The Top 10 Things to Do This Weekend
CLASSICAL & MORE
Aug 4–18
Turandot
At the center of Puccini’s opulent Imperial City is one of the most formidable princesses in opera, Turandot, who orders the death of every suitor she faces. Soprano Lori Phillips shares the stage on opening night with Italian tenor Antonello Palombi, as the one suitor who may tame the wild beauty. McCaw Hall, $25–$241.
CONCERTS
Aug 3–5
Watershed Festival
Dust off the Wrangler boots. The inaugural Watershed Festival brings out the big names in twang (including headliners Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, and Blake Shelton) in an attempt to be country music’s answer to Sasquatch. Gorge Amphitheatre, $150–$750.
Aug 3
Concerts at the Mural: No Depression Night
Seattle Center and KEXP cohost free outdoor Concerts at the Mural, complete with a beer garden and tacos from Chipotle, on Fridays at 5:30 throughout August. Tonight's opener is No Depression Night, with Shovels and Rope, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Legendary Oaks, and Fly Moon Royalt. Seattle Center's Mural Amphitheatre, free.
Aug 4
Alison Krauss and Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas
Being a red-blooded American demands sampling at least a little bluegrass, and it doesn’t get better than this. Krauss, whose songwriting and fiddle skills have earned her a record-tying 27 Grammys, plays the winery with her band Union Station and guitarist Jerry Douglas. Chateau Ste Michelle, sold out.
FILM
Aug 4 & 5
Movies at the Mural: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
SPECIAL EVENT
Aug 4
Run for Your Lives
Given Seattle’s love of the undead (they don’t call us the home of ZomBCon for nothing), it’s not surprising that Washington now has a “zombie-infected 5k obstacle course.” Participants wear flag football-style belts and race through the woods, leaping over and diving under obstacles as “zombies” give chase. Hang onto your flags and your brains, and you’ll be rewarded with an after-party. Registration closed.
Thru Aug 5
Seafair
Feel the need? The need…for speed? Seafair’s closing week has that covered, by air and by sea, with the Boeing air show, flybys courtesy of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, and the Albert Lee Cup hydroplane races. (The Blue Angels have already started warming up; you’ll hear them before you see them.) Genesee Park and Lake Washington, $25–$200.
Aug 2–25
Christopher Martin Hoff
Until his passing in March, the young Seattle plein air artist was a fixture on city street corners—stationed with an easel under an umbrella, painting photorealist snapshots of graffitied buildings and Seattle’s skyline against a dense gray blanket of clouds. He died too soon; the gallery mourns the loss with a memorial exhibition of his work (some for sale, some on loan, some unfinished). Linda Hodges Gallery.
THEATER
Aug 2–25
99 Layoffs
As part of ACT’s Central Heating Lab, Radial Theater Project presents a new dramedy by Seattle playwright Vincent Delaney about two struggling artists who endure awful interviews, bosses, and menial labor in the search for a paying gig. ACT Theatre, $30.
