By KARYN JESTER
DavidsonNews.net

There’s a variety of different events to keep you busy this weekend. On Thursday, join the Lake Norman Chamber at Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics Center for a chance to network with fellow members and experience food from some of Huntersville’s best area restaurants. Also on Thursday, there’s a celebrity bartending competition at Alton’s Kitchen and Cocktails and Summit Coffee’s Songwriters Showcase, celebrating its one-year anniversary. The musical “Ragtime” starts on Thursday and goes through the weekend. The Charlotte Symphony will be performing at McGuire Nuclear Station on Friday. The Palace in Cornelius will be hosting its Artisan Market and Bazaar on Saturday and the Concert on the Green in Davidson is featuring the Beatles tribute band The Back Beat.

These events and more below, or in our day-by-day calendar at right. Also, at right on this page, see our movie show times listings for Our Town Cinemas where “Green Lantern” opens, joining “The Hangover Part II,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Super 8,” and “Bridesmaids.” Read the full story

Volunteers from local congregations including St. Alban’s Episcopal Church and Davidson United Methodist Church will start raising money this month to help buy back-to-school shoes for needy area families.

They’ll be manning a booth this Saturday, June 18, at the Davidson Farmers Market for the “Count your shoes so they can count on shoes” drive. (Volunteers are needed – see below.) Read the full story

Playing in the 1-year anniversary of the Songwriter Showcase at Summit Coffee on Thursday are, from left: Etta Lea Kuhlman, host Rob McHale, and E-S Guthrie.

By KARYN JESTER
DavidsonNews.net

Summer reading kicks off at the Davidson public library branch on Wednesday with stories, music and dancing on the Village Green. The Cornelius Outdoor Summer Cinema series opens this week with the movie “Where the Wild Things Are” outside JV Washam Elementary school. The Davidson Community Players will be presenting the play “Ragtime” starting Thursday at the Duke Performance Hall on the Davidson College campus. The Charlotte Symphony plays its “Musical Travels” program at the McGuire Nuclear Station on Friday and there’s a guided walking tour of Cornelius on Saturday. Meanwhile, Davidson’s Concerts on the Green are back Sunday, with the Beatles’ tribute band The Back Beat.

These events and more below, or in our day-by-day calendar at right. At right on this page, see our movie show times listings for Our Town Cinemas where “Green Lantern” opens, joining “The Hangover Part II,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Super 8,” and “Bridesmaids.” Read the full story

By JIM MUNGER
DavidsonNews.net

As a musician and longtime North Carolinian, I feel as though I have earned the right to an educated opinion when it comes to local music.  As a college student and longtime teenager, I feel as though any opinion I may have, though potentially invalidated by my youth, is of the utmost importance and needs to be heard by absolutely everyone.  With that in mind, these are the bands and musicians I personally think you should be seeing this weekend: Read the full story

Charlotte's Blue Chip Jazz Band plays a Concert on the Green Sunday at 6 p.m. in downtown Davidson.

It’s reunion weekend at Davidson College, and the area is host to a pair of Saturday fund-raisers – the Loopy for a Cause 24-hour run for Batten’s Disease research, on the Davidson Village Green, and the Collier Lilly Ride 4 Life at Davidson College, to raise money and awareness for organ donation.  A new play festival opens this weekend at The Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius, featuring a collection of short plays called “Grave Comedies.” Rural Hill will be celebrating and re-enacting the wedding of the historic site’s founders on Saturday, and there’s a jazz Concert on the Green on Sunday.

These events and more below, or in our day-by-day calendar at right. At right on this page, see our movie show times listings for Our Town Cinemas where “X-Men: First Class” opens, joining “The Hangover Part II,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” and “Bridesmaids.”

Read the full story

The Rotary Club of Lake Norman-Huntersville is planning its 14th annual Wine Spectacular, and seeks sponsors and auction donations for the Oct. 1 event. Read the full story