Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.
EAT
May 1: Sprint for Spat
Fells Point Square, S. Broadway & Thames St. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. $25.
Update: Sprint for Spat will be postponed due to torrential thunderstorms on Sunday. The event will be held at the same time and location on June 12.
Spat are baby oysters, and as you may well know by now, oysters are an important key to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. This Sunday, Flying Dog Brewery is hosting the annual Sprint for Spat, where athletes of all levels can run down a stretch of Fells Point brick to benefit the Oyster Recovery Partnership, which has been working tirelessly to plant spat, restore the bay’s decimated oyster beds, and effectively bring it back to life. After a mere 100 meters, you can replenish your lost energy with raw oysters on the half shell, grilled oysters, and oyster shooters from local farms like True Chesapeake, Barren Island, Hollywood, and Rappahannock River. If half-shells aren’t your thing, there will also be plenty of pork from The Smoking Swine pork, plus beers by Flying Dog and music by DJ Landis Expandis. Proceeds will also benefit the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.
DRINK
April 30: The Baltimore Whiskey Company presents: A Soul Train Dance Party
De Kleine Duivel, 3602 Hickory Ave. 9 p.m. Free.
This weekend, Baltimore’s young distillery is bringing us more than just craft whiskey, creative liqueurs, and a new high-proof gin. They’re also bringing us a booty-shaking, boogie-woogie dance party, with their last-Saturday-of-the-month Soul Train shindig at Hampden’s Belgian beer bar. Don your funkiest threads, order some incomprehensible ales, and throw inhibition to the wind as you hip-wag, high step, and straight-up shimmy across the dance floor. Expect epic funk, soul, and disco music by DJ James Nasty, as well as BWC drink specials available all night.
SEE
April 30: Harbor East’s FashionEASTa
Harbor East, President & Aliceanna Sts. 1-6 p.m. Free.
This weekend, Baltimore’s “luxury district” is about to get a little more luxe as Harbor East transforms into Baltimore’s version of Rodeo Drive. Hundreds of guests will fill the streets for exclusive sales, shopping events, and peeks into new stores like Warby Parker, Brooks Brothers, and Free People. Grab drinks and bites from neighborhood bars and restaurants like the all-new Loch Bar, and get ready for the main event. At 3:30 p.m., the streets turn into a high-fashion runway, with local celebrities strutting their stuff in the latest spring styles from HE stores, including Anthropologie, South Moon Under, and Under Armour. Past models have included the likes of Baltimore Raven Justin Tucker, MIX 106.5 DJ Maria Dennis, and Bond St. District bandmate (and our 2016 Top Singles) Paul Hutson, so arrive early and nab a good seat. A portion of ticket sales will benefit the local chapter of Dress for Success.
HEAR
April 30: Charm City Folk & Bluegrass Festival
Druid Hill Park, 3100 Swann Dr. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. $57-161.
If the Charm City Folk & Bluegrass Festival is any indication, it’s safe to say that Baltimore’s Americana music scene is not putting its fiddles down anytime soon. Now going four years strong, the festival will once again return to a grassy knoll of Druid Hill Park for one full Saturday of TK music, including headliners like jam-band master Keller Williams and the Travelin’ McCourys and homegrown talent like Cris Jacobs and the Ampersand Stringband. On top of that, you can tip back Union Craft beers (like its festival special Country Boy Wit) and plenty of local eats, including The Local Oyster, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, Otterbein’s Bakery, and The Charmery, who will be hawking their own flavor of the weekend, (Blue)berry Lemon(grass).
DO
April 30: Charm City Craft Mafia’s “Buzz” Spring Maker Market
Space 2640, 2640 St. Paul St. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.
Baltimore is a city of movers, shakers, and, increasingly, makers. And a few days out of the year, Charm City Craft Mafia does a great job at bringing a bunch of those DIY doers under one roof. The annual Holiday Heap is a local winter favorite and Pile of Craft is the answer for spring. Now renamed “Buzz,” the latter maker market returns to St. John’s Methodist Church in Charles Village this Saturday. From housewares, stationary, and screen-printings to clothing and toys, you can browse a bevy of handmade goods from more than 50 American crafters, including local artists like Annie Howe Papercuts, Almanac Industries, Bowerbox Press, Radica Textiles, the Broken Plate Pendant Company, and Knit Soy and Metal, to name a few. Whether you’re spring cleaning or Mother’s Day shopping, it’s a nice warm way to spend your cool and cloudy afternoon.