Nashville for Free

Alright, let’s talk about the earth.

It’s pretty fantastic, right? I mean, it supports all kinds of life, us included. It’s super pretty, but can also be really terrifying when it starts to shake.

Earth Day is the day we celebrate the earth (which really should be everyday, right?). Well, Nashville’s Earth Day Festival will be this Saturday at Centennial Park, and there will be some pretty awesome things there.

Earth Day will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m and the theme is Strike a Chord, Go Green and aims to continue Karl Deen’s mission to make Nashville the greenest city in the South.

There will be a lot of cool booths including people from Adventure Science Center, Nashville Farmers’ Market, Greenwagon,Kilowatt Ours (screening at 1pm), Lightning 100, Nashville Scene, Nashville Vegan Meetup, the Zoo, Team Green, and Whole Foods. I’m sure they’ll all have some awesome stuff for you, especially Greenwagon!

Food vendors will include Michelangelo’s Pizza, Jersey Mike’s, Mama Do’s and Papa Du’s, Bolton’s Chicken and Fish (mmm hot chicken!), The Wild Cow, Old Hickory Concessions, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Chicken on a Stick, DH&H Snow Cones, Woolson Concessions,Rays Wings and Things

In addition to that there will be live music! Man, Saturday is one incredible day for free live music between Record Store Day and this. At least it’s not as insane as last year when this weekend was Record Store Day, Earth Day, AND Rites of Spring. Anyway, here’s the band schedule:

2:00pm-2:45pm Homemade Water
2:45pm-3:00pm The Love Drums
3:00pm-4:00pm The Apache Relay
4:00pm-4:15pm The Love Drums
4:15pm-5:15pm Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek)
5:15pm-5:30pm The Spinderellas Hula Hoop Trio / The Love Drums (awwww yeah!)
5:30pm-7pm Bela Fleck Acoustic with Friends

So there you have it, between this and Record Store Day Saturday is going to be awesome and action-packed. Good luck trying to see everything awesome.

My sister-in-law came to stay with me and Tyler Wednesday through Sunday of last week. She’s not just any sister-in-law. She’s a 15 year old, hyper hyper, girly girl teenager. And i love the crap out of her. She had never really been to Nashville aside from helping her big bro move into Vanderbilt about 3 years ago, so I really wanted to show her everything I could.

Now. Tyler and I are buh-roke. We can’t spend a fortune to take her on a bunch of different tours or anything fancy like that. So I used my keen sense of cheapness and not only showed her a great time, but re-realized what a beautiful city I live in.

I guess what I want to tell you is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money or go anywhere fancy schmancy to have a good time. Sometimes you just have to appreciate what’s in your own backyard.

Friday night we took her to The Frist Center. It was their birthday and everyone got in for free. Score! Incase you missed it, I blogged about that particular event here. Always keep up with The Frist Center. They are constantly having “Free Days.”

Later on, we took her to the majestic Centennial Park. Take your dog and go for a walk (you probably need the exercise.) Or sharpen up your photog skills. Play the coolest game of hide-and-go-seek ever, do whatever–there’s a ton of space there, and it’s free, so use it! There are also free events being held there all time time. I’ve seen free yoga classes, free movies in the park, free symphony concerts, it’s a pretty long list.

Now, since you all probably live in Nashville you may scoff at the typical things to do here, but don’t be embarrassed to bring out your tourist-y side. Walk down broadway, 2nd avenue, church and commerce. Walk around the State Capitol, heck GO into Legislative Plaza! It might not interest a lot of you, but did you know that you can sit in on any committee meeting? If there’s something you’re interested in, go and listen to the legislation being passed (or trying to be passed) about it. Plus, you never know what you will find there. I went earlier this week (it’s part of my “real” job) and as I walked in there were piglets, cows, donkeys, chickens and some other farm animals. People, there was a milking contest outside of Legislative Plaza. And I got to hold a little piggy!

I have lived in Nashville all my life (minus the 5-6 years I was in Bowling Green, but let’s just forget about that…please…) but I still love driving on I-65 and seeing the Nashville skyline. I love those little honky tonks on Broadway and I don’t know how many pictures I have with that Elvis statue on 2nd avenue.

One of the best ways to do stuff for free that would normally cost you money is simply to ask. Is there a new gym or yoga place you want to try out? Don’t be shy, call the manager and say you are looking around and was wondering if you could drop in on a class for free. They will say yes if they want your business, which they do.

There are a ton of things you can do right here in this beautiful city of Nashville every single day. Sometimes you just have to get creative and maybe bat an eyelash or show off your pearly whites. Or, of course, you could always read our blog and follow our twitter for daily updates!

This Saturday brings the Celebration of Cultures Festival, which will be held in Centennial Park. Last year 28,000 people enjoyed this event and it was named one of the top 20 events in the Southeast. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and enjoy over 40 different cultures.

As I said, this event will take place this Saturday, October 3rd (tomorrow), and will go from 10am-6pm, rain or shine. The calendar, which you can download HERE details all of the events, of which there are a lot, and has a map of the different booths and stages. In other words, this event is big.

