The early summer string of community festivities continues this weekend with Verona Hometown Days, Cambridge Pottery Festival, Sumerpalooza, Mad City Vegan Fest, and Marquette Waterfront Festival. The calendar also includes: the Parade of Homes; a book reading by Jody LePage; the Leslie Smith III: I Dream Too Much and Los Grandes del Arte Moderno Mexico exhibits at MMoCA and Selections show at Grace Chosy Gallery; productions of Queer Shorts 8 and Wicked; a Middleton Outreach Ministry benefit concert, the Frequency Fifth Anniversary Party, the Beatmakers Brawl show, a medical fundraiser concert for Cliff Frederiksen, and the Madison Jazz Society Year-End Party; and, more live music by Lamb of God, Joan Baez, Bailiff, Digital Leather, Baroness, Hands, and Boys.
Friday 6.7
NOTEWORTHY: Elvis Presley's Graceland opens to public, 1982.
Hometown Park, Verona, 5 pm-1 am. Also Thursday (5-11 pm), Saturday (noon-1 am) & Sunday (noon-6 pm), June 6, 8 & 9
It's home to the mega-corporation Epic Systems, but Verona retains its small-town charm. Exhibit A: this homey festival, featuring a carnival, fireworks and a parade.
Middleton Outreach Ministry Benefit
Majestic Theatre, 5:30 pm
The Waco Brothers, an alt-country band signed to Chicago's Bloodshot Records, headline this benefit for a local group that operates a food pantry and a housing assistance program. With Yarn and Cannonball.
Leslie Smith III: I Dream Too Much
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, through Sept. 1. Reception: 6-9 pm. Artist talk: 6:30 pm
This solo exhibition features 16 of the painter's recent works. His bold colors and blocky, discordant shapes are both enigmatic and compelling. Stick around after the reception for MMoCA's Rooftop Cinema series at 9:30 pm, featuring 1971's The Hellstrom Chronicle.
Los Grandes del Arte Moderno Mexicano
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
This yearlong exhibition celebrates the masters of Mexican Modernism -- Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo and others -- whose exuberant art championed social reform and national identity in the 1920s and '30s.
Grace Chosy Gallery, through June 29. Reception: 6-8 pm
The gallery gives three accomplished area artists -- Warrington Colescott, Paula Schuette Kraemer and Frances Myers -- the chance to display current and past work. Expect provocative images in a variety of media.
Frequency Fifth Anniversary Party
Frequency, 7 pm. Also Saturday, June 8, 9 pm
The downtown rock club has become a fixture of the local music scene. Celebrate its birthday on Friday with sets by Baristacide, the Gusto, Go Go Slow, Southside Stranglers and the Catastrophe. Saturday's lineup includes Droids Attack, Dick the Bruiser and at least five other acts.
Orpheum Theater, 7:45 pm
Armed with Resolution, their 2012 album of punk-spiked heavy metal, these Ozzfest alums will kick up any dust left over from the Orpheum's closing last year. With Decapitated and Terror.
Bartell Theatre, 8 pm. Also Saturday (8 pm), Sunday (2 pm) & Thursday (7:30 pm), June 8, 9 & 13
In the eighth iteration of this popular, entertaining and at times raucous event, StageQ brings together experienced and novice theater folk to present 11 short plays. This year's themes include sex, love, heaven, hiking and prom.
Overture Hall, 8 pm. Also Thursday (7:30 pm), Saturday (2 & 8 pm) & Sunday (1 & 6:30 pm), June 6, 8 & 9
The spectacular Broadway musical turns the Wizard of Oz story on its head by focusing on the witches. Last chance to see the touring production, which features a strong cast (See Theater).
Overture Center's Capitol Theater, 8 pm
One of folk music's most recognizable sopranos will fill Capitol Theater with memories of the civil rights movement. (See Music.)
Saturday 6.8
Ebb Tide: The Sea in Japanese Prints
Chazen Museum of Art, through Sept. 1
Front and center in this exhibition of Japanese prints is Kitagawa Utamaro's opulent "Gifts of the Ebb Tide" or "The Shell Book," which documents in woodblock prints and calligraphy a trip taken by seven poets to the tide pools near Edo. The shells, sea life and depictions of local traditions are rendered in exquisite detail.
