Maggie Crane: “Side by Side”
May 9 at the Howland Cultural Center
Maggie Crane brings her solo show Side by Side to Beacon as part of the Artichoke storytelling series, blending stand-up and memoir into a sharp, disarming hour. Set in early-2000s Western Massachusetts, the piece centers on Crane’s relationship with her older brother, whose disability shaped a childhood marked by rivalry, grief, and dark humor. Drawing on pop-punk nostalgia and adolescent angst, Crane threads comedy through heavier terrain without sanding down its edges. Part confessional, part performance, the show reflects Artichoke’s broader ethos: personal stories told live, with enough specificity to land as something universal. 8pm. Tickets
Hudson Vally Beltane Festival
May 16 at Stone Mountain Farm
The Hudson Valley Beltane Festival returns to New Paltz on May 16 for its 35th year, reviving an ancient seasonal rite with a distinctly local spin. Produced by Vanaver Caravan, the daylong gathering blends folk tradition and spectacle—live music, dance, puppetry, and hands-on activities—into something between a Renaissance fair and a spring picnic. The centerpiece is the 4pm Beltane pageant, a theatrical ode to nature, myth, and renewal. Elsewhere, fiddlers play, trapeze workshops invite participation, and the grounds fill with families marking the turn toward summer. It’s a ritual of community as much as season, rooted in performance and shared celebration. 12-7pm. Tickets
Open Studios by Upstate Art Weekend
May 16-17 at locations across the region
Open Studios by Upstate Art Weekend turns the Hudson Valley and Catskills into a decentralized gallery, when artists across the region open their working spaces to the public. A self-directed art crawl, the weekend invites visitors into studios usually closed to view, offering a look at process alongside finished work. Painters, sculptors, designers, and multidisciplinary makers participate across 10 counties, with artists present throughout to talk about their practice. The event functions as a prelude to the larger Upstate Art Weekend in June, foregrounding access, exchange, and the simple act of seeing how the work gets made. 11am-6pm. Info
Garner Arts Festival
May 16-17 at the Garner Arts Center
The Garner Arts Festival marks its 25th anniversary with a weekend takeover of the historic Garner Arts Center campus in the Rockland County hamlet of Garnerville, a former textile mill turned interdisciplinary arts hub. Across 14 acres of alleyways, factory buildings, and studios, the festival blends contemporary installations with hands-on making—screen printing, marble sculpting, and open artist studios—alongside live music, food vendors, and a sprawling craft market. Historical threads run through the programming, including a WPA poster exhibition and site-specific installations reflecting the district’s industrial past. A 250-person Flash Sketch Mob and family-friendly workshops round out a densely packed, all-ages celebration of art in motion. 11am-6pm. Tickets
East Durham Irish Festival
May 22-24 at the MJQ Irish Cultural & Sports Center
The East Durham Irish Festival returns Memorial Day weekend, bringing a long-running Catskills tradition into its 48th year. Centered at the MJQ Irish Cultural & Sports Center, the three-day gathering blends high-energy bands, traditional sessions, and step dancing across multiple stages, with food vendors, craft stalls, and a beer garden rounding out the scene. Friday opens with a free community sing-along, while the weekend builds into a full slate of performances and cultural programming. One of the country’s longest-running Irish festivals, it draws a multigenerational crowd for what amounts to a seasonal homecoming—equal parts music festival and heritage celebration. Tickets
“Circus of Tease”
May 23 at Assembly
Assembly leans into spectacle with “Circus of Tease,” a late-night mash-up of burlesque and sideshow that turns the Kingston venue into something like a contemporary cabaret big top. The second annual Hudson Valley Burlesque Bash layers classic striptease with sword swallowing, aerialists, acrobatics, drag, and comic interludes, building toward a DJ-fueled dance party with pop-up performances. It’s less a linear show than a rolling sequence of acts, designed to keep the room in a state of anticipation. Unabashedly maximal, the night trades polish for energy, pulling from circus, nightlife, and variety traditions to create a high-wire, anything-goes atmosphere. 8pm. Tickets
“Happy End”
May 29 at Hudson Hall
Hudson Hall hosts a one-night stop of “Happy End,” the biting 1929 collaboration by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, reimagined as part of a new statewide touring initiative. Led by The Glimmerglass Festival in partnership with Opera Saratoga and others, the production brings a lean, 90-minute staging to eight venues across New York. Set in a Chicago speakeasy, the story tangles gangsters and Salvation Army missionaries in a moral tug-of-war, carried by Weill’s durable songs like “Surabaya Johnny.” Conducted by Rob Ainsley and directed by Mary Birnbaum, the ensemble-driven performance continues Hudson Hall’s recent run of small-scale opera. 8pm. Tickets
Field + Supply Spring MRKT
May 29-31 at Hutton Brickyards
Field + Supply’s Spring MRKT returns to Kingston, bringing more than 250 makers to the waterfront for a weekend that blurs craft fair, design showcase, and social scene. Founded by designer Brad Ford, the event emphasizes well-made goods across disciplines—furniture, textiles, ceramics, apparel—alongside live music, local food, and a steady churn of demos and workshops. Interactive elements, from portrait sessions to hands-on activities, add texture to the shopping experience, while the riverside setting gives it room to breathe. Now in its sixth spring edition, the market continues to draw a national audience around a distinctly Hudson Valley ethos. 10am-6pm. Tickets
“Clarence in a Pause: A Listening Party”
May 30-31 at the Ancram Center for the Arts
Two MacArthur Fellows, composer Heather Christian and theater polymath Taylor Mac, converge at Ancram Center’s Play Lab with “Clarence, in a Pause: A Listening Party,” a work-in-progress oratorio that refuses to stay in one lane. Framed as a quasi-baroque musical confrontation with an imagined Clarence Thomas, the piece wrestles with political polarization through song, humor, and a search for something like empathy. The format is intentionally porous: performance folds into conversation, with audiences invited to engage the ideas and even learn material from the show. Free and in development, it offers a rare look at high-level artists testing form in real time. Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 4pm. Tickets
Hudson Valley Faerie Festival
May 30 at Forsyth Park
Forsyth Park slips the bounds of the everyday on May 30, when the Hudson Valley Faerie Festival transforms the Kingston green into an immersive storybook landscape. Produced by Circle Creative Collective, the afternoon unfolds as a participatory world rather than a staged event—flower crown and wand-making, storytelling circles, roaming performers, and encounters with figures like the Faerie Queen and Troll King. A tea party with color-shifting drinks adds a note of alchemy. Much of the handmade scenery and costume work comes from Circle’s Artesania program, supporting immigrant women artisans. Pay-what-you-can admission keeps the focus on access, imagination, and community. 12pm. Tickets
