Just spent the better part of Sunday at Centerfest 2019 and kudos to the committee who choose the…read moreincredible artists that were there. Every booth had something different and unique. It was SO well done. Parking was easy. I only have raves for those incredible artists who work so hard to bring us part of their heart in their artistry. The bonus, there were stores and art galleries open as well. Thank you Centerfest, for a wonderful day!

This is my 3rd or 4th year visiting Durham's Centerfest Arts Festival. It's always been a nice…read moreannual diversion. There are up and coming musicians and street performers as well as very talented artists selling their works. This year's crowd seemed somewhat smaller than prior years, and although there were many vendors, an unusually large number of jewelry booths were present. Still worth the time to stroll around and take in the sights and sounds on a beautiful day.

With their relocation to the Raleigh Convention Center, this has the potential of being the…read moreTriangle's premiere shopping event of the season. Spend a weekend shopping for handmade, one-of-a-kind craft representing more than 110 artists from across the country. For those seeking unique and collectible gifts, you won't want to miss this event! Friday, November 6 - Sunday, November 8, hours are Friday, 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.- Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tickets are on sale now! Advance sale discount Visit CarolinaArtisanCraft.com for more information. Let's get social! Use the hashtag #CarolinaCraft15 We will be there, hope to see you!

I started attending this show when it was at the Fair Grounds on Thanksgiving weekends. I'm so glad…read morethey moved it earlier in the month so holiday travel won't interfere with my shopping! The Raleigh Convention Center is such a bright, airy place to showcase such beautiful work. I heard there will be 40 new artists there this year. I can't wait!

The Carrboro Music Festival takes place one day every September. The have several 'venues' (parking…read morelots, lawns, and more traditional stages like the Cradle) set up around downtown Carrboro. There's a festival map that indicates where each of the soundstages are and gives playing times of the scheduled performances. They really do a great job of representing the many varieties of music that thrive in our local scene -- rock, blues, jazz, folk, celtic, bluegrass, :new:grass, indie power pop, etc. As street fairs go, this one seems a little less organized (could definitely do with some food and drink vendors). Bring blankets or tote-able chairs if you plan on spending the day, so you have some comfortable seating!

The Carrboro Music Festival makes maximum use of so many great venues in Carrboro like Cat's…read moreCradle, Open Eye, The Station, and Southern Rail and Armadillo Grill just to name a few.....During the festival, a host of great musical groups come out and perform and they cover a wide range of styles of music ranging from Jazz to Blues to Latin to Rock and all kinds of styles in between......This year, they didn't even let a little rain stop it from being a great party and I always enjoy MCing it.....Definitely worth putting on your calendar every year during the month of September...

SparkCon is a really fun event that keeps getting better and better each year. I wish there were…read moremore activities Friday during the day, since that's when I attended this year, but I guess that was my own fault. Evidently there were lots of cool things on Friday evening that I missed. Most people probably don't have Friday off like I happened to that day. :) I always love seeing the chalk drawings, and the circus performers. This year I watched some bike polo and got a poem on demand written about my friend's baby! So cool! The whole vibe is so fun and friendly and creative. I can't wait for next year!

This is my second year to attend. I can't go tomorrow, so I went tonight (Friday). Didn't draw a…read more*huge* crowd, but there were a fair amount of people there. I attended a brief portion of the fashion show and a brief portion of the Circus act. Both were okay. I remember last year having a little more substance but I was also there on Saturday, not on Friday. There were only three food trucks out tonight and artists were just beginning to create their chalk art on the streets. A fun event nonetheless. And it's FREE. I hope they do the vintage map thing at the City of Raleigh museum again. That was my favorite part last year.

I stumbled upon this gem of a history lesson by accident while walking to downtown from our Airbnb…read more Catherine gave my son and I a great tour and history of Raleigh. I'm a history buff and she was able to keep me interested in an area of the country I know little of. Always fun to learn local history. It's free and enjoyable.

I had never been to the Joel Lane House Museum so the Fourth of July Celebration was the perfect…read moretime. The museum offers free parking on St. Mary's Street and more parking in front of the house on West Hargett. Admission is usually charged but was free for this event as we were not given the official tour but received $4 off coupons to return for a tour. They provided Howling Cow ice cream and free lemonade too. So who was Joel Lane? Joel Lane is considering a Founding Father of North Carolina and Raleigh. He sold 1,000 acres of land to make Raleigh the State Capital. The Joel Lane Museum House is the oldest house in Raleigh and is older than Wake County. The decision to move North Carolina's Capital to Raleigh happened in the Joel Lane House. As they say "it was the room that it happened". Joel Lane was a slave holder of 43 adults and children. They are the ones who built the house and maintained the plantation, raising the livestock, cooking and caring for the Lane family. The museum provides a way for us to see how life would have been back then from the candles to the necessary to the toys they had to how they made yarn for clothing. The herb garden provided a method for medicine. The holiday event provided an overview but I am planning to return for a tour to learn more of the history and see all of the property.

