Pretty much everything happening this time of year is part of a festival or concert series, so as we highlight items this week from the PDD Calendar, we’ll just pretend everything is part of a festival, even if it isn’t.

The Bayside Sounds concert series continues on Wednesday with
North Shore Sounds and Superior Singers performing at Billings Park in Superior. Earlier in the day, the Brothers Burn Mountain play a lunchtime gig as part of Lake Place Summer Sounds in Duluth. The Wednesday Night at the Races events for the kiddos begin on Wednesday as well.

On Friday there’s the Free Range Film Festival, Movies in the Park, the Current broadcasting live from the opening of Endion Station Public House and hosting a concert featuring Low at the Red Herring Lounge as part of CurrentFest, and the bars on North Tower Avenue host a Grand Reopening Celebration as part of the Superior’s Downtown Strip Isn’t Under Construction Anymore Festival.

Saturday events include the All Pints North Summer Brew Fest, the Board Across the Bay Race and Festival, Carlton Daze and the Mudman Race as part of Extreme Obstacle Course Daze.

And calendar editor Lawrence Lee should be back on the job at any moment, beginning PDD’s Back to Normal Fest.

A system of unseasonably cool air is expected to roll in today, but the various summer festivals will be every bit as fun while you are wearing jackets and long pants. Here come the highlights from the PDD Calendar.

The week starts as every week should — with a hardcore heavy metal concert at a Christian indoor skate park. Colossus, Conveyer, Strengthen What Remains, Lessons and Heart’s Bane all perform at the Encounter on Monday. You can choose instead to hang out in a wood shop and make beds for the needy, so there are at least two places to wear a sleeveless shirt this week.

Tuesday night the Chester Creek Concert Series continues with a performance by the Formal Age. Later in the evening, at Tycoons Alehouse, the Adam Booker Group will be playing jazz versions of Trampled by Turtles songs. Why? For fun, that’s why. But also because the hometown heroes are releasing a new album and appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman again.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Comic Andy Kindler comes to the Teatro Zuccone stage tonight followed by a Q&A and screening of two episodes of “Bob’s Burgers” downstairs at Zinema 2.

I can’t make her love me if she don’t, but Bonnie Raitt plays the Big Top on Tuesday.

The musical Pippin, presented by Lundeen Productions, opens on Wednesday at Harbor City and runs three weekends.

Sidewalk Days are going on downtown starting on Wednesday and closing with a big street dance on Saturday. And if you haven’t been walking on closed off streets enough for one week, you can Meet in the Streets in Lincoln Park on Sunday.

Movies in the Park starts its new season Friday night with Brave at Leif Erikson Park. (Note: This event has been postponed.)

On Saturday Greece comes to Marshall and craft beer goes to Lutsen.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Sure, the World Cup is going on in Brazil, but it’s Sweden vs. U.S.A. right here in Duluth when a bunch of teenagers from our sister city, Växjö, Sweden, play soccer against some of our kids at Stebner Park today through Wednesday.

It’s the season for outdoor concerts. St. Anyway plays at Chester Bowl on Tuesday as part of the Chester Creek Concert series and Hairball plays Bayfront on Thursday.

You can celebrate the July 4th weekend with a British invasion by watching a special screening of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night at Zinema 2 on Friday and then see American English, a Beatles tribute band, at Big Top Chautauqua on Saturday.

Of course, there’s a big concert and fireworks down at Bayfront on Friday.

How do you deal with a break up? Well, if you’re Rachael Kilgour you sing sad songs and invite people to a concert at the Teatro Zuccone on Saturday.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Today is the grand opening of the Spirit Room, a tapas bar in Superior, so watch your diction when you tell people where you’re going. Say it with me: “TAHP-ahs bar.” Very good.

You can get all civic minded on Tuesday with the Healthy Duluth Ideas Festival at the Zeitgeist or give your input on a proposed dog park in Observation Park at the Washington Center.

You can paint along with Bob Ross at The Underground on Wednesday. Yes, the DAI staff knows Bob Ross is dead, but thanks to the miracle of technology, we can still paint happy little trees with him forever.

