The biggest weekend on Greensboro’s calendar arrives Friday afternoon, and it takes downtown with it. The North Carolina Folk Festival occupies Elm Street and the parks around it from Friday through Sunday, and most of what else is worth doing sits inside that footprint or just outside it. The National Weather Service’s Raleigh office has Friday near 92 degrees with a 28 percent chance of afternoon storms, climbing to 60 percent overnight; Saturday cools to around 82 with a 26 percent chance, and Sunday runs near 88 and mostly sunny.
The North Carolina Folk Festival opens Friday at 4:45 p.m. on the Raymond James CityStage with the N.C. A&T Cold Steel Drumline and Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina’s ninth poet laureate, and closes that night with St. Paul & the Broken Bones at 8:30. Saturday is the long day — music from noon to 10 p.m. across six stages, ending with The Roots — and Sunday finishes with Molly Tuttle at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free; VIP passes are sold separately. Two easy-to-miss free sessions sit inside the schedule: a beginner swing dance class with Real World Dance Company at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at LeBauer Park, and yoga in LeBauer Park with Greensboro Power Studios at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, before the stages open.
To move before the crowds arrive, Yoga Flow in LoFi runs 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday at LoFi Park, 500 North Eugene Street, on the Downtown Greenway, with instructor Ana Mena leading a gentle flow set to lo-fi beats.
Later that day, a free bachata lesson runs noon to 2 p.m. in Room 208 of the Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street — a step-by-step beginner class followed by social practice. No partner, no registration, no charge.
The Greensboro Farmers Curb Market is open Saturday at 501 Yanceyville Street, about a mile from the festival. It is open 8 a.m. to noon.
Half an hour west, the Hispanic League’s 34th annual ¡Fiesta! Festival fills downtown Winston-Salem on Saturday. The main stage runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., from a parade of flags and Brazilian samba to Banda Zeta; a second stage inside the Milton Rhodes Center runs to 5 p.m., and the food court lists fifteen vendors. Admission is free.
If Friday’s heat has you thinking about water instead of crowds, Wet ‘n Wild Emerald Pointe at 3910 South Holden Road is now on a weekends-only schedule: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, closed Friday. Sunday is the drier of the two.
Featured image: “Playing acoustic guitar, musician,” via Rawpixel, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0.
