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Plan your weekend April 17-19

 
Raymond Wirick from East Kennett, England, gets ready for the 2015 Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival’s Sand Walk Exhibit.
Raymond Wirick from East Kennett, England, gets ready for the 2015 Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival’s Sand Walk Exhibit.
Published April 15, 2015

Plan your weekend

Date night

Chillounge This year's outdoor lounge party in Tampa takes on a Cirque du Soleil twist, adding contortionists, aerialists, jugglers, hand balancers, a high-flying daredevil and from America's Got Talent, John Nock's Aerosphere Aerial Balloon Show with the artist floating under a giant helium orb. There will also be live music, a fashion show, fireworks, outdoor furnishings and chic daybeds, all set on the downtown waterfront. $25 advance, $35 at the gate, $100 VIP. Curtis Hixon Park, 600 N Ashley Drive, Tampa. (941) 448-0995. 6-11 p.m. Saturday.

Shopping

Record Store Day Tampa Bay's independent record stores will be humming early and all day Saturday for Record Store Day. Hundreds of new, exclusive or limited vinyl albums and 7-inches (not to mention a few CDs, cassettes and more) from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Metallica, Phish and U2 will hit shelves, often in limited quantities, which is why lines start to form so early. St. Petersburg's Daddy Kool Records has partnered with bluesy Indiana roustabouts the Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band to release an official 7-inch single exclusively for the day. For a rundown of the Tampa Bay stores holding special events Saturday, see tbt*'s Soundcheck blog at tampabay.com/blogs/soundcheck.

Art

Mainsail Art Festival The 40th annual Mainsail Art Festival has grown both in size and stature over the years. The artists this year will compete for $64,000 in prize money, including the $10,000 Best of Mainsail and, in honor of the 40th anniversary, a this-year-only award for $4,000. It runs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Vinoy Park, 701 Bayshore Drive NE in downtown St. Petersburg. Live music begins at noon Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday with the marquee band, Pure Prairie League, taking the stage at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Food includes pizzas, arepas, noodle bowls, corn dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, paella and salads, plus beer and wine. The Junior League of St. Petersburg staffs the Kids Create tent, and a program highlights student art from Pinellas schools. No pets. Free. For directions, parking options, booth maps and other information, go to mainsailart.org.

Take the kids

Sugar Sand Festival Nearly 1,000 tons of soft white sand will be transformed into a giant walk-through of characters and scenes for this 10-day Clearwater Beach festival of sand sculpting Friday through April 26. There's also live music, sculpting workshops and competitions and fireworks Saturday. Admission is $10, $7 seniors/military, $5 ages 6-17, 5 and younger free, at Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach.

Margaritaville

Jimmy Buffett The mayor of Margaritaville makes one of his semi-annual trips to Tampa's MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on Saturday. The 68-year-old's approach to using Floribbean-flavored beach rock tunes may teeter on the edge of over-saturation for some, but Buffett's tongue isn't any less sharp than it was when he dropped his debut album 45 years ago. He was most recently spotted campaigning for voter-approved Everglades restoration on the steps of the state Capitol in Tallahassee, so expect a side of environmental activism with your Cheeseburger In Paradise. 8 p.m. MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, 4802 U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $29-$129. (813) 740-2446.

Music

Florida Orchestra Safe to say, members of the Florida Orchestra don't typically shop for their instruments at Pier 1 Imports. But for the next masterworks concert, the brass musicians will use them to play for contemporary composer Jennifer Higdon's ethereal Blue Cathedral. In addition to glasses filled with water, listen for musicians rolling Chinese meditation balls to create a shimmering sound. The main event for the night is the lush, symphonic poetry of Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular work, Scheherazade. See the program conducted by Mei-Ann Chen at 8 p.m. Friday at the Straz Center in Tampa, 8 p.m. Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. $15-$45. (727) 892-3337. floridaorchestra.org.

Theme park

Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival This weekend the festival continues with one of its heartiest musical side dishes, with concerts by 'tween heartthrob Austin Mahone on Saturday and Puerto Rican reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee on Sunday. Both perform at 6 p.m. in Gwazi Park. The festival includes tons of food, wine and craft beer stands placed around the park in the $4 to $8 range. You can save money with 10-ticket samplers at BuschGardens.com.

Food

Festival of Chocolate at MOSI Sweet! The Festival of Chocolate returns to MOSI this weekend. Now in its fifth year, the festival that threatens to put chocolate lovers in a coma returns to the science museum with lots of confections for sale, a live cake-decorating competition, and wine and chocolate pairings. This year the Cocoa Couture fashion show, which brought us dresses made with Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrappers in 2014, expands to a Junior Cocoa Couture Fashion show. The chocolate-inspired designs created by artists 5 to 15 years old will walk down the "Yumway" at 3 p.m. Saturday and will be on display at MOSI throughout the weekend. The festival is included with admission to MOSI, $22.95, $20.95 seniors, $18.95 ages 6-12, 5 and younger free. If you purchase tickets in advance at mosi.org, you get $2 in chocolate coins to spend at the festival, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 4801 E Fowler Ave., Tampa.

Dishing

Chef Robert Irvine Live Food Network star Robert Irvine swoops into the Mahaffey on Sunday for an evening of his multimedia, multisensory cooking demo/boot camp. Part motivational speaker, part muscle-bound "fixer," the host of Dinner: Impossible, Worst Cooks in America, Restaurant: Impossible and Restaurant Express travels 345 days a year, touching down to save a failing restaurant or cook dinner with challenges that seem to verge on the impossible. He's on stage Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Mahaffey. Tickets are $30-$100.