No Festival This Weekend. Good.
Downtown stays open late tonight, the market is at Davis Park Saturday morning, there is a Fleetwood Mac tribute band Saturday night, and Sunday ends with bingo you play by ear. Nobody is closing a street for any of it, which is exactly why it is going to be a good weekend.
I do not usually write these. Most weekends in this town there is a festival or a parade or a street closure and a flyer doing the work for me, and I can just point at it. This weekend there is none of that, which is normally when everyone decides there is nothing to do and stays home with a screen.
So here is the argument against that. Between tonight and Sunday evening there are seven things worth leaving the house for, most of them free, and not one of them requires leaving Ridgefield or getting on I-5. Here is the whole weekend.
Friday
Tonight · 4 to 8 p.m. · Downtown
Discover Downtown: First Fridays
Free · Main Avenue and Pioneer Street
More than 25 downtown businesses staying open late with specials, an app that maps the whole thing, and a collectible August badge if you are the sort of person who needs the complete set. The June kickoff was good but not packed. This is the one that decides whether it becomes a Ridgefield tradition.
Free to walk up, no ticket needed. I wrote the whole thing up separately because there are enough moving parts to deserve it.
Tonight · 5 to 7 p.m. · S Settler Drive
First Friday at Hallstrom Home
20% off the whole store, plus ice cream
Doors stay open late, everything in store is twenty percent off during the two-hour window, and any purchase earns you a coupon for a free scoop at Eight Cow Creamery. Which is directly across the street. The walk takes about ninety seconds.
This one runs the first Friday of every month, so if you miss it tonight, put it on a recurring calendar and stop thinking about it.
Tonight · 7 p.m. · Downtown
Live Music with Raeann Phillips
The Neighborhood Refuge · 113 S Main Ave · 21+
No cover. Friday music at the Refuge is free, which is the part people forget when they see a cover charge on a Saturday listing. Wander over after Discover Downtown winds down and you have accidentally planned an entire evening.
Saturday
Saturday · 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. · Davis Park
Ridgefield Farmers Market
Free · N 3rd Ave and Mill St · All ages, dog friendly
Around 47 vendors, live music most Saturdays, and the particular pleasure of running into three people you know while carrying a bouquet of dahlias. It runs every Saturday through the end of September, so this is not urgent, but that is exactly how a whole summer of Saturdays goes by without you going once.
Come early if you care about the flowers or the good produce. Bring a bag. Bring the dog.
Saturday · 5 to 8 p.m. · Sunset Ridge Intermediate
Mahjong Summer Social
Ridgefield Multicultural Initiative · 3215 S Hillhurst Rd
This is the last one of the summer, which is the part worth paying attention to if you have been meaning to try it and kept not trying it. Three hours, a school cafeteria, and a game that is significantly easier to learn in a room full of people who already know it than it is from a video.
Registration is through RMI. If you have never played, that is the entire point of a social.
Saturday · 7 to 10 p.m. · Hot Summer Nights
Leather & Lace
A Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks tribute · $5 cover · 21+
This is the one I would clear the evening for. Leather & Lace is a Portland tribute act doing all things Fleetwood and Stevie, and they are playing an 1880s church building in downtown Ridgefield. If that combination does not do something for you, I am not sure what will.
Five dollars at the door. Read the box below before you have feelings about that.
Sunday
Sunday · 5 to 7 p.m. · Downtown
Song Bingo
The Neighborhood Refuge · 113 S Main Ave · 21+
Bingo, except the squares are songs and you win by recognizing them fast. It is the correct amount of effort for a Sunday evening, and it is the kind of thing that is significantly more fun with four people than with one, so bring the group chat.
What I Left Off
There is more on the calendar than what is up there. Moola Day runs at the Refuge on Sunday from noon to eight, and there is a whole run of Hot Summer Nights Saturdays stacked up through the end of the month, including Daryl Wayne Dasher on the 15th and The Low Keys on the 22nd.
And then there are the wineries, which I am not going to pretend I have a schedule for. Ridgefield has seven of them, most keep weekend hours, and a fair number do music or food trucks without telling anybody in advance. If the plan above does not appeal, the winery guide has all seven with what to expect at each — check their socials for what is actually happening Saturday, because that is where they post it.
I keep the events calendar updated precisely so I do not have to write one of these every single week. If you check it on a Thursday you will always know more than the people asking on Facebook whether anything is happening. That is the entire trick.
Quick Questions
Is any of this ticketed or sold out?
No. Discover Downtown and Hallstrom are walk-up. The Refuge shows are cover at the door. Nothing this weekend requires planning ahead, which is the point.
What can I bring kids to?
Discover Downtown, Hallstrom, and the Farmers Market are all ages. The Refuge is 21 and over for all three of its nights. So the kid version of this weekend is Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and the grown-up version starts after seven.
Where do I park downtown?
Free street parking throughout. If you are picky about your spot, come before four on Friday.
Do you do this every weekend?
Not usually, because most weekends there is a festival doing the announcing for me. The calendar is the reliable version. This post is the version for weekends that look empty and are not.
More from Meanwhile in Ridgefield
If you go to any of it, tell me. I would rather hear about your Friday from you than from the birdie in the orange vest, though I will hear about it either way. And if you are still telling people there is nothing to do in this town, at least go vote in the poll about it first.
