The Weekendist: Flowers, Film & Roller Skates Edition

Our weekend picks are here! Lots of freebies, lots of not-so-freebies, and plenty of fun to cram in. Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re planning (and what we missed)!

Friday

Opening Night Dinner and a Movie: Vincere. Belcourt, Dinner @ 6:15pm, movie @ 7, $25. Our heads are still a little bit stuck in film festival mode, and we keep hearing so many great things about this Italian movie that we figured it’s worth noting. The opening night shindig includes a fancy-pants dinner and a glass of wine and might also score you some points for date night.
Lwala: A Night of Celebration. Vanderbilt University’s Langford Auditorium, 7pm, $30+. Join the Lwala Community Alliance to celebrate Lwala, an African village best known from the award-winning Sons of Lwala documentary. In addition to hearing the latest from the village, there will be some cultural performances and a virtual tour through Lwala. Ticket proceeds benefit the Lwala Community Alliance.
Guilty Pleasures. Mercy Lounge, 9:30pm, $12. If 80s cover bands are your thing, Mike Grimes & co. will be bring the party to the Mercy Lounge. We love these guys because of their 327,893,179-person roster, because they’re fun, and because you never know who might show up. Seriously.

Saturday

Cheekwood 50th Birthday Celebration. Cheekwood, all day, FREE. Cheekwood is celebrating their big 5-0 this weekend by throwing themselves a giant party and inviting everyone in the whole world, for free. See the art and gardens and snack on some “birthday treats,” which we feel is probably cake of some sort.
First Saturday Art Crawl. Downtown, 6pm, FREE. Good art and free wine always get the Nashvillest stamp of approval, but this is one of our favorites. The gallery crawl spans a few blocks in the heart of downtown and you will not get bored. Check the Downtown Partnership for shuttle schedules, gallery listings and a gallery map. And if you’re feeling ambitious, consider taking advantage of the free Music City Circulator since parking is pretty much guaranteed to suck.
Nashville Rollergirls v. Arch Rival Rollergirls. Tennessee State Fairgrounds, 7:30pm, $13. Our beloved rollergirls are set to take on the Arch Rival Rollergirls out of St. Louis (Arch Rivals? Get it…?) and if you’ve never been to a bout before, it’s one of the things you need to do before you die. So do it tonight. Also, bring some canned food for the YWCA to score free NRG gear.
Jimmy Buffet. Bridgestone Arena, 8pm, $88.50+. Okay, so if you’re committed enough to Jimmy Buffet to shell out $100 for a ticket, then you probably already have your evening planned. But if you want to catch the last-minute train to Margaritaville, there are still some tickets left. Everyone else may want to pay attention to the traffic.

Sunday

Goo Goo Dolls w/ The Rocket Summer. Ryman Auditorium, 7:30pm, $35. We aren’t advocating this one, but hey! There might be a few Goo Goo Dolls fans out there still, right? And our inner 13-year olds are still pretty excited about The Rocket Summer.

Photo by fallingwater123.