All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

Another gorgeous September weekend is ahead of us, filled with festivals, cider donuts, theater, haunted tours, and more.

Our list is below -- pick your favorites. Planning something you don't see here? Drop it in the comments so we can all see.

And whatever you're up to, have a fantastic weekend.

Festivals

LarkFest
Saturday: LarkFest returns in Albany. The street festival will close off Lark Street from Madison to Washington for vendors, activities, and entertainment. This year's music lineup is headlined by Cloud Nothings. Saturday 10 am-6 pm -- free admission

Hispanic Heritage Celebration
Saturday: The Empire State Plaza hosts the Hispanic Heritage Celebration, a tribute to Latin culture, with food, music, dance, and family-friendly activities. The music headliner is Puerto Rican salsa band Conjunto Imagen. Saturday 5-10 pm -- free admission

Adirondack Balloon Festival
Friday-Sunday: The Adirondack Balloon Festival returns to Queensbury's Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport and Crandall Park in Glens Falls. Early morning lift-offs, evening moon glow balloon lifts, a block party, car show, and kids activities. Friday-Sunday various times and prices

StoryHarvest
Saturday: The Sanctuary for Independent Media presents StoryHarvest: A celebration of Art and Food from Seed to Table. Music from the Villalobos Brothers, apple cider making, food, and activities. Saturday 3-6 pm -- free admission

Halfmoon Fall Festival
Saturday: Halfmoon Town Park hosts the Halfmoon Fall Festival. Hayrides, vendors, kids activities. Saturday 1-5 pm -- free admission

Upper Madison Avenue Street Fair
Sunday: The Upper Madison Street Fair returns to the western end of Madison Avenue in Albany with vendors, music, kids activities, face painting, and more. Sunday noon-5 pm -- free admission

Collar City Ramble
Saturday: The Collar City Ramble, Troy's alternative transportation festival, focuses on urban trails walking, biking and water trail tours, and other fun events. Saturday 9 am-2 pm -- free admission

Stockade Walkabout
Saturday: The Stockade Walkabout includes an open house, costumed characters, and guided tours through Schenectady's historic Stockade neighborhood. Saturday 11 am-5 pm -- $20 ahead / $25 day of

Pets

Bark & Brew
Saturday: Grafton Lakes State Park hosts Bark & Brew, a benefit for local animal shelters that includes dog activities, live music, vendors, pet costume contest, plus food and craft vendors. Saturday 11 am-3 pm -- $6 per car entrance fee for the park / $20 admission includes unlimited beer, cider, and mead tastings

Rotary Pet Fair
Sunday: Shaker Heritage Meeting House hosts the Rotary Pet Fair, a celebration for pets and the people who love them. Sunday 10 am-4 pm -- free admission

Stage

Cabaret
Friday- Sunday: Schenectady Light Opera Company presents Cabaret, Kander and Ebb's classic musical about Berlin in the days leading up to WWII, starring Brittany Leigh Glenn, Oliver Ord, and James Alexander. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 2 pm -- $22-$28

Sex With Strangers
Friday-Sunday: Capital Rep's first production of the new season -- Sex With Strangers -- opens in previews this weekend. It's a comedy about a snowbound blogger, his literary idol, and a tryst turned transformational experience. Friday-Sunday various times -- $20 and up

Peter and the Starcatcher
Friday-Sunday: Albany Civic Theater presents Peter and the Starcatcher, the beautifully-written backstory to Peter Pan.Friday and Saturday 7:30 pm, Sunday 3 pm -- $18 / $10 students with ID

Lost in Yonkers
Friday-Sunday: Curtain Call Theater presents Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 3 pm -- $20

Comedy

Maestro: One Improviser to Rule Them All!
Friday: The MopCo Improve Theater presents Maestro a show in which improvisors from around the Capital Region compete to create songs, stories, and games based on audience suggestions. Friday 8 pm -- $10 / $6 for students and seniors

Pretty Much the Best Comedy Show: Kevin McCaffrey
Saturday: Pretty Much the Best Comedy Show returns to Proctors with headliner Kevin McCaffrey, a NYC based writer/comedian. McCaffrey has appeared on Letterman, and has written for VH1, National Lampoon, and Fuse TV, and hosts College Stories with Kevin McCaffrey, a weekly podcast talking to comics, writers, and actors about their time in college, and their best/funniest/craziest college stories. Saturday 8 pm -- $15 advance / $20 at the door

