Island Time, August 8 - 11: Counting the Days

Two people on stand-up paddle boards on a pond

Island Time, August 8 – 11: Counting the Days

August 8, 2019

We all know what we’re doing next weekend—the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair opens Thursday, August 15 and runs through Sunday, August 18. But this weekend is a wild card, with tons of only-in-August events and activities to choose from. Here are our best bets for the next few days—find everything that’s happening on the Island in The Complete Martha’s Vineyard Calendar and watch for our Monday newsletter, Island Time 2, with highlights of the week to come.

Friday, August 9 | Stretch out

If you’d like to start your day with yoga, here are some of your choices: on the roof of the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven (7 a.m.), on the beach at Lobsterville in Aquinnah (8 a.m.) or under the oak trees and tent at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs (8 a.m.).

Young naturalists and their families can learn about one of the Vineyard’s most distinctive creatures at a book talk for The Secret Life of the Skunk, at 11 a.m. at the West Tisbury Free Public Library. Island wildlife biologist and skunk expert Luanne Johnson joins author Laurence Pringle to answer all your skunk-related questions and share facts about the striped and smelly mammal that most of us prefer to shun.

The 17th annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival runs through the weekend at the Performing Arts Center in Oak Bluffs. Screenings today include the South African documentary Dressed Like Kings, at 1 p.m., Wonder at 5 p.m. and Apollo at 8 p.m.

The Vineyard’s first multi-day outdoor music festival, Beach Road Weekend, kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park on Lagoon Pond Road in Vineyard Haven. The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra will perform composer John Williams’s film score for Jaws in synch with an outdoor screening of the blockbuster, which was filmed on the Vineyard in 1974.

Other movies tonight include The Art of Self-Defense, 7:30 p.m. at the Capawock in Vineyard Haven and Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, 8 p.m. at the Strand in Oak Bluffs.

Saturday, August 10 | Festival fun

Rocker John Fogerty headlines the lineup today at Beach Road Weekend, but Dispatch, Alejandro Escovedo, Mason Jennings and the North Mississippi All Stars will also take the stage today for the festival, which starts at 1 p.m.

Bring your appetite to the annual Peach Festival from noon to 4 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, for peach shortcake, peaches with ice cream, peach smoothies, baked goods and lemonade. The vintage jewelry sale table is a bonus.

Jazz on the Vineyard presents multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Lalah Hathaway at the Trinity Park Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs starting at 6 p.m. It’s a benefit concert for the Hartford-based nonprofit Student Achievement Through Opportunity.

Documentary Week continues at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center with The Grateful Dead: Live at Giants Stadium, a previously unreleased, complete live concert from June 17, 1991 featuring Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick in their first big-screen appearances with the band. Show time is 7:30 p.m.

The Built on Stilts Dance Festival takes place every night through Sunday, at 8 p.m. in historic Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Admission is free and all ages are welcome to enjoy a wide variety of performing arts.

Sunday, August 11 | Treasure hunt

Greet the day with Morning Radiance Meditation, from 8:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. in Edgartown’s Cannonball Park. An energizing meditation is followed by interpretive movement to music and drums.

If you feel like getting craftsy, try a class in screen printing on fabric or in decoupage at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs. Both classes start at 10 a.m.

The annual Chicken Alley Arts & Collectibles Sale takes place at a special location on the corner of Church and Main streets in Vineyard Haven—not at the thrift shop on Lagoon Pond Road, which is closed for the Beach Road Weekend festival. The sale starts at 1 p.m. and line placeholder numbers will be handed out starting at 7 a.m. Be an early bird, and who knows what treasures you might find?

At Beach Road Weekend, today’s performers are Galactic, Matisyahu, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, the Original Wailers, Grace Potter and headliner Phil Lesh & Friends.

Today is positively your last chance to catch the outdoor production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, at 5 p.m. in the Tisbury Amphitheater off State Road in Vineyard Haven.

At the movies, the Strand is showing The Lion King at 5 p.m. and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw plays at 7:30 p.m. at the Capawock.