❤️ What's happening this weekend in Spokane

Good morning, Spokane!

It’s another upper-90s scorcher and the haze is still with us — an air quality alert is up for regional wildfire smoke at least through this morning, and forecasters say fine particulate could tip into the unhealthy-for-sensitive-groups range, so pull the live reading from the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency before anything strenuous outdoors.

🧡 Quick thank-you before we dive in: this week, Spokane Pulse crossed 8,000 readers. That’s 8,000 neighbors who let us into their inbox to talk about the city we love — and we’re grateful for every single one of you. Here’s to what’s next.

In today’s Spokane Pulse:

Let’s get to it.

— Laina & Lucas Wyland

🎭 A Midsummer Night's Dream opens at Spokane Civic Theatre on Friday and plays all weekend — 7:30 p.m. Friday night, then 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. It's Shakespeare's fairy-tangled comedy on the Margot and Robert Ogden Main Stage, and the matinees mean you can see it without leaving the air conditioning at the hottest part of the day. Tickets are $36.50 for adults, $20 for students 25 and under, fees included.

🛍️ The Lilac City Vendor Fair takes over the NorthTown Mall parking lot at Division and Queen all three days, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Little Local Artist runs it every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through the end of August, and the vendor lineup rotates — so it's worth a walk-through even if you went last month. Free to attend.

The Salish School of Spokane fills Clock Tower Meadow with student and staff performances, drumming and singing, and presentations from fluent speakers of Spokane-area Indigenous languages.

Spokane's Friday-afternoon neighborhood market, a block off North Monroe, runs every week through September 25 with produce, prepared food, and local makers.

Free live music under the pines at Manito's Park Bench Cafe — bring a blanket, grab something sweet, stay for the sunset.

Comedy's quietest superstar brings the Big Dumb Eyes tour to Numerica Veterans Arena (the old Spokane Arena) for one night.

Guitarist Magazine put him among the 50 greatest blues guitarists alive; the King of Strings plays the SCC Auditorium for two hours.

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Historian Chet Caskey walks you through Spokane Falls, the Expo '74 U.S. Pavilion, the 1902 Clock Tower, and the 1909 Looff Carrousel. Meet at the Visit Spokane Visitor Center by the Rotary Fountain.

Riverfront marks the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act with free food, live entertainment, a resource fair, a World Market, and a kids' area.

Santa swaps the sleigh for River Park Square with free digital photos, Lush bath-bomb pressing, face painting, balloon twisting, and a 4 p.m. performance by ballerinas from the Spokane Symphony's Nutcracker.

Velocity are back at ONE Spokane Stadium for "Summer Time in the 509" night, hosting Fort Wayne in USL League One play.

The series' only Saturday screening of the summer — bring a chair, grab something from the food trucks, and watch Zootopia 2 under the Gesa Pavilion cables once the sun drops.

An all-2000s throwback night — Usher, Missy Elliott, Akon, and every club anthem you burned onto a CD. Doors at 8, 21+.

Valleyfest's summer ride rolls out of Mirabeau Point Park in three flavors — a 50-mile climb, a 25-mile adventure, and a flat 10-mile family route. Online registration closes 11:59 p.m. Friday; packet pickup is Saturday at CenterPlace, 4–7 p.m.

Chrome, fins, and a Resident Choice Award voted on by the folks who live there. Free to wander, with food and drinks for sale. Vehicle entries are already full, so come as a spectator.

STCU members get into Mobius Discovery Center free every Sunday in July — one membership covers four visitors, which makes this the cheapest way to burn off a hot afternoon indoors.

Hop a horse-drawn carriage and ride between Green Bluff stops — Mountain View Venue at Bluff Dweller Farm, The Farmhouse, New Maitland Brewing, and Wildland Co-op. Start wherever you like; it's about 25 minutes north of downtown.

Motown, soul, and R&B on the Cliff House lawn as the summer concert series rolls on. 21+, and that applies to the whole estate — no exceptions, not even for infants.

🏗️ Greenstone filed plans for a $71 million, six-story apartment building at 1175 W. Summit Parkway — 200 units and 53,000 square feet of retail, and the tallest thing in Kendall Yards when it's done.

☕ Tay Tay's Cafe, tucked in the basement of the Knickerbocker Apartments at 507 S. Howard, just passed its first year — owner Taylor Edwards runs a $100 Mug Club, a Thursday morning walk club, and a rotating monthly calendar of bingo, trivia, jazz jam, and open mic.

🍺 No-Li Brewhouse took gold at the U.S. Open Beer Championship for its Victrix Squatch Juicy Imperial IPA, beating out more than 8,000 entries — the brewery's 212th international medal.

🏀 Gonzaga and UCLA will renew the rivalry Dec. 5 at Toyota Center in Anaheim on FOX, with the Zags leading the all-time series 8-3; tickets go on sale Oct. 8.

🗳️ Spokane County sent out thousands of flawed primary ballots — all 5,064 Airway Heights ballots were missing the library district measure, about 775 Colbert voters were missing the STA measure, and nearly 400 more wrongly included it. Replacements are on the way ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.

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