No one can complain that there’s nothing to do in Tucson this week.
This is one of those weeks — we get them a couple times a year — where there’s arguably too much going on:
- More than 300 authors and over 135,000 fans of their works will fill the University of Arizona Mall on Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3, for the 11th annual Tucson Festival of Books. It runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. both days.
- Eighteen Arizona wineries are celebrating the 35th anniversary of Sonoita-Elgin getting the state’s first American Viticulture Area designation. The ninth annual Southeast Arizona Wine Growers Festival, organized by Kief-Joshua Vineyards’ owner/winemaker Kief Manning, also will include a blues festival with four Tucson area blues bands. It’s from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3, at the vineyard in Elgin.
- The third annual Tucson Hip Hop Festival expands to four days, opening with a workshop on Wednesday, March 6, and a kickoff breakfast and second panel discussion on March 8, before performances that night and on March 9. Over the four days, more than 100 local and regional hip-hop artists will perform across nine downtown stages, with headliners Brooklyn-based duo The Underachievers set to perform in the daylong block party on March 9.
- Arizona Friends of Chamber Music’s 26th annual Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival opens Sunday, March 3, and continues through March 10 with a roster of eight musicians — half of them, including the Escher String Quartet, are new to the event. Concerts are held at Leo Rich Theatre downtown and a big gala dinner is at the Arizona Inn, featuring several festival musicians in concert.
With so much going on, how do you pick and choose?
We can’t decide for you, but we’ve put together a pretty dandy user’s guide that details what you can expect that might help you narrow your choices.
Dressed as the Goosebumps character Slappy, Nic Santa Cruz, far right, 8, shows his mother, Anita Moreno, his autographed book signed by R.L. Stine as her husband Joseluis Moreno, far left, watches during the 10th annual Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona on Mar. 11, 2018.
Michelle Gossen, left, and 10-year-old daughter Shelbie, browse the festival author books at the Bookmans tent during the 10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books, on March 10, 2018, at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Audience members listen to authors speak during the 10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books, on March 10, 2018, at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Thousands pack in for the 10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books, on March 10, 2018, at the University of Arizona in Tucson./
