5th Annual Springfield Pride Parade Weekend
Springfield
Thursday, June 4 – Saturday, June 6
Springfield Pride Parade Weekend returns for its fifth year with the theme “Beyond the Rainbow.” The weekend begins Thursday with a Pride Flag Raising at Springfield City Hall, followed Friday by the Pride Strikes Charity Bowling Classic at TAP Sports Bar at MGM Springfield, a new community fundraiser with teams, music, and Pride-weekend energy. On Saturday, the 5th Annual Springfield Pride Parade steps off from Springfield Technical Community College at noon and makes its way through downtown Springfield to Stearns Square. After the parade, the celebration continues with a free, family-friendly block party from 1 – 6 p.m., featuring music, performances, food and drink vendors, retail booths, community partners, and lots of Pride spirit.
Gesture and Line
Gallery A3, Amherst
On view Thursday June 4 – Saturday, June 27
Gallery open Thursdays–Sundays from 2 – 7 p.m.
Opening Reception Friday, June 5 from 5 – 7 p.m.
Karen Iglehart has worked with gesture, movement, and line since the beginning of her painting career in 2000, as an integral part of her instinctual process. The recent abstract works on display at Gallery A3 during June express the qualities of gesture in brushwork and in palette knife application. All the paintings are oil on canvas, ranging from the small-scale 12 x 12 inches to the large-sized 30 x 40 inches.
Pioneer Vally Jazz Shares: Max Johnson Sextet
The Drake, Amherst
Thursday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Composer, bassist, and improviser Max Johnson presents his brand new sextet in the premiere of “Without Fear,” a new concert-length work. The piece is a sprawling, style-blurring composition that explores the many musical worlds Johnson has inhabited over the past fifteen years, weaving together elements of jazz, chamber music, folk music, free improvisation, and progressive rock.
Amherst Ballet Spring Show: Shatter into Light
Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton
Friday, June 5 at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 6 at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 7 at 7 p.m.
Amherst Ballet’s spring show features original choreography by director Mikayla Archambeau, developed in collaboration with a live string quartet led by music director Geoffrey Archambeau. The program includes music by Sato Matsui, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Amy Beach, and Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by Hillary Dumond, Laura Arpiainen, Geoffrey Archambeau, and Rebecca Hartka.
In Stile Moderno
Restless in Thought: Music from Restoration-Era London
Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst
Friday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.
The early music ensemble In Stile Moderno takes us to London in the last decades of the 17th century. After the restoration of the monarchy and the lifting of Puritan bans on theater and music, artists breathed a collective sigh of relief. Bawdy comedies and over-the-top stage spectaculars quickly came into fashion, and for the first time women were permitted to perform on stage. In our new program, we will explore the music of this fruitful era, including theatrical songs for soprano and works for violin, guitar, and archlute by Henry Purcell, John Eccles, Nicola Matteis and Thomas Mace.
American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
On view Saturday, June 6 – Monday, Oct. 26
This sweeping exhibition explores how artists — from the Revolutionary era to today — have made visible the evolving story of America. Featuring nearly 100 powerful works across themed sections, American Stories reveals how illustrations have reflected and shaped what it means to be American. From iconic masterpieces to everyday media, these works chart the nation’s ambitions, struggles, and enduring pursuit of freedom.
19th Annual Free Family Fishing Day
Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls, and Barton Cove Campground, Gill
Saturday, June 6 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Here’s a super fun, free, rain-or-shine way to get kids — and grown-ups — outside. Fishing happens at Barton Cove Campground in Gill, with limited loaner equipment available and no Massachusetts fishing license needed. At the Great Falls Discovery Center, visitors can try Gyotaku fish printing, watch fly-lure tying demonstrations, and meet a special guest fish from the USGS Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab. Parking is free, and the Fish Bus shuttle will run between the two sites.
Jackie Venson
De La Luz Soundstage, Holyoke
Saturday, June 6 at 7 p.m.
Austin blues-rock guitarist and vocalist Jackie Venson brings her fierce musicianship and genre-hopping sound to De La Luz. Known for blistering guitar work, magnetic vocals, and grooves that move through blues, soul, electro-funk, rock, and R&B, Venson has shared stages with Gary Clark Jr. and Melissa Etheridge, appeared on Austin City Limits, and earned praise as one of Austin’s most exciting rising stars. Expect a night of big energy, deep grooves, and serious guitar fireworks.
Gustavo Casenave Piano Solo Concert
Adams Theater, Adams
Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Three-time Grammy-winner is a Gustavo Casenave Uruguayan pianist, composer, and producer based in NYC. He is a Steinway Artist, Illustrious Citizen of Montevideo, and designated Cultural Ambassador of Uruguay. Over decades, he has built an international career that encompasses jazz, tango, and classical music, always with a personal stamp that integrates improvisation and composition as fundamental pillars of his artistic language. The New York Times describes him as an “exuberant and virtuosic” performer.
