Weekend Plans: Star Wars Night, spring festivals, free movies, more

Here’s your weekend family fun! As always, check WRAL.com’s Out & About calendar for more, including information about lots of free outdoor concerts.

Strawberry season is finally here! Most, but not all, of the farms are open now for pick-your-own strawberries. Check our database for locations. Speaking of strawberries, the tenth annual Strawberry Festival that supports Central Park School for Children, is noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, at Old North Durham Park. The afternoon includes music, food, activities and strawberry shortcake.

Friday is the first Friday in May, making it First Friday in downtown Raleigh. We have a post on family-friendly options, including Irish music and a deal on the new exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences called Rainforest Adventure. I’ll have much more about that on Go Ask Mom on Friday.

The Durham Bulls hosts a Star Wars-themed night called May the Fourth be with You. The game starts 5:05 p.m., Sunday. The players will wear R2-D2 themed jerseys. Star Wars characters will be on hand for pictures. At the end of the game, kids can run the bases.

The N.C. Museum of History will host Readers’ Theater from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, at the downtown Raleigh museum. Admission is $5 for ages 13 and up. Free for kids 12 and under with an adult. The program features scenes from a new drama, Camp Followers, by local playwright Rudy Wallace. It follows the trials of a group of newly liberated slaves who have been abandoned in Georgia during Gen. William T. Sherman’s historic March to the Sea. It’s presented by a professional theater ensemble specializing in plays about history.

Fairy Gnome Day at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in west Raleigh is 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday. The free event includes a spring scavenger hunt, balloon animals and bubbles, gnome and fairy house building, storytimes, a ladybug hunt and more. Visitors can decorate themselves at the outdoor classroom for a parade of prairie fairies and roaming gnomes at 11:30 a.m.

In downtown Durham, there’s the second Thanksgiving in Spring, which features a bike parade starting at 2 p.m., a Thanksgiving dinner along a ¾ mile table with all kinds of free foods and, at 8 p.m., a lantern parade. The event celebrates neighbors and community.

We have several spring festivals - Meet in the Street in Wake Forest, the Ham & Yam Festival in Smithfield, Carrboro Day in Carrboro and Apex Peak Fest.

Consignment sale season is nearly over for the spring and summer, but we have a couple of them this weekend in Cary and Chapel Hill.

Pinocchio continues at the Raleigh Little Theatre, part of the community theater’s youth series. The show, which would have closed last weekend, has been extended through Sunday. It’s a musical version of the classic story of a puppet who wants to be a real boy.

Historic Oak View County Park in Wake County will offer a free screening of "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," starring Abigail Breslin and based on Kit, the American Girl doll living during the Great Depression. It starts at 1 p.m., Saturday, in the Farm History Center. The park will serve popcorn and lemonade.

Wake Forest's Renaissance Center will offer a free screening of the PG-13 rated movie "Gravity" at 7 p.m., Friday.

Not free, but, at $5, cheaper than traditional movie theaters, The Cary, the downtown theater in Cary, will screen the G-rated "Cars" at 10 a.m., May 3.

The All About Motherhood Expo is 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. The free event features a variety of local moms who are experts on everything from children’s sleep cycles to introducing dogs to babies.

And on Sunday, the first Downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo of the season is 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., along Fayetteville Street. More than 50 food trucks offering all kinds of food will be parked along the street. My tip: Get there early. For more tips, read my earlier post.