Your weekend arts forecast: Music, both in and out-of-doors

Taking full advantage of this glorious weather – before it gets too hot to trot – there have been big outdoor events very weekend for well over a month, and this one’s no exception.

The Tampa Bay Seafood and Music Festival takes over Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

(That’s right behind the Straz Center for the Performing Arts; the street address is 600 N. Ashley Drive.)

As the name suggests, there’ll be plenty of food for the purchasing, plus an arts and crafts show, and music from Florida rock and pop artists.

Headliners are the Pat Travers Band (8:30 p.m. Friday) and the Outlaws (4:30 p.m. Sunday). Admission is $10 Friday and Saturday, $15 Sunday; all tickets are here.

It’s produced by Paragon Festivals, out of Lakewood Ranch.  Hours are Friday 4-10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Plaza party

Something similar, but on a smaller scale, takes place Friday evening on the grassy plaza between the Mahaffey Theater and the Dali Museum. Live music, food and drink for sale, and that sweet view of the bay all come with a $20 ticket; with proceeds earmarked for the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts.

Inside stages

Let’s talk concerts. Artists who had to postpone during the worst days of the pandemic are making up for time (and revenue) lost by rescheduling those dates. Here’s a rundown of who’s playing over the next couple of days:

Van Morrison: The second date of Van the Man’s two-night stand at Ruth Eckerd Hall is tonight (Thursday, April 21). Tickets.

Colin Hay: The dapper singer/songwriter behind 1980s Australian hitmakers Men at Work, tonight at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets.

98 Rockfest: Godsmack, Three Days Grace, Black Veil Brides and others Friday at Amalie Arena. Tickets.

Steve Hackett: One of the greatest prog guitarists in all of rock ‘n’ roll, Hackett was a key member of Genesis in the uber-proggy Peter Gabriel era; his Capitol show concert Friday features he and his band performing the Selling England By the Pound album in its entirety. The show is sold out.

Kenny Chesney: The country superstar has a show at 5 p.m. (yes, 5 p.m.) Saturday at Raymond James Stadium. Tickets. 

Elton John: The “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” (no, really, really this time) Sunday at Amale Arena. Very nearly sold out (it’s been postponed a couple of times). Tickets.

Diana Krall: The jazz singer/songwriter and pianist returns to Ruth Eckerd Hall Friday. Tickets.

The Piano Guys: YouTube pop/classical phenom blending piano, cello and high definition videography. Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets.

Fortune Feimster: The engaging comedienne (Sweet & Salty on Netflix) performs Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater. Tickets.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD): Great Britain’s pioneering synthpop duo, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, are on the road celebrating 40 years of electronic OMD goodness; they’re at Jannus Live Saturday. Tickets.

Nate Bargatze: The “PG-13” standup comic’s Sunday evening show at the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall came close to selling out, so a 4 p.m. performance was added. Tickets.

Orchestra and opera

It’s another different-from-the-norm weekend of gigs for The Florida Orchestra. Michael Frances conducts his musicians are in Ferguson Hall, in the Straz Center, Friday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.), working with Opera Tampa on their productions of the operas Gianni Schicchi and Cavalleria Rusticana. Tickets are here.

Daniel Black has the baton Saturday, for a 4 p.m. chamber music presentation at the Palladium Theater. It’s a live re-creation of “Society for Private Musical Performances,” a chamber music series curated by Arnold Schoenberg from 1918-1921 in Vienna. Tickets. 

At Cage Brewing, the merry music-makers of the St. Petersburg Opera Company present Tavern Songs, a “pop-up” performance of “taverns, bars, and the mayhem that takes place in them.” For the full performance schedule and tickets, click here.

California’s Karole Foreman is Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” onstage through Sunday at freeFall Theatre. Photo provided.

Shakespeare etc.

It’s the final weekend for the extraordinary Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at freeFall Theatre. As Billie Holiday, Karle Foreman is a force of nature. Tickets.

At thestudio@620, Bob Devin Jones and Bill Leavengood perform a staged reading of the play Silver Alert Friday. It’s the latest work from Leavengood, the prolific St. Petersburg playwright (The Sister-Mothers of Gulfport, Gaspar! The Musical). Suggested  donation $5.

The St. Petersburg Shakespeare Festival comes roaring back like greasepaint Saturday with The Inaugural William Shakespeare’s Birthday Bash, held at Studio Grand Central, 2260 1st Avenue S. The 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. event, inside and out, is jammed with goings-on, including three 40-minute performances, a children’s area, a “Shakespeare Insult Tent” and more. Find the entire schedule and tickets here.

In the Straz Center’s Jaeb Theatre, the in-house production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors continues through May 1.

Circling back to the subject of outdoors, American Stage’s Footloose – the Musical is at Demens Landing Park this weekend, running through May 8. Tickets.

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You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.