Count ’em: a sixth-place finisher, a performance in five fifths, a surprisingly busy Fourth, July 3rd fireworks and second and first editions, not in that order.
Monday, July 3
Before New Haven’s East Rock fireworks show tomorrow is West Haven’s Savin Rock Fireworks Spectacular tonight, at 9:15 off Bradley Point.
Tuesday, July 4 – Independence Day
Madison’s annual parade steps off at 10 a.m. from Samson Rock Drive, proceeds west on Boston Post Road, hangs a left on West Wharf Road and finishes in Surf Club Park.
“Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist” Eliot Lewis, a solo artist who’s also a longtime member of Hall & Oates’s world-touring band, rocks the dock at Joey C’s Boathouse in Stratford from 4 to 7 p.m.
Then it’s time for the Elm City’s annual fireworks show, launching as usual from the top of East Rock Park, with the athletic fields at Wilbur Cross High School as the officially recommended viewing location.
sponsored by
Wednesday, July 5
From 9 to noon, Guided by Goats, a Cheshire nonprofit that utilizes interactions with animals and other approaches to help families and children with developmental challenges, opens its doors to families of all stripes with an Open Play Day. “Staff will be available to assist with animal encounters. Self-serve crafts will be available as well as a mud kitchen. Bring a change of clothes and be ready to have fun!”
Beinecke Library’s annual display of extraordinary Americana—including a Dunlap Broadside, “one of the 26 known copies of the historic first printing of the Declaration of Independence,” and first and second editions of Life of William Grimes, “the nation’s first book-length narrative by a person who escaped from slavery”—lasts through July 12. Punctuating the exhibit, at 4 p.m. today, is a public reading of “the oration by Frederick Douglass given on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, in which he asked: ‘What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?’”
Thursday, July 6
Today at 3 p.m. through Saturday at 8 p.m., Yale Summer Cabaret presents five performances of the betrayal project, “a new devised piece based on interviews from real people who have betrayed and been betrayed. This verbatim production goes inside the personal experiences of broken contracts of love.”
From 7:30 to 9 during the Grassy Strip Music Series at the Madison Beach Hotel, Tristan McIntosh, who the internet says finished sixth on American Idol in 2015, “creates a stunning portrayal of Linda Ronstadt in the prime of her career” as part of tribute act The Linda Ronstadt Experience.
Friday, July 7
Michigander and his “elevated and eloquent songcraft, uplifting instrumentation, and plainspoken heartland storytelling punctuated by alternative flare” come to the Space Ballroom in Hamden tonight for an 8 p.m. bill opened by Western Mass-based alternative singer/songwriter Alex2e.
Saturday, July 8
The 10th annual West River Water Festival “splash
Featuring legacy ’90s chart-makers Nice & Smooth and DJ Marley Marl, a day party at Club Vandome from 3 to 7 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the invention of hip hop.
At 8 at Armada Brewing, Paradise Alley Pro Wrestling presents a Bash at the Brewery.
Sunday, July 9
From registration at 8:15 a.m. to awards at 1, the Milford Arts Council’s 46th annual Sand Sculpture Contest challenges “people from up and down the east coast” to channel “creativity, spirit, detail, and originality” as they “create anything from lobsters to mermaids to astronauts” and beyond at Walnut Beach.
“Celebrating 20 years since opening its doors to represent, present, promote and sell the work of local contemporary artists,” Kehler Liddell Gallery hosts a 3 p.m. opening reception for KLG@20, an exhibition featuring one work each by 44 of the gallery’s past and present member artists.
Written by Dan Mims. Image 1, featuring a blast during New Haven’s 2021 fireworks show, photographed by Dan Mims. Image 2, featuring one of Guided’s goats, sourced from guidedbygoats.org. Image 3, featuring Michigander, sourced from @michiganderband. Image 4, featuring a sand sculpture, photographed by Elena Yurkina. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
