Bang on a Can: LOUD Weekend 2025
MASS MoCA, North Adams
Thursday, July 31 – Saturday, Aug. 2
The Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival has transformed MASS MoCA into a genre-bending musical utopia for innovative composers and performers for 24 of its 26 years. It culminates in LOUD Weekend, when renowned special guests, Bang on a Can faculty, and young players perform throughout MoCA’s campus in a series of playful and heady collisions of jazz, classical, rock, and beyond.
Sekou McMiller & Friends
Jacob’s Pillow, Beckett
Wednesday, July 30 – Sunday, Aug. 3
I’ll never forget seeing Sekou McMiller & Friends’ performance on Jacob’s Pillow’s outdoor stage last summer. This year, they’re making their debut in the indoor Ted Shawn with the world premiere of “Urban Love Suite.” It’s a joy-filled rhythmical journey through African American, Afro Latino and West African music and dance traditions, through encounters in cityscapes including Harlem, the Bronx, Dakar, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Joan: A New Play About Joan Rivers
Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield
Thursday, July 31 – Sunday, Aug. 17
Go behind the curtain with the queen of stand-up comedy, Joan Rivers. Daniel Goldstein’s new play imagines the legendary comic reliving her life story in the only way possible: with laughs from beginning to end. Discover the pioneer who conquered a man’s world, the mother of all-time punchlines, and the woman who had it all, lost it all, and did it all. This no-holds-barred look at the life of a true legend makes its regional premiere.
Fiestas Patronales of Holyoke
Heritage State Park off of Dwight Street, Holyoke
Thursday July 31 – Sunday, Aug. 3
Fiestas Patronales de Holyoke is a four-day celebration that showcases a portion of the rich cultural diversity that defines the City of Holyoke. This is your chance to immerse yourself in the music, food, and dance of Puerto Rican culture. Headliners include Samuel Hernandez, Alex Bueno, Charlie Aponte, Arnaldo Y La Nueva Patrulla, and many others.
Chester Theatre Company: The Case for the Existence of God
Chester Town Hall
Thursday, July 31 – Sunday, Aug. 3
It’s week two of a mid-season two-week run at Chester Theatre. In this winner of the 2022 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker, unexpectedly let each other into their own fragile worlds. Negotiations of bank loans transform into talk of financial insecurity and the precariousness of parenthood, as the two realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.”
Art Installation: A Something Overtakes the Mind
The Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst
Friday, Aug. 1 – Sunday, Dec. 21
Opening reception Friday, Aug. 8 from 5–7 p.m.
Created by artists Ligia Bouton and Matt Donovan, this installation uses domestic objects, biographical details, found poetry, and community testimonials, to explore Emily Dickinson’s life and legacy. The installation is anchored by two sets of Dickinson family objects: wallpaper fragments from the poet’s bedroom and pieces of unassembled quilts. Laser-cut forms, echoing the delicate contours of the wallpaper scraps, are filled with curated texts spanning centuries, including biographical insights and interpretations of Dickinson’s signature “em” dash, poetically mirrored in the wallpaper’s design.
The Scottish Corelli with Ruckus, Keir GoGwilt, and Fiona Gillespie
Adams Theater, Adams
Friday, Aug. 1 at 8 p.m.
The wild spirit of the highlands meets the elegance of Baroque music. Ruckus, a team of continuo masters, is a barrier-breaking baroque band. They will be joined by Keir GoGwilt, and Fiona Gillespie for a unique concert that blends the earthy drive of Scottish jigs and reels with the baroque refinement of Arcangelo Corelli’s sonatas.
12th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival
Unity Park Riverfront, Turners Falls
Saturday, Aug. 2 and Sunday, Aug. 3 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
This celebration of Native American art, music, and cultures will include outstanding presentations by Mohawk Elder Tom Porter, beautiful flute music by Nipmuck flute maker Hawk Henries, Akwesasne singer Theresa Bear Fox, Abenaki singer-songwriter and flute player Mignon Geli, and more. Plus, children’s activities, including the chance to meet Kitty Hendricks-Miller, a Mashpee Wampanoag teacher who recently appeared as herself on PBS’s Molly of Denali.
