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Celebrate the season at historic Newburyport Spring Festival, a tradition upheld for over 30 years on Memorial Day Weekend.  Enjoy great live music, art, fine crafts, activities for kids, and food from Newburyport’s outstanding restaurants at this 2-day FREE festival featuring entertainment for the whole family -rain or shine.

Sunday -Entertainment
10:30am-11:15am in Market Square -Bryson Lang – Comedy Juggler – audiences will see a family-friendly show and an energetic personality performing inventive and clever routines that mix comedy, audience participation, ball spinning, flying sombreros, ball bouncing, fire-juggling, well-crafted timing, huge spinning bouncing rings, giant Beach Balls, improv, and a few surprises.

10am, 12pm, and 2pm -Theater in the Open – Flash Mob on Inn Street

Live Music
1pm – 4pm  Live Music in Market Square – 617 Band – Covering your favorite party and dance hits!

11pm, 1pm, 3pm – 30 min sets on Inn Street – Zach Field Drum Studio

Art
“Emerging at Any Age” – A group of Newburyport’s finest senior artists from just starting out to artists that have had long careers in art. Gallery will be on Pleasant Street.

Monday Entertainment
Kids Entertainment from 10:30-11:30am in Market Square – Reptile Show
Come and meet some of the friendliest reptiles in New England. Brought to you by Zoo Creatures/New England Reptile, they will teach you about some most impressive animals. From giant snakes to prehistoric lizards, you can learn, touch, hold and hug.

Live Music in Market Square
Eagle in the Attic – Newburyport band performing

Location: Downtown Newburyport, Market Square, Newburyport, MA 01950
Date: Sun  May 28 – Mon May 29, 2017
Hours: 10am – 5pm
Tel: 978-462-6680
newburyport.com/events-in-newburyport/
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: newburyportchamber.org

If you are an animal lover, this show is for you. Popovich Comedy Pet Theater is a family-oriented blend of the unique comedy and juggling skills of Gregory Popovich, and the talents of his furry costars.

Featuring European-style circus extravaganza including physical comedy, juggling, acrobats from the Moscow Circus, along with mimes, contortionists and jaw dropping juggling by internationally acclaimed award winner Gregory Popovich. There are more than 30 pets in the show, including highly intelligent dogs, house cats, a variety of birds and a miniature horse, each one has been rescued from animal shelter. The animals show off their dexterity in a variety of unbelievable stunts and skits, including “The Dog Classroom,” “The Amazing House-Cats,” and “The Animal Train Station.” 

Popovich, a fifth generation circus performer who learned early on how to develop strong bonds with animals, has rescued a majority of his performers from shelters all over the country, and has transformed them into Las Vegas stars. He is a gold medal winner in Paris, France and a special award winner in Monte Carlo. Gregory and his pets were finalists on “America’s Got Talent”, were guests on TV shows with Jay Leno, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson and was a feature on Animal Planet. Do not miss this opportunity to see this unique family-friendly show featuring this legendary circus entertainer and his furry friends.

Location: Carolina Civic Center Historic Theater, 315 North Chestnut St., Lumberton, NC 28358
Date: Thurs., Feb 2. 2017
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Tel: 910-738-4339
carolinaciviccenter.com/event/popovich-comedy-pet-theater/#.WEg1Rn2rHfc
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: lumberton-nc.com

Don’t miss the mid-Atlantic’s premier celebration of the literary arts, The Baltimore Book Festival, featuring more than 200 celebrity and local authors appearances and book signings, non-stop readings on multiple stages, cooking demos by celebrity chefs, poetry readings and workshops, panel discussions, more than 100 exhibitors and booksellers, walking tours, storytellers and hands-on projects for kids, street theater, live music, and a delicious variety of food, beer and wine.

