Compiled by Katrina Langer and Kevin Coughlin
This weekend is the local equivalent of a rare planetary alignment… every festival in our backyard universe converges over the next few days!
How did this happen? Let’s call it the Big Shebang Theory.
The Big Shebang starts on Thursday (weather permitting) with the year’s fourth and final Meet Me in Morristown sidewalk fair.
On Friday and Saturday, we have the first Morristown Festival of Books, the culmination of more than a year of planning and hard work by some very dedicated local women.
Saturday also is Bottle Hill Day in Madison… followed by fireworks at Drew University. A bike-in movie is planned for Morristown’s Community Garden.
On Sunday, it’s the 20th annual Morristown Festival on the Green…which includes Community Day over at the Mayo Performing Arts Center, which also turns 20. MPAC has more festivities lined up for Monday.
Whew! And that doesn’t even count concerts, bike rides, open houses, a free shredding event and a park cleanup.
Scroll down for times and dates. Then, if you still have any energy left, check our handy calendar for even more options.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 25, 2014:
Spend an afternoon with Giuseppe Verdi. Learn about the great composer’s life and music at the Morris Museum, during a 90-minute talk that will include Verdi’s music played on the museum’s Guinness Collection of mechanical instruments. The presentation starts at 3 pm, at 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morris Township. Admission is $7 for members, and $9 for non-members. Call 973-971-3706 to reserve a seat.
Meet Me In Morristown, the monthly last-Thursday sidewalk fair organized by Morris Arts and the Morristown Partnership, caps its first season RAINED OUT! —weather permitting–with art, music and crafts from 5 pm until dark from South Street to the Green. MorristownGreen.com is pleased to present the Morristown Uke Jam, in front of the old First National Bank building on South, across from DeHart Street. Bring your ukulele, or your vocal cords, or both! WEATHER NOTE: Rain is in the forecast; check back here or at Morris Arts on Thursday afternoon for any cancellation announcement. If it’s a washout, the event won’t be rescheduled…until next spring.
The 118th meeting of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table convenes at 7:14 pm at the Haggerty Education Center of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum. Dr. Patricia Dreyfuss and Kris McMorland, both NJWCRT members, will discuss the the impact of insect-borne diseases during the Civil War. McMordland, Director of the Morris County Mosquito Commision, together with Dr. Dreyfuss, an OB-GYN with an office in Mountain Lakes, will discuss the insect-borne diseases that were among the leading causes of death during the Civil War. Admission is $5; first-time guests and students are free. At 353 E. Hanover Ave., Morris Township.
If rock and roll is more your style, you’ll want to check out Asia at the Mayo Performing Arts Center at 8 pm. Original founding members John Wetton, Carl Palmer, and Geoff Downes will reunite to perform favorites like Heat of the Moment and Only Time Will Tell. The band also will perform selections from its new album, Gravitas. Admission is $39-$69. At 100 South St., Morristown.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 26:
It’s that time again. Critical Mass Bike Ride time, that is. Join other cycle enthusiasts (and newbies!) at the monthly Critical Mass ride beginning at the Morristown Town Hall Parking lot at 6:30 pm. Go at your own pace on this 3 1/2 mile ride. It’s not sponsored by any organization, but you can learn more about it from Marty’s Reliable Cycle.
Best-selling author William Cohan, kicks off the first Morristown Festival of Books with a talk about The Price of Silence, his controversial look at the Duke lacrosse scandal. At the Mayo Performing Arts Center at 7:30 pm. Admission is $20, at 100 South St., Morristown. The festival continues on Saturday with a day of talks by 20 authors from all genres, for all ages. Read complete coverage of the festival right here on MG.
Cosy Sheridan and Dave Nachmanoff take the stage at The Minstrel at 8 pm. Sheridan is a masterful story teller. Nachmanoff ‘s folk-rock stylings should set your toes tapping. At the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township. Admission is $9 on your way in, and the remaining balance of what you thought the show was really worth on your way out. Children 12 and under are free.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 27:
Morristown Parks and Ponds Day is looking for volunteers to help clean up the town’s…parks and ponds. A barbecue will follow, along with an ecology fair with more than a dozen agencies sharing information. Morristown Clean Communities Coordinator Kathleen O’Neill Margiotta will divvy up assignments starting at 9 am at Speedwell Lake. Teams will spruce up Whippany River, Burnham Pond, Foote’s Pond and Speedwell Lake. Call 973-644-4363 for more.
Put dumpster-divers out of business! Shred your sensitive documents for free at ConnectOne Bank in Morristown, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. At 214 South St., next to town hall.
