It must be June, as six festivals converge on a single weekend.
Wednesday, June 11
Save Ferris, “one of the seminal and most beloved bands from the third wave of ska,” whose music reached the mainstream in part through movies like 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), comes to Hamden’s Space Ballroom for an 8 p.m. show. Opening are New Haven’s own Zombii and The Simulators.
Thursday, June 12
From 2 to 4 p.m. at Wilson Library, a drop-in “Ask a Gardener” session at Wilson Library offers answers to your (relevant) questions from a pair of master gardeners.
At 5:30, the Yale Center for British Art hosts five “award-winning contemporary poets” for a reading of “original works inspired by an object they selected” from YCBA exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Romance and Reality.
From 6 to 7:30 at Branford’s Blackstone Library, Rebecca Goodheart, producing artistic director of New Haven’s Elm Shakespeare Company, discusses and helps decode the early modern English of The Bard—and offers “a sneak peak” of Elm Shakespeare’s “30th-anniversary Bollywood-themed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” staging in Edgerton Park this August.
At 7, a four-day five-show run of Ain’t Too Proud, “the electrifying, smash-hit Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” opens at the Shubert.
Also at 7, at Branford’s Legacy Theatre, it’s the first performance ever of Long Days. This world-premiering play by Gabe McKinley follows “a group of actors putting on a production of [Eugene] O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night at a regional theatre. What ensues is a tragic and sometimes darkly humorous overlapping of themes with a deliciously compelling plot about what happens ‘behind the scenes.’”
Friday, June 13
Mew Haven Cat Cafe hosts 5 and 6 p.m. Cat Prom nights today and tomorrow. “Was your prom missing something? Maybe a bunch of cats? Join us for cat prom, wear a special outfit, take some prom photos, and see who wins cat prom king and queen! Ticket includes a drink of your choice!”
From 5 to 10 tonight, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow and 8 to 4 on Sunday, the 2025 Branford Festival promises “live music, over a dozen food vendors, local talent, kids activities, crafts and more” at Hammer Field.
Milford’s Fridays After Five concert tonight from 6 to 8 at Fowler Field features New Haven-based party band the Rum Runners.
The 2025 International Festival of Arts & Ideas enters its main two-week itinerary tomorrow, but it kicks things off a little early with the first of a dozen performances of A Broken Umbrella Theatre’s Family Business: (A)Pizza Play. “Inspired by the real stories of New Haven apizza pioneers,” the play, staging at 8 at CitySeed’s new digs at 162 James Street, “follows the Carbonizatto family’s pizza shop from its immigrant beginnings as it passes down over generations.”
Saturday, June 14
Orange Congregational Church’s annual Strawberry Festival starts at 9 a.m.—while, in Middlefield, Lyman Orchards’s Strawberry Festival starts at 10.
Today and tomorrow between 10 and 4, the Bonsai Society of Greater New Haven’s exhibition at the Edgerton Park Carriage House presents “show trees,” “works-in-progress” and demonstrations of the art of bonsai.
From 11 to 4 at Hamden Town Park, Hamden Fest offers “music and entertainment,” an “arts, crafts and civic fair,” food and drink trucks, a “sports zone” and a business expo.
The 11th annual CT Localpalooza Music & Art Festival, featuring 12 musical acts and nine visual artists, also starts at 11, in Bethany’s Three Saints Park.
At Lyric Hall today and tomorrow, with showtimes as early as noon and as late as 10, an Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy experience “brings four of his stories off the page and onto the stage… while pairing them with four classic cocktails.”
Sunday, June 15 - Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day, everyone. Check back in tomorrow for a bunch of ways to celebrate.
Written by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
