Memorial Day weekend!!! What will you do? What will you hear?

So it's here, at last... one of the very, very few national holidays in the USA. (If you've never lived and worked outside the USA, you probably don't feel the pain as much as those of us who have spent time in the UK, France, Germany... just about anywhere other than the USA... where vacation time is longer, too. And yes, people are just as productive, if not more so, when they have decent down time. Don't get me started...)

What will you do with this precious free time?

First of all: let's remember the reason for the day off. It's Memorial Day; a time for remembering those who died while in the service of the country; those who gave their lives in the military, in wars, in service, in the belief that they were protecting our freedom. There are remembrances held around the region; I've been to the service at Mount Vernon, Citrus Heights, and it moved me to tears. The service there this year is from 11 to 12 a.m.

And I swear it's because we have so few long weekends here, that everything happens at the same time. This weekend:

- BottleRock in Napa, big music/food/wine festival, sold out long ago, and if you have tickets, you're probably already on your way over there
- Sacramento Music Festival; not-so-jazz any more, (people don't listen to jazz so much now, so we stop playing it, so fewer people hear it, and fewer people listen to it? Strange argument... there's something really wonderful in discovering music that's new to you, just by hearing it played around the streets of Old Sacramento). There is still jazz in the mix, but with other music mixed in. See the full lineup here on the SacMusicFest website. In particular, listen out for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Tom Rigney (I love jazz violin), The Stray Cat, Lee Rocker, and our friends Queen Nation, Here's the full list of performers--it's huge!!!
- Sacramento County Fair, at CalExpo--the State Fair's little sister. All the fun of the fair, animals, (camels! we saw camels!!!), fair food, music, the works... and it's only $5 admission (don't forget to take cash for the entry fee, they were not accepting cards yesterday), with $10 parking.
- Concerts in the Park, this evening, Friday: tonight it's Chuck Ragan headlining, and personally I'm also really looking forwards to Humble Wolf, who take the stage, I believe, at 6 pm.

Loads of other stuff going on, too. Frightened Rabbit returns to the Ace of Spades tonight, Katchafire tomorrow, and the Insane Clown Posse on Monday. The Mowgli's are at the Boardwalk in Orangevale.

Whatever you do this weekend: have fun, keep safe, and spare a moment to remember what Memorial Day is all about!