Shad Fest 2026
Holyoke Rows, 25 Jones Ferry Road, Holyoke
Sunday, June 7 from 12 – 4 p.m.
I spent part of my childhood in Pennsylvania where the annual shad run on the Delaware River was a big deal. So, I love the look of this celebration of the Connecticut River and the annual shad migration in western Massachusetts. There will be crew races, kayak adventures, river-themed arts and crafts, fishing, traditional shad planking, vendors, music, food and more. Plus — something we never had in Pennsylvania — salsa lessons!
Novi Cantori: Songs About America
Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield on Sunday, June 7 at 4 p.m.
Grace Church, Amherst on Sunday, June 14 at 4 p.m.
Novi Cantori, the professional chamber choir based in Northampton, presents a timely spring program of songs about America in advance of the country’s 250th anniversary. The concert looks at American ideals — and the ways we have strayed from them — through music shaped by the ensemble’s commitment to emotionally resonant performances and historically underrepresented voices.
Seas, Birds and Trees — New Songs for an Old Poet
South Congregational Church, Amherst
Sunday, June 7 at 4 p.m.
The final concert in Peter W. Shea’s “New Songs for an Old Poet” series features musical settings of poems by Heinrich Heine, whose verses have inspired generations of composers. “Seas, Birds and Trees” offers works by eleven composers, including Clifton “Jerry” Noble, Kaeza Fearn, Willis Bridegam, David Kidwell, Gregory Hayes, and the late John Craig Cooper. Two vocalists and seven instrumentalists in numerous combinations will result in a kaleidoscope of musical colors.
Melissa Ferrick
Iron Horse, Northampton
Sunday, June 7 at 7 p.m.
30 years into a prolific career as a genre and gender-defying songwriter, Melissa Ferrick continues to disrupt normative categorization. Indie, Alternative, Folk, Punk — she won’t be labeled. And Ferrick’s impact reaches beyond her music. As one of the few openly queer artists in the 1990s, she navigated and challenged the sexism, homophobia, and rigid gender expectations of the music industry, paving the way for future generations of artists.
Wednesday Folk Traditions
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, Hadley
Opens Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m.
The PPH Museum presents the 45th season of Wednesday Folk Traditions, its outdoor concert series featuring global folk music performed in a lovely sunken garden. The series kicks off on June 10 with The Wholesale Klezmer Band, then continues weekly on Wednesdays through July 29. General admission tickets are sold at the door, $12 adult, $2 children, cash only.
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor in Person
Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley
Wednesday, June 10 at 7 p.m.
Join us on Wednesday, June 10, as Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor presents her new book, Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me. She will be in conversation with Jennifer DeClue, Associate Professor in the Program for the Study of Women, Gender & Sexuality at Smith College.
COMING SOON
Battle of the Botanicals
Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst
Thursday, June 18 from 6 – 9 p.m.
The Hitchcock Center’s Battle of the Botanicals returns with an evening of cocktail and food pairings created by some of the region’s top bartender/chef teams. Each team serves an appetizer and cocktail sample inspired by a signature botanical ingredient, and then the top-voted bartenders take the stage for a live cocktail mix-off. Even better: the hosts are NEPM’s own Monte Belmonte and Kaliis Smith of The Fabulous 413. This 21+ fundraiser supports the Hitchcock Center’s environmental justice programs.
Fireflies
Shakespeare & Company, Lenox
Friday, June 19 – Sunday, July 19
Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Bannister lives alone in tiny Groverdell, Texas, settled into her routines and secure in her standing as the town’s most respected woman. When a hole in her roof brings Abel Brown—a charming, smooth-talking drifter—onto her doorstep, he offers to repair the house and quietly begins to upend her carefully ordered life. As an unexpected late-life romance flickers to life, gossip spreads and doubts surface. Can Abel be trusted, or is he not quite who he seems? Either way, the whole town is watching.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival: Week 1
Jacob’s Pillow, Becket
Wednesday, June 24 – Sunday, June 28
Jacob’s Pillow opens its 2026 festival season with an exciting first week. Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to the Pillow for the first time in seven years with a program that includes Esplanade, Brandenburgs, and Company B. In the Doris Duke Theatre, Shamel Pitts and TRIBE bring Touch of RED, a charged duet inspired by boxing footwork, Lindy Hop, and nightlife culture. Outdoors on the Henry J. Leir Stage, Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater makes its U.S. debut. There are a good number of seats still available, but you should try to nab your tickets soon.