Thursday 11
Friday 12
6TH ANNUAL FOLK ART FESTIVAL It's not very helpful to zero in on the annual House of Blues folk art festival. That's because it's blended into the mega-festival that brings together the Festival of the Masters art show, the Central Florida Chalk Artists Association's 6,000 square feet of sidewalk canvases and performance artists. It's safe to say, though, that once you land at Downtown Disney West Side, there will be colorful activities spilling into every available space. But for folk art, head to HOB to take in works by 40 locals and nationals, along with music. And HOB will offer tours through their indoor folk art collection, as well. One of the oddities in the event's mix is the LEGO Imagination Center's sporting display of a life-sized red Volvo made out of the plastic toy parts and a speed ramp for kids to race their own inventions. Bring money for the endless temptations of food and drink, and lose that fear of crowds. (9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday at Downtown Disney West Side; 407-934-2583; free)
Saturday 13
BILLY BACON & THE FORBIDDEN PIGS Two decades on the road have made this San Diego group one of the most consistently impressive live acts around. Too bad not that many people care. Dishing out a shitkicking mix of blues, honky-tonk and full-bodied bar-rock, the Pigs boast a capable frontman in the form of the tubby guitar shredder known as Billy Bacon, whose energy and fretboard skills energize the band and audience incredibly. No, you won't hear anything at a Pigs show that you haven't heard before, but it's likely that you've never heard it delivered with as much energy as you will from this crew. (10 p.m. at Copper Rocket Pub, 407-645-0069; $5)
6TH ANNUAL ORLANDO BEER FESTIVAL Beer is big business. According to the U.S. Beer Drinking Team (no, really), in 2003, Americans spent more than $75 billion (with a "b") on "beer entertainment," an amount that easily beat out the $9.5 billion spent on "motion picture entertainment" in the same time period. So Universal's annual fall affair (www.orlandobeerfestival.com) has a built-in audience who come out to sample all the brews (included in the admission price) 141 are currently on the list, from familiar to fancy. But there's a cheaper, if less intoxicating, way to load up on carbs at this deal. Register as a designated driver at the gate and get in free. They'll attach a wristband that means you can't drink alcohol, but you can receive complimentary water and soda at available venues. Best of all, designated drivers and all the other festival-goers can stuff their faces with as many $4 portions of CityWalk's food specialties as they can handle jerk chicken, pork pincho, plantain-crusted mahi mahi sandwich and other highlights and listen to music by the likes of locals Boxelder, Big 10-4 and the Monster Band. (3 p.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, $34.95; 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, $26.95, at Universal CityWalk; 407-224-5500)
THE VIRTUOSO PERCUSSIONIST Why do we love Evelyn Glennie so much? Not just because she played on a couple of Björk tracks, though we admit that's where we first heard her. Not because she's a wee lass who busted out of the burly-man bastion of the percussion section in fact, she's the first and only full-time solo percussionist in the classical world or because she has a weakness for bad puns (her series of percussion textbooks: Beat It). Not because she stretches the boundaries of the definition of "musical instrument": She plays a marimba made of plastic drainpipes and a repurposed car muffler. Not because she plays barefoot, although that's approaching the reason for our deep admiration: Glennie is 80 percent deaf and has been since childhood. She prefers that the focus stay on her music, but it's undeniably fascinating that a player with such command of nuance is actually feeling, not hearing, her music. (with the Orlando Philharmonic; 8 p.m. at Carr Performing Arts Centre, 407-896-6700; $12-$55)