We got your weekend: Beatles, bees, bounce

The original City Park Beatles concert ticket. WYES will hold a Beatles tribute concert in City Park on Tuesday, September 16. Photo: WYES

Thursday / Shane‘s shout out : Nigel Hall and the Congregation; Colin Lake at Armstrong Park, 5 – 8 PM, FREE

The fifth season of Jazz in the Park continues this week with a solid lineup featuring local bluesman Colin Lake and funk/soul singer Nigel Hall holding it down at Armstrong Park. With the Harvest the Music series on hold for this year, more folks will likely head to Armstrong Park on Thursdays throughout the fall for one of the best parties in the city. Get there early for the second line and a performance by the the Sophie B Wright High School Marching Band.

Friday / Bouncing back to school : Nothing says welcome back to school like… bounce music and dance, apparently. Freret Street music club Gasa Gasa (4920 Freret Street) will host a Back to School Bouncestravaganza from 10 PM – 2 AM. The show will feature bounce music from New Orleans-based rapper, actor and record producer 5th Ward Weebie, whose songs have been featured on Treme, as well as surprise guests. Doors open at 9 PM. Tickets $10 in advance / $15 at the door.

Friday / Night at the museum : New Orleans Museum of Art (One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park) is throwing a special installment of their Friday Night at NOMA series. The ‘¡celebración!’ (5 PM – midnight) will celebrate the final weekend of NOMA’s current exhibition, Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898, by exploring various cultural facets — food, music, dance, visual arts, history, film and fashion — of colonial Latin America. HIghlights from the extensive lineup of events include a fashion contest, portrait photos, bilingual museum tours, screenings of Evita and Strictly Ballroom, live music, a flamenco and folklore Mexican dance demos, salsa dance lessons, specialty cocktails and Latin-inspired food from Cafe NOMA. Festivities are included in the price of admission $10 adults /$8 seniors / $6 children (7-17) / children 6 and under are free. For a full list of evening events, click here.

Saturday / Bee there : Northlake Nature Center ( 23135 Hwy 190, Mandeville, LA)invites veteran beekeeper and researcher Ralph Roshto to speak at a special children’s event, Bee Informed, at which attendees will learn about bees and witness the honey-making live. Reservations Required; call 985-626-1238 or email Rue@northlakenature.org. Free for members / $5 for non-members. The talk begins at 10 AM.

Saturday / Go bananas : New Orleans truly has a festival for everything. This Saturday, from 10 AM – 5 PM at the Old U.S. Mint (400 Esplanade) and French Market, fest goers can celebrate coffee and bananas at the second annual Downriver Fest, aimed at showcasing different Mississippi River-influenced New Orleans traditions each year. Festival highlights, all of which will be banana and coffee oriented include: guided Mississppi River walking tours, bananas foster and coffee demos, live Carribbean and Brazilian music, and a series of one-hour talks from historians and authors about the cultural relationship between New Orleans and coffee and bananas. For the full schedule of Downriver Fest events, click here.

Sunday / A (really) separate peace : Sometimes conflicts call for moderately unorthodox strategies… sometimes really unorthodox strategies.

This seems to be the mindset of Marigny astrology and psychic center and store Island of Salvation Botanica. The store invites the public to join them for a public prayer ceremony to voodoo warrior spirit Ogou Achade, asking for peace and protection from crime. At 6:30 PM, folks will convene at the St Roch Ave neutral ground, facing the St Roch Cemetery to honor ancestors by lighting candles (it’s BYOC — bring your own candle). From the cemetery, the group will walk to St Claude Ave in an effort to spiritually rebalance power. Finally, participants will make offerings to Ogou at the lot on Riverside (Uptown corner of Spain St and St Claude Ave).

Not sure what to offer the ominous voodoo god who has everything? Island of Salvation Botanica suggests red candles and images of warrior saints; five-star Barbancourt and 151 rums (apparently Ogou is above call wells); and any red roosters, machetes and swords you just happen to keep in the back of your coat closet. Participants are encouraged to wear red or red and blue head scarves.

Tuesday / We love them, yeah, yeah, yeah: Though the concert flows over the weekend’s perimeters, WYES’ special 50th anniversary Beatles concert is well worth dragging through a sleeping Wednesday workday.

On September 16, 1964 — exactly 50 years prior to this coming Tuesday — the fabulous four took New Orleans by storm, performing for a crowd of 12,000 at City Park. WYES’ anniversary concert will recreate the magic of that 1964 evening with a concert from Beatles tribute band, The Fab Four, at theTad Gormley Stadium in City Park at 7 PM (gates open at 5 PM). In addition to renditions of Beatles favorites, there will be an Ed Sullivan look-alike and a photo-op where attendees can pose with a white Volkswagen Beetle positioned to recreate The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album cover.

Patrons are encouraged to dress in 60s attire. Tickets (starting at $35) available at wyes.org or 504.457.2934.