It’s a weekend of celebrations in Greater Morristown–which means Madison, too! Drew University welcomes families to campus for its annual Family Weekend. Bottle Hill Day will begin at 10 am in downtown Madison. And FIREWORKS (co-sponsored by Drew and the Rotary Club of Morristown) will kick off at 9 pm at Drew University on Madison Avenue. Drew also is hosting a jazz brunch and campus tour over the weekend. The university will pitch a tent at Waverly Place for Bottle Hill Day, where the school mascot, Ranger the Bear, will compete in the annual “Mascot Race.” Sponsored by the Madison Downtown Development Commission, Bottle Hill Day also will feature live music, rock climbing, and an auto show. And when you work up an appetite, check out the food court.
Want to save lives in your community? The Morris Minute Men EMS team can use your help! Visit an open house from 10 am to 2 pm to learn first-hand about volunteer life with the EMS crew. The event is at headquarters, at 97 Mill Road in Morris Plains. Call 937-280-5647, or email here for more details.
The first Morristown Festival of Books promises food for thought from 10 am to 4 pm, with free talks by 20 authors from virtually every genre. Venues are the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church sanctuary and parish hall; the Presbyterian Parish House; the Morristown & Township Library; and the Starlight Room at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. Fiction, non-fiction, cooking, children’s literature–you name it, it’s here at an event that is striving to put this famous Revolutionary War town on the literary map. Popular local authors Michael Aaron Rockland and Lisa Colozza Cocca join a roster that includes New York Times bestselling writers Dorothea Benton Frank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, NPR contributor Martha Woodruff, and Fancy Nancy creator Jane O’Connor, among others. We have complete coverage right here on MG.
Bring your expired prescriptions, controlled substances, and over-the-counter medications to the 9th Annual Operation Take-Back Day, starting at 10 am. It’s presented by the Morris County Prosecutor’s chief of investigations and the police chiefs of Morris Plains, Randolph Township and Mountain Lakes. Participants won’t be asked to release any personal information, and all medications will be disposed of in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner. Stop at any of these locations before 2 pm: Stop and Shop Supermarket, 245 Littleton Road in Morris Plains; Randolph Township Municipal Building, 502 Millbrook Road in Randolph; or the Mountain Lakes Fire Department, 400 Boulevard in Mountain Lakes.
The Morristown High School football team (1-1) kicks off against Mount Olive at home, at 1 pm.
Get creative with all the apples you’ve harvested this year, stop by Cooper Gristmill to make apple muffins with freshly ground flour from the gristmill. Stop by at 2 pm for muffin making, and then make your own cloth bag to take them home in. All ages welcome, children must be accompanied by an adults. Admission is $10 per family or $5 for Friends, members. At 50 CR-513, Chester. Call 908-879-5463 for more information.
Bike & Walk Morristown is holding a Bike-In Movie Night at the Early Street Community Garden, starting at 5:30 pm. Live music will precede Field Biologist, a movie by New Jersey filmmaker Jared Flesher. Tito’s Burritos is taking picnic orders; order in advance, and the shop will deliver to the event.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 28:
The Morristown Farmers Market is back for its 24th season, courtesy of the Morristown Partnership and its sponsors. From 8:30 am to 2 pm, you can find produce from North Jersey farms, baked goods, and more, in municipal parking lot 10, behind the post office. Lots of entertainment and wellness events will be sprinkled throughout the year. The Farmers Market is open on Sundays through the end of November.
The Morristown Festival on the Green celebrates its 20th season from noon to 5 pm around the Morristown Green. “It’s New Jersey’s premier fall event,” says Jennifer Wehring of the Morristown Partnership, organizer of the event. “We like to consider it as Morristown’s very own block party.”Sample foods from local restaurants, hear live music on three stages, enjoy slot-car racing, a rock-climbing wall and inflatable kiddie rides. Brush up on your history for New Jersey’s 350th anniversary by visiting the NJ Hall of Fame Mobile Museum.
As if that’s not enough high-powered fun, the Mayo Performing Arts Center –also celebrating a 20th anniversary— is chiming in with Community Day, also from noon to 5 pm. Stroll to MPAC, one block from the Green at 100 South St., for free outdoor concerts, a performance by the Teen Performing Arts Company, theater tours, giveaways and more.
At 7 pm, the guitar duo of Frank & Hank — Frank Sole and Henry Nurenberg — will perform jazz, folk and classical tunes at Studio Yoga, at 2 Green Village Road in Madison. Tickets are $20 at the door, $15 in advance; students with ID get in for $10. Call 973-966-5311 for more.
MONDAY, SEPT, 29:
At 7 pm, the Mayo Performing Arts Center will commemorate its 20th anniversary with a performance by the center’s youth ensemble, doing a song especially composed for the occasion by Tony-nominated composer Keith Herrmann. The ceremony marks the date when the Kirov Orchestra came from Russia to play at what then was called the Community Theatre. That event galvanized Morristown volunteers to restore the crumbling movie house into a world-class entertainment venue, which now hosts more than 200 shows a year and pumps an estimated $14 million into the local economy. Here is video of the youth ensemble performing with Broadway stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kelli O’Hara at last week’s season-opener:
