Weekender: Flamenco, Art, Folklife!

From Flamenco to an art opening to a party that’s bigger in Texas: buckle up folks, your weekend is here!

Celebrando Tradiciones

First off, Belinda Menchaca says you should head to the Guadalupe Theater for their First Friday celebration.

"Every first Friday of the month we have an event called Celebrando Tradiciones, Celebrating Traditions,” she said. “And tonight's program is specifically flamenco."

As to what people can expect, she said lots of music, and lots of dance.

"It's an all-flamenco show with the Guadalupe Dance Company, with our flamenco singer, Chayito Champion, flamenco guitarist Steve Arispe, percussionist Eduardo Rios,” she said.

The Guadalupe Theater will be pulsing music and ddancing.

"It will be all live music, and the focus is on the style and the rhythms and traditions of flamenco dance," Menchaca said.

If you've been to their flamenco nights before, you can expect something new this time around.

"We have included Gino Rivera on violin. So this is a new addition to our musical work," she said.

Funf

Also opening tonight at the Blue Star, an oddly-named exhibit:

"Yes, Funf. Which means five in German," said the Blue Star's Jacqueline “Jack” McGilvray.

Credit Jack Morgan

"Blue Star has a Berlin residency program which we started in 2013. We send four San Antonio artists a year to the Künsterhaus Bethanien in Berlin," she said.

Blue Star has sent artists there for three-month work project residencies for the last five years, therefore this exhibit's title: Funf.

"All of the work that's on view is influenced by their experiences in Berlin," McGilvray said.

One of those artists is Amada Miller, who described her largest piece for this exhibit.

"So what I've created for Funf is a series of 55 hand-blown glass bells, and each one has a meteorite," she said.

You read right: the bell ringers are small meteorites. Miller explains that the art's concept links back to an Apollo experiment on the result of lunar meteor crashes.

"If a meteor impacts the moon it keeps ringing and ringing,” she said. “And so in this first experiment they did, the moon basically rang like a bell for 55 minutes."

Thus her 55 bells, and their meteorite ringers. What do they sound like? You’ll have to go see them to hear them [hit “listen” above and you can hear them]. For the curious, note this: Miller said that people will be encouraged at the Blue Star to ring the bells themselves.

Her work, and that of artists Andrei Renteria, Ethel Shipton, and Jared Theis, will be revealed tonight.

Folklife Festival

Then tonight through Sunday James Benavides says get ready for the BIG one: Folklife Festival.

Credit University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures

"It's the biggest cultural event in Texas,” he said. “This is going to be the 48th annual Folklife Festival.”

Benavides says if you just think of Texas as Cowboys and Hispanics, you've got another thing coming.

"This is the Irish and the Scottish and the Germans and the Congolese and the Chinese and the Japanese and the Koreans,” Benavides said. “There are just so many cultures that have come to call Texas home, and have contributed their traditions, their music, dance, food and so much more to the character of our state."

Credit University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures

This weekend you can sink your teeth into that food, music and culture on the grounds of the Institute of Texan Cultures, which will be filled with performance stages, food booths and more.

“There are about 60 artisan craftsmen that will be working there in the Back 40 showing their crafts such as jelly or wine making or sauerkraut making. It's filled with basket weavers, leather workers, wood workers,” he said. “These people really want to pass along the skills that helped our ancestors tame the land."

Credit University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures

And while the weekend forecast is hot, the ITC itself is fully air conditioned, and entrance into the museum is included with admission. As to getting there, he said Park and Ride is your best bet.