Festival season hits full stride across south Alabama this week, with the state’s biggest beach food festival, a downtown Greek tradition and a long list of charity runs, concerts and town halls on the calendar for Oct. 13-19, 2016.
Headline events
The National Shrimp Festival wraps up its free four-day run in Gulf Shores through Oct. 16, with 200 arts and crafts vendors, local shrimp, a Children’s Activity Village, 5K and 10K runs, sand sculpture contests and live music along the beach.
Greek Fest 2016 runs Thursday through Saturday at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 50 S. Ann St., from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with authentic Greek food, live music, dancing, church tours and children’s activities. Admission is $2.
Mobile Symphony presents “Disney’s Pixar in Concert” Friday, Oct. 14, at the Saenger Theatre, projecting favorite Pixar films above the orchestra while the score is performed live.
Civic meetings and community causes
U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne holds a veterans town hall Monday, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Aircraft Pavilion at Battleship Memorial Park, plus a Turnerville town hall Thursday, Oct. 20, at Turnerville Baptist Church in Chunchula.
The League of Women Voters of Mobile meets Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 11:30 a.m. at the Bel Air Marriott, with Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama CEO Tim Wills as guest speaker.
Mobile Fire-Rescue’s annual “fill the boot” drive for the Muscular Dystrophy Association returns to area Walmart locations Oct. 14-15 and Oct. 21-22, with fire safety materials and “Fighting for a Cure” T-shirts on hand.
The Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Mobile opens its 2016 Parade of Homes Oct. 15-16 and Oct. 22-23; donations at the Saraland showcase home benefit the Child Advocacy Center. The Little Sisters of the Poor host their annual Lawn Party Sunday, Oct. 16, with games, food and raffles at their McGill Avenue campus.
Ebenezer Baptist Church celebrates its anniversary with a free Family Fun Day and Health Fair Saturday, Oct. 15, including flu, pneumonia and tetanus shots, culminating in a Sunday service.
The Down Syndrome Society of Mobile’s ninth annual Buddy Walk steps off Saturday at 10 a.m. in Bienville Square, and Mobile Baykeeper’s Bay Bash lands Thursday evening at Five Rivers with Gulf seafood, a silent auction and live music.
The third annual Boots & BBQ Barn Bash Thursday benefits Children’s of Alabama’s Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic in Mobile, with live music from Bearded Spoon at Camp Grace.
Arts, learning and history
The Mobile Literary Festival takes over Ben May Main Library Saturday, Oct. 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with workshops, a publishing panel and an author chat with writer, actor and athlete Thom Gossom Jr.
Rhonda McDavid lectures on “Women Health Care Volunteers and the Founding of Mobile’s First Diabetic Camp” Thursday at the Exploreum, part of the Mobile Medical Museum’s “Healing Women” series tied to an exhibit at USA’s Marx Library.
A workshop for emerging filmmakers runs Saturday at the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship ($65), the Musical Arts Society hosts a concert at USA’s Laidlaw Performing Arts Center, and USA’s Archaeology Museum teams with its Anthropology Club for International Archaeology Day activities Saturday afternoon.
The History Museum of Mobile continues “Filming the Camps: From Hollywood to Nuremberg,” GulfQuest hosts “Treasures of NOAA’s Ark,” the Exploreum keeps “Guitar: The Instrument That Rocked the World” open through Jan. 1, and the Mobile Museum of Art offers free Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Fairhope Museum of History’s Tuesday tea features longtime local physician Dr. Henry “Moon” Mullins.
Cat’s Brown Bag Concert series plays Wednesdays in Bienville Square, Thursdays in Mayday Park in Daphne and Fridays at Windmill Market in Fairhope, while LoDa Artwalk fills the Lower Dauphin district Friday evening.
Sports and outdoors
Tri the Gulf brings a sprint triathlon — 600-yard swim, 13.3-mile bike, 3.1-mile run — to Dauphin Island on Saturday. The Spanish Fort Education Enrichment Foundation’s third annual Marsh Madness fishing tournament launches at 5 a.m. Saturday from the Bluegill Restaurant on the Causeway ($40 registration).
Paddle Bayou La Batre offers a canoe and kayak tour of the working waterfront Saturday morning, a free Irish dance workshop for ages 5-18 runs at Azalea City Center for the Arts, and Polo at the Point returns to Point Clear on Saturday with tickets from $10 to $150. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Walk closes the week Sunday at Daphne City Hall.