Thanks to the long Labor Day holiday, it’ll be an unusually busy September weekend for Sarasota, featuring a few of the area’s longest-running annual events.
Sarasota Sailing Squadron's 78th annual Labor Day Regatta will take place this weekend, as will the newer Parrot Head Regatta paying tribute to the late Florida cultural icon Jimmy Buffett. There will also be (cardboard) boat races, a parade and more as part of the 70th annual Englewood Pioneer Days, and another tribute to a sadly more recently departed musical legend, Dolly Parton.
Rounding out this weekend's Top 5 will be an exotic car display on Sarasota's famed shopping and dining district St. Armands Circle, and a movie screening series paying tribute to another recently departed pop
culture figure by featuring one of their most popular films.
Looking for even more options? Bradenton's The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature will conclude its Laser Light Nights summer series, featuring laser light shows set to pop and rock music, Thursday through Saturday with Bob Marley, Elton John, Sgt. Pepper's, and Summer Time Rewind shows. Tickets are $15.
Labor Day weekend options in Venice include a free admission downtown craft festival 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 200 Miami Ave. W., and a Labor Day pig roast noon Monday at Knights Hall. Tickets for the pig roast are $25 adults, $5 kids, with the meal also including plantains, barbecue beans, potato salad, cole slaw, ice cream sundae bar, ice tea, lemonade and water, with beer and wine also available.
Lakewood Ranch's free first Friday block party Music on Main will take place 6-9 p.m. Friday at 8100 Lakewood Main St. with live music by Jump Start, local food vendors, beer trucks and kids' games/activities, benefiting Save Our Seabirds. Then 7 p.m. Sunday, Lakewood Ranch Cinemas will host a screening of "Jit," a locally shot film featuring locations like the now-gone Sarasota Kennel Club and made by Ringling College alumni who'll participate in a Q&A. Tickets are $10.
1. Sarasota Sailing Squadron Labor Day and Parrot Head regattas
Sarasota Sailing Squadron hosts its 78th annual regatta, which it proclaims the "oldest and largest regional sailing event in the Southeast," over the Labor Day weekend, along with a second annual Parrot Head Poker Run Regatta.
The latter regatta pays tribute to the late musician and Florida cultural icon Jimmy Buffett with post-sailing live music, burgers on the grill, prizes, and margaritas and Painkillers for purchase. Non-sailors are welcome to join the post-regatta party as well.
Saturday-Sunday (Labor Day Regatta), 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday (Parrot Head Regatta); Sarasota Sailing Squadron, 1717 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota; $25 Parrot Head Regatta; 941-388-2355; sarasotasailingsquadron.org
2. Channel Your Inner Dolly at The Bazaar on Apricot & Lime
This celebration of Dolly Parton, scheduled for Saturday due to its 9/5 date (as in the Parton movie and song "9 to 5") and planned before Parton died last week at 80, will now also serve as a remembrance of her life and legacy.
The event will feature a butterfly house where visitors can enter the "house" and feed butterflies (which Parton loved); an area for people to share their favorite Parton songs, memories and moments; and a book drive for Parton’s Imagination Library. There will also be live music by Suzanne Lucas, playing Parton songs, and food and drink specials.
10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; The Bazaar on Apricot & Lime, 821 Apricot Ave., Sarasota; free; 941-445-1938; facebook.com/bazaaronapricotandlime
3. Englewood Pioneer Days
The 70th annual Englewood Pioneer Days will take place Labor Day weekend, featuring events like cardboard boat races Saturday at Indian Mound Park, a diaper derby Sunday at Lemon Bay Woman's Club, and a parade Monday.
The parade (which features a '70s disco theme this year) will start at 9 a.m. and run from Obee's parking lot to Cowles Street, to McCall Road, to Dearborn Street. After-parade festivities will take place around 10 a.m. at Pioneer Plaza, including announcement of parade winners, pie and watermelon-eating contests, and live music.
Saturday-Monday; various Englewood venues; englewoodchamber.com/pioneer
4. Exotic Cars on the Circle at St. Armands Circle Park
Admire exotic cars and find a new favorite at this event held at the park in Sarasota's famous shopping and dining district St. Armands Circle.
Want to make a day of it? St. Armands Circle has plenty of stores, restaurants, and ice cream and gelato shops to visit, as well as Arcade Monsters, one of our recent picks for top places to have fun indoors in Sarasota.
9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; St. Armands Circle Park, 1 St. Armands Circle, Sarasota; free; starmandscircleassoc.com
5. 'The Princess Bride' at Sarasota Opera House
For its Classic Movies at the Opera House series, Sarasota Opera House will screen the late Rob Reiner's 1987 fantasy "The Princess Bride," part of Reiner's nearly decade-long golden streak of films that started with 1984's "This is Spinal Tap" and also includes Stephen King adaptations "Stand by Me" and "Misery," "The Sure Thing" and "When Harry Met Sally..." before concluding with 1992's "A Few Good Men."
Adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "All the President's Men") from his own 1973 novel, "The Princess Bride" follows farmhand Westley (Cary Elwes), who must rescue Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) from Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). Co-starring Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn and André the Giant, the film was added to Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2016.
7 p.m. Friday; Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota; $12; 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org
Email entertainment reporter Jimmy Geurts at jimmy.geurts@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Top Sarasota events this weekend include regattas, parade, tributes
