The Week on the Lower Cape

Last week the season was still handing over. This week it finishes the handoff and hands you the keys.

Almost everything in here that says "summer series" says it for the last time. The Brooks Park concerts end. The Nauset Beach concerts end. Windmill Green ends. Truro's library lawn ends tonight. Chatham's Monday labyrinth walks end. CranFest's courtyard ends. Nobody planned it together; they all just aimed at Labor Day, and Labor Day is next weekend. Underneath that, the other calendar starts: conservation commissions, library trustees, zoning boards, a primary election. Two calendars crossing in the same seven days, which is the only week of the year the Lower Cape shows you both at once.

Reading the week

Thursday is the heaviest day — 125 listings, and the eclipse on top of it. Tuesday is the second-heaviest, but almost all of it is daytime civic and library programming plus the polls.

Anchor Saturday on one geographic spine and don't cross the Cape twice. Brewster–Harwich is the strongest of the three this week: Cornbread Festival at Stony Brook at ten, Kill Tide crafts at Drummer Boy through five, the Tomato Festival at the Chatham Bars Inn Farm eleven to five, and Triple Cortado at 7:30. Chatham–Orleans works if you start on the water with Phil Kyle at Strong Island at nine and end at Addison Art at four. The Outer Cape belongs to Wellfleet on Saturday: PorchFest 1:30, Gallery Stroll at five, and you never move the car.

Plan around nights, not day counts. Thursday, Saturday and Monday are the three that fill up.

This Week's Headlines

The eclipse is Thursday night into Friday morning. The partial phase begins around 10:34 PM and greatest eclipse — 96 percent of the moon inside Earth's umbra — lands at about 12:13 AM. It is not a total eclipse, which is why it's worth watching: you can see the shadow's edge and the bright rind that never enters it. Orleans Yoga runs a Lunar Eclipse Ritual with live handpan Friday evening at 6:00 ($45) for people who'd rather mark it indoors, and Truro Library holds Moon Circles with Donna Saturday at 1:00. Out toward the tip the schooner Hindu sails a Full Sturgeon Moon Sail Friday at 5:45 ($85), and Mass Audubon paddles Great Pond in Eastham under the full moon Thursday at 6:00 (from $80).

The state primary is Tuesday, September 1. Polls 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Brewster votes all three precincts at Brewster Baptist Church. Truro votes at the Community Center. Wellfleet votes at the Adult Community Center. Check your own town's posting for your precinct.

Five summer series end this week. John Gorka closes CranFest in the Courtyard Thursday. Toast and Jam close Truro's library-lawn concerts Thursday. The Lynch Brothers close Brooks Park Monday at 6:00, the Dirty Water Dance Band closes Nauset Beach Monday at 6:30, and Dawn Derow closes Windmill Green in Eastham Monday at 6:00. Chatham's Monday labyrinth walks take their last guided turn the same evening.

Two milestone years land back to back. Christ Church Episcopal in Harwich Port turns 100 on Sunday morning. And the America 250 programming is still running in Orleans — Celebrating 250 Years of America at The Meetinghouse Friday through Sunday, 1:00 – 4:00, free, with Boston- and Cape-sourced Revolution and War of 1812 artifacts, alongside The American Journey outdoor exhibit on the Church of the Transfiguration common.

Cape Rep's season keeps two shows running. Girl from the North Country plays Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday indoors, and All Our Best takes the Saturday 7:30 slot. Down in Harwich, Treasure Island runs four performances at Cape Cod Theatre Company.

Fall registration is already open in the gyms. Preseason clinics are appearing on the recreation calendars — girls' soccer at Eddy, Summer Hoops with Noop in the Harwich gym Friday night, Brazilian United's five-day soccer clinic on Crowell Field. That's the actual first sign of September, and it happens indoors.

Don't Sleep On This

The Annual Cornbread Festival · Saturday, August 29 · 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM · Stony Brook Grist Mill & Museum, Brewster · Free. The mill grinds corn on a water wheel driven by the herring run, and once a year they bake what comes off the stones and hand it to you warm. The mill is open, the wheel is turning, and if you ask about the gearing someone will tell you more than you asked. This is the least commercial two hours on the Lower Cape calendar and it costs nothing. Go at 10:00, before the Drummer Boy overflow eats the parking. Then walk the herring run down to the pond and look at the ladder the alewives climb in April; it is the same water doing the same work.

