performances comes with an endorsement from our old pal Ripper the Clown. Featuring performances by: Julia Megan Sullivan, Chris Hightower, Cory Rouse, The Villens, Rich Castle, Sweetwillie Johnson, and more. Hosted by Ripper the Clown & DJembe Jake.
From a press release: “15 performers will receive 6 minutes each to wow the audience. In this totally interactive competition, the audience will determine which entertainers remain on stage with the top four performances receiving prizes from area businesses.” (MG)
Mad Max: Fury Road, The Art Theater Co-op, 10 p.m.
You might have seen my previous Weekender suggestion about checking out Mad Max: Fury Road. Without resorting to cut-and-paste, I’mma do it again. But this time, I’m going to suggest that you check it out in our local movie palace, The Art Theater Co-op. MMFR will be the late night feature on both Saturday and Sunday night, so you have two chances to see this cinematic marvel before it travels on down the road. (MG)
SUNDAY, June 28th
Eat some taro buns (B4), Golden Harbor, 505 South Neil Street, Champaign, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Because even though they are a slightly strange shade of lavender, they are so delicious. If you’re not into those, try the sesame balls (B1). Or really, just eat whatever you like, because Golden Harbor knows how to throw down. (JH)
Find some of the geocaches hidden in C-U, Champaign-Urbana area, all day, free
Geocaching is this sort of game where people hide objects, tag their location with GPS, and upload that location to the geocaching website. There are hudreds of these things hidden in C-U and I think we need to go find some of them. It takes a free acount sign up to play. Check out more here. (SL)
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All event information is accurate to the best of our abilities, but sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes event information, times, prices, etc., change after we look them up. Whenever possible, we’ve provided a link to the original event page; you should always double-check the source before you make any firm plans. Thanks for your understanding.