For the kids, or the kids at heart there’s a Pop Culture Parade where superheroes, storybook characters, BmoreFit Dancewalkers,  and special guests dress up in costume and march down the promenade, starting at Pratt & Light streets traveling down to the Geppi’s Entertainment Museum Comic Pavilion.

Some of the feature presentations include: Terry McMillan, author of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back“; NPR correspondent Glen Weldon, talking about his “The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture“; and local pundit D. Watkins, who has an essay collection called “The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America” and his memoir ‘The Cook Up,’ takes us deeper into his former life, and Comic writer Carl Hiaasen will read from his newest novel, “Razor Girl” to mention but a few.

Whether it’s Health & Wellness , Cooking (The Food for Thought), Science Fiction & Fantasy or Children’s with a Stage featuring interactive programs for the whole family, this FREE event highlights 13 stages offering something for everyone.

Location: Baltimore Inner Harbor, 201 E. Pratt Street,Baltimore, MD 21202
Date: Fri – Sun Sept 23-25, 2016
Hours: 11 – 7pm
Tel: 410-752-8632
baltimorebookfestival.org
For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: baltimore.org

Phot0 Courtesy of The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts

Providence, RI Exit 21: Three days of amazing national & local improv talent at The 13th Annual Providence Improv Festival taking place in the heart of downtown Providence on September 22-24, 2016.

This year’s Fest will feature top improv comedy troupes from throughout the country including Susan Messing and Rachael Mason as “The Boys”. The FEST remains dedicated to showcasing a broad spectrum of theater artists who excel at creating scenes, characters, and situations in the moment offering shows by top performers in the local, regional, and national improv comedy scenes.

Be a part of the festival, rub elbows with some incredible performers, partake in the workshops, after-parties and other fun events at their downtown theatre spaces. Experience some of the world-class food, art, and entertainment that Providence can offer within an intimate and picturesque cityscape.

• Location: AS220
• 95 Empire Street, Providence, RI
• 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI
• Providence, RI 02903Dates: September 22 – 24, 2016
  Times: Various check schedule
  Tel: 401-241-9556
  providenceimprovfest.com
  For Regional Accommodations, Restaurants & Attractions: goprovidence.com

Photo credit – David Rickerby

Exit 339: Latitude 30 – If you just couldn’t decide what to do tonight, should I go out to a restaurant, grab a pizza, go bowling, watch a movie, take the kids to an arcade, catch a sporting event, or enjoy a comedy show, you don’t have to choose – head here. You can dine deliciously in the restaurant, for food comes first here, or in any of the above while you enjoy your entertainment.

Noise level is high so babies can cry and the kids don’t have to be quiet or sit still while you finish eating – this is the future of family dining. The sports theater sports 19 screens, the pizza chef is stretching and tossing dough by the brick oven, the cocktail area is buzzing, the arcade is dinging (prizes right up to an iPad), bowling balls are crashing in the 20 lanes (comfy couches) while their 9 screens are showing sporting events so you don’t miss anything (football AND bowling) or you can escape into one of the 2 movie theaters. If that wasn’t enough action, there’s live music Thurs-Sat nights.

You can just sit and watch it all while you have a tiramisu martini (or 40 brands of beer) and then chow into: a prime rib kabob with creamy horse radish sauce, quesadilla, lettuce wrapped Asian chicken in peanut ginger sauce, sesame crusted teriyaki calamari with citrus wasabi aioli, steak and blue cheese in flat bread, shrimp po’ boy, chicken salad with cherries and pecans, blackened mahi mahi or build your own burger.

Dinner entree salads can be made with flat iron steak or blackened ahi, there’s a chopped cobb salad, lobster mac ‘n cheese, veal pot roast, Guinness fish and chips, bacon wrapped scallops and we loved the homemade potato chips. Southern red velvet cake and bread pudding can finish it off for you. You will need to take advantage of the free valet parking, the lot is packed.

Location: 10370 Phillips Highway, Jacksonville FL, USA
Tel:  904-365-5555
www.latitude-30.com