First time participating in a Durham Art Walk and would definitely return for another! We started…read morethe day by finding a parking spot across from Brightleaf Square since we knew the Bull City Connector bus could take us back as we ventured downtown. We started at the Durham History Hub for a history lesson pre-art. I loved that the art walk included all different participants and was not limited to art vendors; they included a handful of restaurants, spaces and the history hub. We next ventured to the Durham Arts Council where we picked up a map while admiring different vendors. We followed clearly lain out signage and ventured on to Pleiades Gallery, Through This Lens and visited Karman K. & the Yelp table at The Durham Armory (huge area of vendors, if you can only go to one stop, I'd recommend this one!). It was such a wonderful day to walk all over downtown Durham AND perfect scheduling for the art walk as it overlapped with the Farmers Market, food trucks and craft fair at Durham Central Park. We loved going by Vega Metals and picking up our "Durham" metal ornament. We finished the day by visiting the Patchwork Market at Fullsteam Brewery which happens January-May on the first Saturday of the month. Again, a perfect coincidence to have these two local markets overlapping! And of course we also swung by Pompieri Pizza for a bite to eat (although while they were part of the art walk, they weren't offering any incentive to "art walkers"). Overall, a wonderful way to see Durham while supporting local artists. Whether you're interested in photography, chainmail jewelry, oil paintings, metal work, handcrafted notebooks, handmade clothing, cutting boards, etc. you will find it ALL at the Durham Art Walk!

Sad that one person decided to drag down the rating of the Durham Art Walk Holiday Market because…read moreof one bad exchange with one old person (come on, old people, chin up party down), so here's a bump. Do you like seeing a variety of art? Good event. Do you like taking a walking tour of your fair city, seeing different buildings and such? Good event. Music friend, a friend of music? Good event. Got some early gift shopping to do and like to support local artists? Great event. Loved the day, thanks!

Tucked next to the Page-Walker Center and on the Cary town government campus is a "garden". It's…read morereally a small outdoor stage with a decent-sized grass area in front surrounded by garden. Various musical groups (not famous, but still decent) will perform there during the summer, generally on Friday evenings. It's quite a fun place to sit out on a blanket as the sun goes down, eat a picnic dinner, watch the little kids free-form dance, and listen to some fun music. It's a small venue, so it feels intimate. It's generally lightly attended, so I haven't had to show up early for seating. Occasionally a train will drive by on the tracks about a hundred yards away. During intermission, go inside the center and look at the art on display there. The concerts are free, and it's a relaxing way to spend a summer evening. Look for the schedule titled "Starlight Concert Series".

The wife and I always enjoy going to the herb fest. It is held in the festival park at Wake Forest…read moreevery year for a week towards the end of April / beginning of May timeframe. When you arrive at festival park there are carts / wagons towards the entrance. Grab one of these because you will want to load up once you see the variety. As you head down into the center of the park you will see a bunch of tables lined up with various herbs on them. They are organized and categorized very nicely to help find what you are looking for. There are typically several varieties of each herb grouped together. They also have several very knowledgable staff on hand to answer any questions you may have. At last year's herb festival I was actually a star! They shot a quick video of yours truly asking a question to the herb specialist for the evening news. In reality I asked him several questions and found out some very interesting things. Did you know that Rosemary does not grow well in a pot? Rosemary apparently grows best in the ground and prefers sandy well drained soil. We also learned why we have such a difficult time growing Cilantro. Ours always gets very scrawny and just grows seed pods (coriander). Apparently the difference is simply temperature. Even if grown in the shade under other plants the temperature in our region is not suitable for Cilantro. It will grow coriander if you like, but the cilantro leaves will only thrive in areas with consistent temperatures below 80 degrees. He did point us to Culantro which we had never heard of. The name sounds similar to Cilantro for good reason. It is basically Cilantro for warmer climates. It grows well even in hotter areas and tastes like Cilantro but the leaves are longer and skinnier with what looks like sharp edges. It is very comforting to be able to ask people the best way to take care of the herbs so you can ensure your new purchases thrive and do not wither away. If you prefer you can also browse the tents around the perimeter of the herbs containing a variety of merchandise and food from local businesses. Many offer any type of trinket you can imagine while a few local restaurants have food samples and coupons to entice you to come see them. Over towards the stage there is almost always some type of live entertainment ranging anywhere from a magician for the kids to local high school bands. The dates and times of each performance are posted on the website so you know what to expect or can plan your trip if one of them looks particularly interesting. There are also a few of the typical festival food fare such as hot dogs, funnel cakes, and lemonaid. Once you have loaded up on your herbs you head back to the entrance towards the couple of tents. Typically there is a small line here but it goes pretty quickly as there are multiple cashiers to assist you. Several individuals rome around and will count up your items and hand you a ticket detailing your purchases. You then step up to a cashier and hand them the ticket so they can ring you up. They will take cash, check, mastercard, and visa. We go every year and always enjoy a lazy day (starting with a coffee from Wake Forest Coffee Company of course). The only problem I foresee with next year is where to put our new items. We have completely filled our screened in porch this year with containers of plants so I suppose we will have to replace some items or get inventive!

I visit the Wake Forest Herb Fest every year. I've done so since we moved to WF as it is a great…read moreway to stock up on some homegrown/organic herbs for your kitchen or garden. Herbfest is free and is situated at the Festival Park on South White. It used to take place over the course of a week, but this year, it was over two consecutive weekends. Since we were out of town the first weekend, we went this past (lesson learned, there are not as many options on the last weekend). I went looking for my standards: lavender, cilantro, mint, lemon basil, and catnip. I found all of what I was looking for, except the cilantro. I was able to learn a bit from the staff who told me that I can start my own cilantro by using coriander seed and advised me as to how to go about doing so. I also purchased locally grown tomato plants and am going to start my own growing of tomatoes this year. Also available at Herbfest this year was the White Street Brewery Beer, however, they were only offering the Scottish Ale. Not as many options on the last weekend, I assume. Also, the first weekend, there is live music, and different exhibits from the local high schools. The Herbfest is definitely a great local event, and a way to support local gardeners, and a learning experience as well! A must every year!