Spontaneous Broadway
Saturday: MopCo Improv Theatre presentsSpontaneous Broadway. Act one is a mock backers audition, in which the company invents songs based on audience suggestions. The audience votes on a favorite, and in act two, the company makes up the full musical, including costumes, sets and a reprise of the first act song. Friday 8 pm -- $10 / $6 for students and seniors

Joe Zimmerman
Saturday-Sunday: The Albany Funny Bone hosts Joe Zimmerman. Friday- Sunday, various times and prices

Film

Harvest of Empire
Friday: The NYS Writers Institute classic film series continues with a screening of Harvest of Empire, a documentary examining how the influx of immigrants from Latin American countries to the United States has been linked to American foreign policy. Friday 7:30 pm at Page Hall on the UAlbany downtown campus -- free

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzi Across the 8th Dimension
The Madison Theater is screening the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzi. Also screening this weekend: Ghost in the Shell, Wonder Woman, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Drive-ins
Drive-in season continues:
+ Malta:Screen 1: The Lego Ninjago Move, and It | Screen 2: Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Wind River
+ Jericho: Kingsman:The Golden Circle , and Atomic Blonde
+ Hollywood: It, and Annabelle Creation

Food

Cheese
Friday: Josh Coletto will be the featured chef at The Cheese Traveler's Friday Night Cookout. Friday 5-9 pm -- various prices

Cider donuts
It's cider donut season. Try one, or try a lot. But read this first.

Boo!
It's the time of the year when some of us like to scare ourselves silly. Here are a few options:

Double M Haunted Hayride
The Double M Haunted Hayrides are back from now through Halloween. various times and prices

Ghosts in the Yaddo Garden Tours
Friday and Sunday: Yaddo is offering ghost tours of its gardens featuring stories of Native Americans, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Trask Family. Friday and Sunday 5 pm -- $10

Ghosts of Albany Walking Tour
Friday: The Ghosts of Albany Walking Tours work their way through downtown Albany telling "stories of ghosts, antique sites, scandalous tales, haunted places, mysterious sightings of apparitions, strange and unusual accounts of centuries past, legendary stories, folklore and ghostly experiences stranger than reality." They meet at the Hilton at 40 Lodge Street. Fridays 7:30 pm -- $15 per person (make a reservation, space fills quickly)

Music

Friday: Kip Moore at The Palace
Country star. With: Cale Dodds. 8 pm -- $29.50 and up

Friday: Yarn/Wire at EMPAC
"New York-based quartet Yarn/Wire performs an evening of work by contemporary German composer Enno Poppe, including the world premiere of the EMPAC-commissioned piece Feld. The program will also feature Tonband, Poppe's co-composition with Wolfgang Heiniger." 7:30 pm -- $18

Friday: Poppa Chubby at The Upper Room
Blues guitarist. 7 pm -- $15 and up

Friday: Ana Popovic at Helsinki Hudson
Funk/rock/blues. 9 pm -- $30 and up

Friday: That 1 Guy at Parish Public House
One-man band. 8 pm -- $12

Friday: Downtown Albany Hip Hop Showcase at The Low Beat
Featuring a bunch of acts. Friday 10:30 pm

Friday: Dark Honey at The Hollow
With: Girl Blue, Good Fiction. 8 pm -- $10

Friday: The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc at Old Songs
Unique blend of fiddle tunes from Norway, Sweden and the Shetland Islands. 7:30 pm -- $23 online / $25 at the door

Saturday: Roger Waters at TU Center
Playing songs from Pink Floyd. 8 pm -- $55.50 and up

Saturday: Young Dubliners at Cohoes Music Hall
Celtic rock. 8 pm -- $19 and up

Saturday: Coast Modern at The Hollow
Indie pop. 9 pm -- $10 ahead / $12 at door

Saturday: Heather Maloney at The Linda
Singer/songwriter. With: Belle Skinner. 8 pm -- $18

Saturday: Selector Dub Narcotic at The Low Beat
Calvin Johnson. With: Sun Burdens, Mr. Cancelled. 8 pm

Sunday: Blind Boy Paxton at Caffe Lena
"Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton is a visually impaired, Jewish, African American multi-instrumentalist (banjo, fiddle, piano and guitar) who brings out the playful side of old-school music." 7 pm -- $22