Summer Party with Nina Flowers
De La Luz Soundstage, Holyoke
Saturday, Aug. 2 at 9 p.m.
Summer heats up at De La Luz Soundstage with DJ Nina Flowers — the legendary queen of the turntables and international drag icon. Known for her fierce beats, electrifying presence, and ability to set dance floors ablaze from Miami to Madrid, Nina brings her signature blend of tribal, house, and Latin rhythms to Holyoke for one unforgettable night. This is your moment to let loose, connect, and dance deep into the night, with Nina Flowers leading the way.
Redcoats and Rebels
Old Sturbridge Village
Saturday, Aug. 2 and Sunday, Aug. 3
As the nation nears its 250th anniversary of independence, Old Sturbridge Village will transform its scenic, early American landscape into a revolutionary encampment for its annual Redcoats and Rebels event. This immersive weekend will capture America’s war for independence with military battles, cannons, campfires, live music, and more. Plus, this is a reenactment event with interaction! Visitors can march with soldiers, assist in uncovering spies, and more.
Cape Harmony Benefit Concert for Hampshire County lnterfaith Help Fund
Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, Northampton
Sunday, Aug. 3 at 4 p.m.
A nice gig! Cape Harmony is Cape Cod’s all-treble a cappella group, comprised of 10 talented singers from all over the nation who come to Cape Cod during the summer to make music for its residents and visitors. This concert marks their western Mass debut. Proceeds will go to Interfaith Help Fund, which provides emergency financial assistance to residents of Hampshire County.
Sevenars Concerts: Cellist Inbal Segev
Sevenars Academy, 15 Ireland Street, South Worthington
Sunday, Aug. 3 at 4 p.m.
Inbal Segev has been called “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). In 2024 she thrilled the Sevenars audience with Bach's Suites Nos. 1, 3, and 5, and she’s returning Sunday to play Suites 2, 4, and 6. In the past year, she’s been busy with concerto appearances, a premiere with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and touring with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Town Mountain
Iron Horse
Sunday, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m.
Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, Town Mountain’s music exudes alt-country rebellion and honky-tonk attitude pushed through the hardscrabble Southern Appalachian lens of its origin. Their newest album, Lines in the Levee, was released by Nashville’s fiercely independent New West Records.
Plainfield Songs at 7: Music from the Middle Ages
Plainfield Congregational Church
Monday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.
For the opening of Plainfield’s “Concerts at 7” series, members of the absolutely stellar Cambridge-based vocal ensemble Blue Heron will present “A French Songbook, c. 1350–1470, from Machaut to Ockeghem,“ with singers Sophie Michaux and Jason McStoots along with Charles Weaver on lute and Scott Metcalfe playing harp and fiddle.
Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough in Person
Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley
Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 7 p.m.
My huge black canning kettle has been collecting dust in my garage for years. I love the idea of cold preserving and am eager to learn more about it. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough will be at Odyssey Bookshop to talk about and demo from their new cookbook, Cold Canning: The Easy Way to Preserve the Seasons Without Hot Water Processing. The book is all about small-batch jams, jellies, chili crisps, pickles, krauts, kimchis, and more that will safely keep for months to years in your fridge or freezer. Related: listen to this sweet song by Greg Brown about putting summer into jars.
Watermelon Wednesdays: Brittany and Natalie Haas
West Whately Chapel
Wednesday, Aug. 6 at 7.30 p.m.
Sisters Natalie (cello) and Brittany (fiddle) Haas began their musical lives together, filling their childhood home with Bach suites and old-time tunes alike. After following divergent paths, they reunited to make their own world of music, from Nashville to Norway, the Celtic Isles to California and beyond.
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Double Edge Theater: again, the watercarriers: Ceremonies from in the name of the m/other tree
The Farm, Ashfield
Friday, Sept 19 – Sunday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m.
Tickets to Double Edge Theatre productions always sell out fast! Get your tickets for this intriguing production. It’s about an infamous root woman who, after delivering an earth-rattling prophecy, vanishes with her loyal devotees into a river, sparking rumors of a triple suicide. In truth, they abscond to a half-imagined, half-remembered hush arbor. There, they are initiated into the daughters of ellum, a secret society of earth-workers dedicated to preserving the ways of the ancient ones.