San Diego's Top Weekend Events: Everything Outdoors

This is PBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavanagh. The Sun's finally out. Forecasters say it's warming up this weekend a perfect time for the San Diego County Fair to begin. We'll check out what's new at the fair plus summer outdoor movies on our weekend preview PBS arts calendar editor Nina Garenne joins me and Nina welcome. Hello. The San Diego County Fair officially opens today. Tell us what you expect this year. So I say that in San Diego our summer officially begins when the fair opens. So happy summer. This year's theme is how sweet it is. So it's all about sugar and candy. And so along with all the fried food you're going to have a ton of sweet things. Also if you're 16 you get in free because of Sweet 16. You can almost be 16. You have to be 16. They're very strict about that. And there's going to be things like bubble gum blowing contest and Jelly Bean taste tests so if you like Candy this is your year. OK so what else. I'm almost afraid to ask. How else does this theme translate into food. So what I've seen so far is cotton candy ice cream sandwiches chocolate pasta bowls bacon baklava doughnuts made out of spaghetti. There's grilled cheese made out of doughnuts. And I'm not you know I heard that there's dole whip with candy but I'm not sure. You just really will have to find those surprises around every corner. And what about foods that are not sweet. So I saw some interesting things like a waffle made out of a falafel waffle waffle that comes with tahini or a burrito that has Rahmon inside chicken Charleys is doing deep fried filet Minoan. And there's also a bunch of unicorn foods. There's unicorn burgers the unicorn hotdogs. I think that just means they're colorful. I don't really know. They're not made out of unicorns. Well besides the food. Another major attraction of course is the entertainment. Who are some of the artists performing this year at the fair. There's a pretty diverse lineup from country to pop to Latin and festivals. Some of the bigger names are the country band Sugar Land the pop band. Hanson I don't know if anyone remembers the rock band with the Colts but I really love them back in the 80s and 90s. Then some comedians like Larry the Cable Guy Gabriel fluffy Gless yes Nancy Wilson of Heart will be there and the band capital cities. Now you brought a clip from capital cities. This is kangaroo court. Capital Cities performs June 6th. You can see the complete concert lineup at Estey fair dotcom. There are so many things to do at the fair. Can you tell us about maybe some secret or off the beaten path things to do. Yeah what I like about the fair is that you just kind of end up seeing things like I'll see some dance performances or I don't know baton twirling which is actually happening. There's going to be baton twirling this year on the Fourth of July. They're also going to do the first ever Poetry Slam that's happening on June 6th so you can see students from San Diego perform poetry if that's your thing. There's also a coffee house called The Tim the tin cup coffeehouse which is going to have storytelling and comedy. And then of course there's the popular festivals like the beer and cocktail festivals and there's going to be a farm to table dinner. I think just wandering around and getting lost is the best way to do it. The San Diego County Fair opens today it runs through July 4th at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Another popular San Diego summer activity is going to outdoor movie screenings. Nina you recently completed a guide devoted to this. Tell us about it. So I found that you can find an outdoor movie screaming in San Diego County almost every night during the summer. From parks to museum to bars there's a lot of them. OK so let's break it down. What would you recommend if you're. Well first of all if you're going with kids. So there's actually a lot of options. But a favorite is summer movies in the park which is free screenings at Community Parks and Rec centers from Sandy cedar to Oceanside. And they play things like Lion King at a pool in National City. Are they going to play hidden figures on the USS Midway. And then there's the Liberty Station outdoor movies and they're playing things like Wonder Woman and A Wrinkle in Time and it's near the Liberty public market so you can get a picnic before and Hotel del movies on the beach also has movies that are on the ocean front lawn. Now what about if you not bringing kids is there anything for those who say want to maybe avoid children in the movies. There's a couple of like adults only the Rooftop Cinema Club Manchester Grand Hyatt is for 18 and up and they have rooftop movie screenings and the Pearl has diamond movies which is movies by the pool you have to be 21 and they have cocktails and they screen things like Mean Girls and Wet Hot American Summer you know like cult favorites are all the titles throwbacks and family friendly. No. There's actually some pretty cool things if you look for them one of them is flicks on the bricks at the Athenaeum in La Jolla. They're dedicating their summer programming to film noir and it's going to be hosted by our own film critic Beth Comando. She knows so much about film so that will be great. And then screen on the green is put on by the San Diego Museum of Art and that's inspired by a collection that they have. And this year it's epic tales from ancient India. So you'll be able to see a selection of movies from India other modern movies and I would also check out the little Italy summer film festival that happens of course in Little Italy. And you see an Italian film that has subtitles and you get some classic films and some films that are you know popular in Italy too. And I hear that even the San Diego Symphony is doing these outdoor movie screenings. Now they're doing three movie screenings this year. They're going to be doing a Harry Potter a Star Wars and they're going to do West Side Story with a full symphony orchestra. You can find the outdoor summer movie guide on Cape PBS. Dot org slash arts. And finally good luck to all the runners this weekend at the annual Rock n Roll Marathon. The route takes them through University Heights Normal Heights and Northpark and I've been speaking with PBS arts calendar editor Nina Guerin. Nina thank you. Thanks. Good luck runners.