Community events, activities, and other happenings in Charlottesville and Albemarle this busy spring weekend. Know of something going on that we missed? Add it in the comments section.
- Don’t miss this season’s first show in the Charlottesville classic Fridays After Five concert series. Every Friday, starting today and running through July 5, the nTelos Wireless Pavilion will kick start the weekend with a local or regional band or artist, with sponsors like Newsplex and Bud Light. This week’s headliner is Cha Cha’s Cadillac, with Erin Lunsford & the Smokey Bandits opening. Gates open at 5pm and the show will begin around 5:30pm.
- In the mood for a film rather than crowds and concerts? Head over to UVA to watch the premiere public screening of The Problem with Route 29, a short documentary about transportation design in Charlottesville. The screening will be held on Friday, April 26, at 6pm in the Javor lecture hall in Campbell Hall.
- The Rivanna Conservation Society and Blue Ridge Mountain Sports are hosting the annual Rivanna River Sojourn, a weekend of canoeing and kayaking down Charlottesville’s favorite river on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27. A one-day trip is $60 for adults and $45 for minors; for two days, $115 for adults and $65 for minors. All equipment, transportation, and food will be provided, and don’t forget to bring a garbage bag if you want to collect river findings and enter to win a prize for most interesting trash.
- The county’s ninth annual Kids Fishing Day is Saturday, April 27 at Mint Springs Valley Park. From 9am-3pm, kids can fish in the park’s ponds, which have been stocked for the event, which draws more than 200 youngsters each year and is sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Kingfishers, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and county Parks and Recreation.
- Saturday is also the day Albemarle joins in the annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Initiative. Residents can drop off unused and expired drugs from 10am-2pm at three locations: the Albemarle County Police Department on Fifth Street Extended, the Martha Jefferson Hospital Outpatient Center on Pantops, and the new Martha Jefferson Hospital ER on Profitt Road. The program accepts over-the-counter and prescription drugs of all kinds, and the collection process is anonymous. Drugs are sent to the DEA to be destroyed.
- Lest you forget, this Saturday is the day of the Foxfield Races in Albemarle. If you’re going, it might be wise to go over the rules (cooler regulations, the circumstances under which you should call security to have someone forcibly removed from your party, a reminder not to throw anything at the ponies). Shuttles start leaving from the UVA chapel, football stadium, and Beta Bridge at 8:30 a.m., and traffic along Barracks Road into the county is expected to crawl leading up to the first races in the early afternoon.