While we’re out of the thrust of festival season, there’s still a lot of music in the air around town this weekend.
A dance festival returns for its second year in La Jolla, a musical classic gets some shine in Normal Hights and a decidedly untraditional musical is coming back to sink its teeth into the Gaslamp Quarter.
Friday, Aug. 28
BBB Industrious Women’s Summit: The Better Business Bureau brings this event recognizing and inspiring women in the business world to its San Diego chapter office in Kearny Mesa (4747 Viewridge Ave.) starting at 8 a.m., offering what organizers call “powerhouse speakers, hands-on workshops, and real-world strategies tailored for women” throughout the day. Tickets start at $55.20.
Community Mariachi: The City Heights Music School (3370 Altadena Ave.) is kicking off a free weekly jam series from 5-7 p.m., running through Dec. 11. The school will have instruments available, but requests that anybody ready to play be 11 years old and up, with at least two years of experience playing.
“Grease,” The Immersive Movie Experience: This show’s run already bkicked off at the Adams Avenue Theater (3325 Adams Ave.); according to the venue, the show includes not just a screening of the 1978 musical, but the chance to step into “immersive sets” inspired by the movie as well as enjoy live entertainment and concessions themed for the occasion. There’s one showing on Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday shows at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and a Sunday 2 p.m. matinee. Tickets for each, $39.19.
“The Wulfeater”: This interactive musical – which won 12 Broadway World San Diego awards last year, including Best Musical – returns to the Tenth Avenue Arts Center downtown (930 10th Ave.) for one more run through Sept. 18, starting on Friday. Befitting the name, it’s a show with some teeth, exploring “the intersections of capitalism, oppression and patriarchy” as it follows its characters through the fictional realm called … Cleveland?
Tickets for this 18-and-up show cost $37.72 for general admission, but there also will be 16 VIP seats on the stage available beginning with Sunday evening’s show, for $64.24 apiece.
Saturday, Aug. 29
G.L.A.M. Resource Fair: The Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center (1960 National Ave.) hosts this event – the acronym in this case stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums – showing you how to care for your own art collection, featuring workshops and an art market from 12-4 p.m.
Jackalope Art Fair: Organizers say more than 180 artisans will be selling their work during the first San Diego edition of this traveling arts market, which first held events in Burbank and Denver 11 years ago. The free event at Liberty Station’s NTC Park (2640 Cushing Road) will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday featuring not just the artisan market but a workshop on building your own terrarium; a kids’ market; live musical performances and an “interactive butterfly garden.”
Sazón Live 2026: The San Diego folklórico dance group Sazonadas will present two shows over two days at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park (2004 Park Blvd.) featuring dance performances they say will honor “Legendary Latine Divas” from across the continent. Showtime is 7 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, with tickets costing $25 for each show.
Sunday, Aug. 30
Asian-American Dance Festival: The festival returns for its second year with a lineup stretching across four nights into next month. Starting things off at 5 p.m. Sunday is a screening of curated dance films at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla (700 Prospect St.) featuring works from not only San Diego and Los Angeles, but cities across the U.S. as well as China, India and Indonesia.
Doors open at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for students, artists or low-income visitors and $25 for general admission. A ticket to all of the festival events costs $70. We’ll focus more on the festival’s next events in future Weekend Guides.
‘Who’s Watching’ at Digital Gym: Speaking of events with multiple installments, this 7 p.m. screening of a new thriller by director Tim Kasher at the downtown Gym (1100 Market St.) is the closer for this year’s North Park Film Festival, which we’ve covered in the last couple of guides.
The movie’s decidedly creepy trailer warns that “in every city in America, there’s a man like Caleb,” who fuels his obsession with a colleague into a “documentary” that reveals more about him than her. Tickets cost $15.