Cambridge Pottery Festival & U.S. Pottery Games
Lake Ripley Park, Cambridge, 9 am-5 pm. Also Sunday, June 9, 10 am-4 pm
The annual clay-a-palooza features juried exhibits, competitions and hands-on activities that will get your hands nice and dirty.
Madison Children's Museum and environs, 10 am-3 pm
Rotary Club of Madison celebrates its 100th anniversary by presenting this first annual family festival. It includes free admission to the Madison Children's Museum, a noon parade around the Capitol Square, games and music.
Goodman Community Center, 10 am-5 pm. After party: the Fountain, 7 pm
Swear off animal products (at least for a day) at the annual celebration, which features speakers, demonstrations and good-for-ya samples.
Yahara Place Park, noon. Also Sunday, June 10, 11 am
The annual fest features sports, kids' activities, food and the usual abundance of great music. Saturday highlights include Fareed Haque & the Flat Earth Ensemble, Brooklyn's the Pimps of Joytime and Grammy-winning Grupo Fantasma. Sunday's musical lineup includes New Orleans' Hurray for the Riff Raff and MarchFourth Marching Band. (See Music.)
11 am-5 pm. Also Sundays (11 am-5 pm) & Mondays-Fridays (3-7 pm), through June 23
The Madison Area Builders Association opens up its latest showplaces for folks who can afford them and those of us who just like to ogle. Check out homes at Bristol Gardens (town of Bristol), Rivers Turn at Conservancy Place (DeForest), Savannah Parks (Deerfield), Scenic Ridge (Verona) and Westbridge (Waunakee).
South Madison Center for Culture & Community, 4 pm
Who will drop the hottest beats in Madison this Saturday? Find out at this showdown, which includes performances by Carlito and OMoney.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 9 pm
Chicago's Bailiff add color to their rock 'n' roll palette by studying Native American chants, Indian classical music and the Malian blues of Vieux Farka Touré. Local groovemeisters the Sharrows will open with selections from Starting at the End, a new album laced with slide guitar, cello and banjo. With the Outfit.
Revolution Cycles, 9 pm
Welcome home local duo the Hussy, who've been touring Europe with a new album of psychedelic garage-punk, at this show featuring excellent Nebraska synth-punk band Digital Leather. (See Tour Stop.) With Fire Retarted and Trin Tran.
Sunday 6.9
NOTEWORTHY: Lake Delton drains into Wisconsin River after its dam breaks, 2008.
Angell Park Pavilion, Sun Prairie, 10 am-4 pm
The event features contests, demonstrations, games and enough cuteness to keep you smiling for six straight hours.
A Room of One's Own, 2 pm
LePage discusses the book she co-wrote with Milwaukee's Sylvia Bell White, Sister: An African American Life in Search of Justice (University of Wisconsin Press). It tells the story of White's struggles, including her quest for justice following a racially motivated shooting.
Cliff Frederiksen Medical Benefit
Brink Lounge, 1 pm
This fundraiser for Frederiksen, a Madison jazz luminary who's fighting cancer, has one of the longest bills of local talent in recent history. More than 25 heavyweights will perform, including Clyde Stubblefield, Queenie McCarter-Wade and the John Masino Band.
Madison Jazz Society Year-End Party
Coliseum Bar, 1 pm
This free event features performances by the Rand Moore Sextet and Angela Babler, plus door prizes and officer elections.
Majestic Theatre, 8 pm
Baroness draw headbangers out of the woodwork with material that fits right in to a mixtape of Mastodon and Mesuggah tunes. This is their first trip to Madison since the 2012 bus crash that seriously injured three of their members. With Coliseum.
Frequency, 8 pm
This loop-loving, dance-friendly L.A. band has gained lots of fans by opening for DeVotchKa. It also landed on Time's "11 Great Bands You Don't Know (But Should)" last year. With Griswold.
Dragonfly Lounge, 9 pm
Boys, a fuzz-tastic band from Missoula, Mont., will join Madison's Dakotas and A Haircut for an evening of distorted jams. With Soul Low.
