Paddle boards, pet photo ops and a plethora of parties get us out there.
Monday, May 12
It’s get-on-the-water season at Scoot & Paddle, a kayak/paddle board rental shop located steps from Milford’s Walnut Beach. And it’s a full moon tonight, meaning it’s the first of Scoot’s 2025 experience-required full moon excursions. From 6 to 9:30, “paddle out to enjoy a beautiful sunset followed by the spectacular moon rising over the horizon.”
At 7, a rabbi and a film archivist walk into a bar (Hamden’s Best Video, which technically does have a bar) to present the first installment of a co-curated series showing “great films you probably haven’t seen.”
Tuesday, May 13
“Nardcore” (Oxnard, California-bred hardcore) band Dead Heat bring live heat to Hamden’s Space Ballroom for an 8 p.m. bill opened by Connecticut-based metalcore band Mercy Whip and New Haven’s own “upbeat ’90s-inspired hardcore” band Jealous Mind.
Wednesday, May 14
At 7 at Yale’s Reese Stadium, New Haven United FC, the city’s new semi-pro soccer team, play their very first home game, against Hartford City FC.
Thursday, May 15
Each year, the Leonardo Challenge, an indoor-outdoor fundraising party at the Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop, invites artists to submit works prompted by a theme— this year, “The Landscape”—and also invites partygoers to bid on them. In addition to a gallery’s worth of art and the intrigue of the bidding, attendees of the event, which runs from 5:30 to 9 tonight, can expect live music and “a delicious spread of treats” to eat and drink, including, if past is prologue, all-you-can-eat fresh-from-the-oven apizza from Big Green Truck.
Friday, May 16
From 5 to 10 p.m. throughout the Ninth Square, the New Haven Night Market returns with nearly 100 vendors popping up amid more than 40 brick-and-mortar businesses in and around the neighborhood. The docket also includes five live music acts, three DJs in CITA Park, a pet photo portrait tent and an after-party at Cafe Nine.
If plunking a lawn chair on a small-town green is more your speed, a month-of-May TGIF concert series behind Branford Town Hall picks up at 6 with a performance by Souls on Fire, a “powerful 10-piece… horn band featuring iconic ’70s soul music.”
Saturday, May 17
From 10 a.m. to. 1 p.m., it’s back to downtown Branford for Blackstone Library’s Library of Things Petting Zoo, a showcase of all surprising non-book objects you can borrow, including “a GoPro camera, electric guitar, metal detector, lawn games, karaoke machine, and more. Play around, test them out, and take them home!”
From 1 to 5 at Massaro Farm in Woodbridge, a Celebrate Spring festival offers food trucks, artisan vendors, seedlings for sale and a “fairy house trail.”
At 2, an Arts & Ideas-sponsored Hill neighborhood festival celebrates local figures and veterans in Trowbridge Square Park.
Carmelina’s Garden in Hamden hosts a Soulcial in the Garden featuring a crystal bowl sound bath meditation at 4 and a drum circle at 6, with a potluck meal in-between.
Sunday, May 18
From noon to 3, Guilford pet care company We Let the Dogs Out celebrates its 10th anniversary with a canine-friendly “pawty” at the town’s Martin-Bishop Field. “Get ready for music, games, treats, food and lots of tail-wagging fun.”
At 4, a long-delayed musical celebration of guitarist George Baker, who lived in New Haven for 35 years before passing away in 2019, unfolds at Cafe Nine. Baker’s “impressive resume begins in 1958 touring with Earl Davis & The Upsetters and as backup guitarist for the Drifters. He freelanced for a few years and in 1964 came to New York City as a session musician for the Dixie Cups, Shirley Ellis and The Flamingos. In 1968 he became musical director for Marvin Gaye and recorded ‘Too Busy Thinking About My Baby’ with Marvin. He also performed with Motown artists Martha and the Vandellas and The Flamingos. By 1970 he joined the house band at the Apollo Theater (his childhood dream). In 1971 he went on tour with Melba Moore and the likes of David Frost and Jerry Lewis.” Later, after working for “many years” as a studio musician in New York, he “settled in New Haven and began his unforgettable career at Poco Loco, where he introduced us to The George Baker Experience,” with some of his original Experience bandmates set to join this tribute alongside “other guest musicians.”
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image features cocktail service during last year’s Leonardo Challenge. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