Other than specific events, from what I’ve been told there will be…

• Food from around the world
• Dance and musical performances on five different stages
• “World Market,” where vendors will sell hand-crafted, imported items
• A children’s area featuring interactive, hands-on activities
• “Global Village,” offering a glimpse of daily life in countries such as Panama, India, Mexico, Bolivia, Somalia, Japan, Jamaica, China and Kurdistan
• New this year is TEENS UNITED!, where local teens from different countries will showcase their cultural traditions.

Yes, I took those straight from the press release. I’m not ashamed. It was a good press release.

Free parking is available in the HCA lots across from the north side of the park. Take Charlotte Pike towards town, turn right on 25^th Ave. N. and stay to the right (Park Plaza). Festival parking will be straight ahead.

For more info on the event check out their website, http://www.celebrationofcultures.org/

-Emily

This Saturday brings the Celebration of Cultures Festival, which will be held in Centennial Park. Last year 28,000 people enjoyed this event and it was named one of the top 20 events in the Southeast. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and enjoy over 40 different cultures.

As I said, this event will take place this Saturday, October 3rd (tomorrow), and will go from 10am-6pm, rain or shine. The calendar, which you can download HERE details all of the events, of which there are a lot, and has a map of the different booths and stages. In other words, this event is big.

Other than specific events, from what I’ve been told there will be…

• Food from around the world
• Dance and musical performances on five different stages
• “World Market,” where vendors will sell hand-crafted, imported items
• A children’s area featuring interactive, hands-on activities
• “Global Village,” offering a glimpse of daily life in countries such as Panama, India, Mexico, Bolivia, Somalia, Japan, Jamaica, China and Kurdistan
• New this year is TEENS UNITED!, where local teens from different countries will showcase their cultural traditions.

Yes, I took those straight from the press release. I’m not ashamed. It was a good press release.

Free parking is available in the HCA lots across from the north side of the park. Take Charlotte Pike towards town, turn right on 25^th Ave. N. and stay to the right (Park Plaza). Festival parking will be straight ahead.

For more info on the event check out their website, http://www.celebrationofcultures.org/

-Emily

I thought I’d create a post that highlighted some of this weeks cool events. This isn’t meant to include everything, but if you feel like I missed something major then let me know.

MONDAY:
8 off 8th at the Mercy Lounge at 9PM
This is a weekly event, and though I’ve never gone it seems really great. The Mercy Lounge is a great venue, and I always have a good time hearing new bands, even if they sort of suck. You should definitely consider going at least once

TUESDAY:
Cotton Jones performs at Grimey’s at 6PM
I LOVE going to in-stores at Grimey’s, even if I don’t know the artist. It gets a little cramped sometimes, but the tunes are great, and sometimes Grimey’s will have some surprises like free beer or prizes. If you’re a fan of the artist this is probably the most intimate setting you’ll ever see them in, and you can almost always get the to take a picture and sign after their set.

Lunch and Learn with Martha Stamps at Nashville Farmers’ Market – 11am
Eat some lunch and learn a little about the food you’re eating. I don’t think that we give enough thought to what we put into our bodies, and this sounds like a great way to learn more about it. This week’s topic is “Local is Everything”.

Dime Cookie Day at Whole Foods – while supplies last.
I don’t think it’s a secret that I LOVE cookies, especially good ones that only cost 10 cents each. The first Tuesday of the month means 10 cookies for $1 at Whole Foods in Green Hills, and let me tell you, they’re delicious! The cookies are left sitting out in little bags of 10 each on the bakery counter, and you just grab one and take it to a register. One greenback later and they’re all yours to eat or to share. I eat mine.

NANA Day (Anime) at Sonobana Restaurant and Grocery
It’s July 7th, which apparently means it’s NANA day in celebration of the anime comic of the same name. For more info click here

New Faces Night at The Basement – 8pm
A free show with some up-and-coming acts. This week features Theodore, Douglas Lucas, Wendy Duffy, Tennessee Hollow, Mariesa Frank and Andrew Bryant. This, like all Basement shows, is 21+

Local Author Elizabeth Pace signs and discusses her book The X and Y of Buy at Davis Kidd – 7pm
This book discusses the differences between the purchasing habits of men and women. It sounds pretty interesting.

(more…)

Tonight I hit up Movies in the Park with a friend of mine. I’d never actually been to one, and it was a lot of fun, though there were lots of noisy pre-teens.

I was really impressed with the number of vendors there. They had Dog of Nashville, Ben & Jerry’s, and Cici’s Pizza, but I had to roll with Mas Tacos, which aren’t exactly cheap, but are totally awesome. It took a couple of minutes to get mine because they had to MAKE the tortillas. It doesn’t get fresher than that.

I found that while the festivities all started at or before 7pm, the actual movie didn’t start until 8. During that hour there were little crafts for kids, food to be eaten, and prizes to be given out. Things you could have won: Harry Potter midnight screening tickets, Frist tickets, the Jonas Brothers 3D DVD, and tickets to the Bluegrass Underground’s 4th of July concert. Alas, I did not win a thing.

My View

All said and done, I had a pretty good time tonight. I was impressed that I could actually see AND hear the movie, and it seems like the people running it have it down to an art form. There’s only one movie left: Mean Girls, which is showing next week. I love that movie, so I might have to go back for more…