Learn about not eating meat one day a week with Intro to Meatless Mondays at the Library on Thursday. (Pro tip: This can be accomplished by not eating meat one day a week.)

The Right to Consciousness exhibit at Trepanier Hall opens on Friday featuring art by Rabbet Before Horses Strickland and a whole lot of music.

It’s like a homecoming! Trampled by Turtles, Haley Bonar, Low and Doomtree play Bayfront Park on Saturday. I’m sure it will be summer by then. Right?

And the-Little-Blog-that-Could turns eleven on Sunday with a party at Carmody. Come for cake, awkward conversations with people you only know by their PDD gravatars, and a PDD themed pub quiz hosted by yours truly.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Pause to reflect on the violence inherent in the system today with a memorial service on the 94th anniversary of the lynching of Clayton, Jackson and McGhie and then go to a presentation by Elizabeth Dorsey Hatle on her book, The Ku Klux Klan in Minnesota, at Fitger’s.

Cult, filmed in Duluth last summer, gets its public premier at Zinema 2 on Tuesday.

Renegade Theater‘s Red, a play about the expressionist painter, Mark Rothko, opens on Thursday at the Teatro Zuccone, with improv darling Jody Kujawa playing the lead. It runs two weekends.

Thursday also marks the opening of the 117th season of the Two Harbors City Band playing in the Band Shell at Thomas Owens Park. There’s a Simple Supper before each Thursday evening concert lovingly prepared at the United Church across the street.

Also on Thursday, you can go hear Perfect Duluth Day regular, Heidi Bakk-Hansen, talk about “The Notorious Madam Gain and the Red Light Ladies of St. Croix Avenue” at The Underground.

It’s Grandma’s Marathon weekend, and that means music, music, music, more music and yet more music in and around Canal Park. And, of course, there’s always Jazz at the Toga.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

There’s a fundraiser today at Lighthouse at Emily’s for Kendall’s Smokehouse which had a bit too much smoke a few weeks ago and needs to make repairs. If you plan on going farther up the shore, though, be mindful of road restrictions on Highway 61.

The Duluth Public Library Book Sale is this week with a presale for Friends of the Library on Tuesday, then the general public gets to see what’s left on Wednesday. It concludes with a bag sale on Friday.

Duluth Huskies baseball is in full swing this week with four home games Tuesday through Friday at Wade Stadium. In other sports action, the Harbor City Roller Dames have a double header this Saturday at the DECC to conclude their 2013-14 season.

Ring of Fire, featuring the music of Johnny Cash, opens at The Underground on Thursday and runs two weekends and LOON‘s Don Pasquale has only two performances at Lincoln Park Middle School on Thursday and Saturday of this week.

The Formal Age release a new album at Red Star on Friday, sharing the bill with Wino, WI and Turbo Rathvon.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Chester Bowl Park kicks off its series of Tuesday outdoor concerts with the Chmielewski Funtime Band.

Sing! sings and celebrates 15 years at The Underground on Wednesday.

The Red Herring opens its doors on Thursday to kick off a weekend long grand opening.

The second annual Berserkon is where gamers and cosplayers can get their nerd on at the DECC Friday through Sunday.

Or you can polka until you can’t polka no more at the International Polka Fest this weekend at Black Bear Casino.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Full schedule here.

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Today is Memorial Day so go out and pay your respects to the dead before or after you fire up the grill. There’s a parade in West Duluth this afternoon without so many Veterans for Peace.

Zinema 2 will be showing a restored version of Orson Welles’ Othello on Tuesday for their Explorers Club series.

The Duluth Superior Film Festival opens on Wednesday and runs through Sunday with films in a variety of venues and, this year, the showings are all free.

Blood on the Tracks won’t get so much blood on so many tracks this Thursday, as construction is limiting the run, but you can still rock the train all the way from the Depot to Lakeside.

Other Desert Cities opens at the Duluth Playhouse on Thursday and runs two weeks. Inside tip: I’ve heard nothing but superlatives about this production.

You’ve seen them in Wicker Kittens, now you can jigsaw puzzle your way to fame and fortune in the first ever Duluth Puzzle Derby at the Depot on Saturday.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.