Wild at art

Oh, man, as I go about editing this year’s guide to Artown and RN&R’s Rollin’ on the River Concert Series, I have some major ear worms going. There’s “How do I get you alone?” going on in there, along with “Love, love me do, you know I love you,” and, the ear wormiest of them all: “Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville …” I predict you will have a few ear worm infestations yourself this month if you make it down to Wingfield Park on a Friday evening for a Rollin’ show. The powers that be at RN&R’s headquarters decided to bring some of rock’s most beloved bands and songs to the river this year by inviting the next best thing: tribute bands. Every Friday, a tribute band will be on stage at the park. Then you’ll have no excuse for not singing along.

That’s just our little part of Artown. Hundreds of events for all ages, representing many art forms, will be scattered around town in July. We chose some highlights for this guide, but you can find a full list of them at renoisartown.com.

A couple more things. We’ll only say this once: Wingfield Park, where much of the activity is centered, is at the corner of First and Arlington streets downtown along the Riverwalk. Glass, animals and alcohol won’t be allowed in the park, though they’ll happily sell you beer there for most events. For any other questions, just go to the Artown website we mentioned, or download their free, nifty app. But do go see some of this stuff—most of it’s free, easily accessible, a sure cure for any summer boredom, and will be gone again before you know it.