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FOLKLIFE
11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri., May 23-Mon. May 26. $5 donation requested. Seattle Center, www.nwfolklife.org.
The 40-page guide to the Northwest Folklife Festival is so overwhelming (you got yours in last week's Weekly, right?), it can be hard to know what exactly the thing is about. "Traditional Balafon Music"? "Raging Celtic Bluegrass Rock"? "Yupik Dance and Comedy"? The Folklife clich鬠of course, is blond dreadlocks, drum circles, broomstick skirts, annoying street performers, and . . . OK, there's some truth to that. But Folklife is easily the most far-reaching and least commercial of the big Seattle Center festivals, with a big emphasis on positive energy and a multiculti outlook that's for real. This year's fest will include a special emphasis on traditions of the sea, with more maritime songs, poems, panels, and crafts than you can shake a fish at. Of course, cool cats from the Hill will always scorn Folklife because it's not about rock stars and there's nowhere to smoke. But that's no reason for you to miss out on a good time. MARK D. FEFER
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Previews begin 8 p.m. Sat., May 31. $10-$30. Intiman Theatre, 201 Mercer St., 206-269-1900.
The choice for must-see entertainment onstage this summer has to be Intiman's world premiere musical The Light in the Piazza. How's this for pedigree: It's based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer that was a finalist for the National Book Award; award-winning playwright/ screenwriter Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, Longtime Companion) directs and wrote the book; composer/lyricist Adam Guettel is a Stephen Sondheim Award winner for his past work; and choreography is by esteemed local Pat Graney. All of this goes toward the story of a young woman's forbidden romance in 1953 Italy. Intiman is the class act of the big houses, and Lucas never does anything uninteresting (not even his debatable, vengeful-gay-man-melodrama, The Dying Gaul). If Light has even half the appeal of its creators, it will be something to remember. STEVE WIECKING
FREMONT SOLSTICE PARADE
Noon Sat., June 21. Downtown Fremont.
The Fremont Solstice Parade doesn't take place until June 21, but you're already behind the curve! Have you signed up yet for your foamed latex prosthetic makeup class? How about working with instant papier m⣨鿠How do you expect to be ready to take to the streets on Solstice Saturday? As the 1960s recede ever deeper into the past, as nostalgia dries and crumbles away in the attic of memory, the Fremont Arts Council's Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade springs ever green. Just to walk among the kilted, face-painted multitude is to return in mood to a time when patchouli and the peace sign were as yet untinged with irony. You can believefor the space of an afternoon, anyway that all you need is love, that all you've got to do is come together and smile on your brother. The parade's ground rules are designed to ease you into a timeless frame of mind: no motors, no signs, no words at all. (And, of course, there's the annual "controversy" over the naked bicyclists and how much the SPD will hassle them. . . . ) Of Fremont's four annual seasonal celebrations, the paradea kickoff event for the weekend-long Fremont Fairis the only one that draws a crowd from well outside Wiccan and Celtic revival circles. Maybe just because it's the one least likely to be rained on, but still. (For a list of classes and workshops on making art for the parade, see www.fremontartscouncil.org.) ROGER DOWNEY
LOU REED
9 p.m. Sun., June 29. $35-$45. Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., 206-628-0888.
Being Lou Reed, like being Hunter Thompson or Mother Teresa, is a career unto itself. But Louis Firbank, disheveled son of Long Island, has done a better job of it than anyone else for over half a century. Indeed, though many potential heirs to Reed's brand of darkly literate schreiing have come and goneIggy, Bowie, Jim Carroll, and even Marilyn Manson, who owes a debt to "Sister Ray" all by itselffew of his spiritual progeny ever mastered the art of showing us how terror and ecstasy are eternally embedded in the mundane. That unique perspective is Lou Reed's greatest gift, the one that finally distinguishes master from student. Albums like Set the Twilight Reeling are the sound of a man punching through the mystery to see what's beyond. Rock hard as the White Stripes might, this is a perspective one only achieves after multiple decades behind the lines. ERIC WAGGONER
SEAFAIR PARADES
6 p.m. Sun., July 6: Wallingford Seafair Kiddies Parade (the first of the community parades); 7:30 p.m. Sat., July 26: Torchlight Parade, along Fourth Avenue. www.seafair.com.
Well before all the other festivals listed here, Seafair was the grand event of the summer, a distinctly Seattle mix of water sports and neighborhood boosterism. The hydroplane races were our bid for national attention, but the big lineup of parades grounded the festival in the city, and they are still one of the best ways to spend a summer evening sitting on the sidewalk (despite recent ordinances). The Torchlight Parade in downtown Seattle is the swankiest, with hydroplanes on trucks, multiple marching bands, and a full deck of political types in borrowed convertibles. But the smaller, neighborhood parades are life-sized, reflecting something specific about each corner of the city. Wallingford kids release butterflies, while Lake City grown-ups drive a stagecoach. The Hi-Yu Festival in West Seattle actually predates Seafair, wearing its nostalgia as gracefully as its Chinook name, and in the International District, the young women in the Seattle Chinese-American Girls Drill Team actually smile while they march (the rest of the season, they cultivate a drop-dead stare). And the Seafair Clowns and Pirates, for better or worse, can be found racing from place to place, sometimes leaving their good sense behind. There are other events during the year that are more sophisticated, and I love them, too, but when the last car goes by in a Seafair parade, you can get up and walk down the middle of the street, waving to the crowds as you pass by. SANDRA KURTZ