Saratoga Showcase Of Homes Weekend 2
Saturday-Sunday: This is the second of three weekends for the Saratoga Showcase of Homes, a builder showcase of 18 new homes in Saratoga County. Saturday-Sunday 11 am-5 pm -- $20

Lakeside Farm Antiques Show
Sunday: Munch on an apple cider donut and browse the annual Lakeside Farm Antiques Show. More than 60 dealers displaying and selling jewelry, china, records, steampunk, vintage clothing, and more. Sunday 9 am-4 pm -- free admission

Saratoga Peace Fair
Sunday: The Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church in Saratoga hosts the annual Saratoga Peace Fair with 50 exhibits that celebrate ongoing efforts for peace and a concert to end gun violence. Saturday noon to 4 pm -- free

Jajja's Kids fall fundraiser
Sunday: Revolution Hall in Troy is hosting a fundraiser for Jajja's Kids, a locally-based charity dedicated to improving the lives of former street children in Kampala, Uganda. The money raised will go toward the purchase of a permanent home for 19 children. Sunday 2 pm -- $75

Museums/galleries

State Museum
The State Museum recently opened the first phase of its new Enterprising Waters: New York's Erie Canal exhibit.

Albany Institute
The Albany Institute recently opened an exhibit that looks at the anti-suffrage movement in Albany.
Also on display at the Albany Institute an exhibit of their Hudson River School works -- more than 80 pieces, almost the entire collection. And it has a new exhibit about the anti-suffrage movement in Albany.
Admission to the Institute is free on Saturday with a downloaded Museum Day Live ticket from the Smithsonian.

MASS MoCA
Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson's exhibit at MASS MoCA invites viewers to explore a multi-functional constellation of galleries and installations including a working studio, audio archive, exhibition venue, and a virtual reality environment that highlights her creative process and some of her best known works. (On view through 2018)
 
Other Side: Art, Object, Self
The Tang Museum at Skidmore College recently opened a new exhibit called Other Side: Art, Object, Self. This group show features contemporary art that examines ways in which artists use materials, found objects, or even their own bodies to explore questions of national, cultural, and self-identity. (Through December 30)

The Clark
The Clark has an exhibit of work by Helen Frankenthaler (through October 9).

Hyde Collection
The Hyde Collection recently opened its new Feibes & Schmitt Gallery. It includes 40 works of modern art donated by Schenectady residents Werner Feibes and the late James Schmitt. The exhibit includes works by Josef Albers, Jean (Hans) Arp, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Louise Nevelson, George Rickey, Bridget Riley, and Andy Warhol.

UAlbany Art Museum
The University Art Museum has Abstracts, "a large-scaled landscape exhibit where the paintings represent the relationship between communities and reality," and Gloves Off, "a video, photography and sculpture to create an kaleidoscopic view of contemporary culture." (On display until September 29)

USS Slater
The USS Slater, the destroyer escort historical museum in Albany, is open for tours. Wednesday-Sunday 10 am-4 pm -- $9 / $8 for seniors / $7 for kids 6 to 14 / free for kids 5 and under

Berkshire Botanical Garden
The Berkshire Botanical Gardens in Stockbridge are open for the season. every day from 9 am-4 pm -- $15 / $14 seniors / $12 students / kids under 12 are admitted free

Farmers' markets
+ Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is on River Street around Monument Square. Saturday 9 am-2 pm
+ The Delmar Farmers Market is Bethlehem Central Middle School (332 Kenwood Ave). Saturday 9 am-1 pm
+ The Saratoga Farmers' Market is outdoors at High Rock Park Saturday 9 am-1 pm
+ The Schenectady Greenmarket is at its outdoor location around city hall. Sunday 10 am-2 pm
+ The Spa City Farmers' Market is on the lawn of the the Lincoln Baths. Sunday 10 am-3 pm.

Troy Makers Market
Saturday: Local craft vendors will display and sell wares at the Troy Makers Market in conjunction with the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. Saturday 9 am to noon

Day trips
Explore New Paltz, head for The Berkshires, the Catskills, or Columbia County.

The Albany Institute, Capital Rep, and the Mop & Bucket Company advertise on AOA. And AOA is a media sponsor of the Upper Madison Street Fair

photo: Sebastien B