Triple Cortado: First Light · Saturday, August 29 · 7:30 PM · Performing Arts Center, Brewster · $40. Pianist Ahmed Alom, trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos and trumpeter Caleb Hudson — an unlikely trio on paper and a genuinely inventive one in the room, because the repertoire mostly has to be built rather than found. They are closing out the Brewster summer with it. Chamber music in a small hall at the end of August has a particular quality: the audience is down to the people who actually wanted to be there.

Wellfleet PorchFest · Saturday, August 29 · 1:30 – 5:00 PM · porches and lawns throughout Wellfleet Center · Free. Dozens of front porches, Celtic to classical to garage, three and a half hours, no cover, no stage, no schedule worth memorizing. Park once. Follow sound. The Cultural Council bake sale at 15 Bank Street from 1:00 funds next year's grants, so buy the brownie. This is the single best free afternoon on the Outer Cape this week and possibly this month.

🎨 Arts & Culture

Editorial pick: Creating Together: Steve and Karri Allrich · Saturday, August 29 · 4:00 – 7:00 PM · Addison Art Gallery, Orleans · Free. A discussion and reception built around two painters who have shared a life and a practice — Steve Allrich's atmospheric landscapes and abstracts hung alongside Karri's work. Gallery receptions in August are usually about the wine. This one is structured as a conversation about what it does to a body of work when the other painter is in the next room. Come for the talk, not the cheese table.

🖼️ Take Down: Land, Sea & Sky… And Other Curiosities — The Art of Stefanie Allen — last chance to see it before it comes off the walls. Sat, Aug 29 · 10:00 AM · Brewster Ladies' Library. 🖼️ Set Up: Celebrating Nature with 6 Brewster Artists — the show that replaces it goes up. Tue, Sep 1 · 10:00 AM · Brewster Ladies' Library. 🎨 Art in the Park — Guild of Harwich Artists, original work and juried crafts, face painting for kids. Mon, Aug 31 · 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM · Doane Park, Harwich. 🖼️ Aaron Souza Featured Artist Week — Cape oil painter, coastal landscapes and figures. Tue–Wed · 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM · Eastwind Gallery, Orleans · Free. 🖼️ Picture Perfect — group show: Bolster, Wolford, O'Flaherty, Peeples and others. Tue–Wed · 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM · Tree's Place, Orleans. 🚗 Cape Cod Classics Meet-Up at Maplewood — a relaxed cruise-in; owners will talk to you all afternoon. Sun, Aug 30 · 1:00 – 3:00 PM · Maplewood at Brewster · Free.

🧵 Hands & Habits

Editorial pick: Fall Decoy Carving Class · Friday, August 28 & Saturday, August 29 · 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Crowell Barn, Harwich. Master carver Paul Phillips walks you from a block of wood toward a hand-carved bird using the traditional techniques, in the barn, with the tools. Decoy carving on this stretch of coast is not a craft revival — it is a working trade that outlived its own market and got kept alive by people who refused to let the knowledge go. Two mornings, and you leave with something started and the ability to finish it.

🪡 Boomerang Bags Sewing Bee — sew reusable bags with the library crew; machines and material provided. Fri, Aug 28 · 1:00 PM · Brewster Ladies' Library. 🪨 Stone Carving with Jesse Ensling — tools, safety and shaping toward a small sculptural piece. Registration required. Fri, Aug 28 · 12:30 – 3:00 PM · Creative Arts Center, Chatham · $180. 💐 Fall Floral Workshop with Lisa Setian — composition, color and handling, with a seasonal arrangement to take home. Thu, Aug 27 · 4:00 – 6:00 PM · Creative Arts Center, Chatham · $40. 🌸 Northeast Flower Dyeworks Class — harvest flowers on the farm, then bundle-dye botanical prints on silk. Sat, Aug 29 · 1:00 – 2:30 PM · Chatham Bars Inn Farm · From $81.88. 🧶 Rug Braiding with Janet — traditional braiding, beginners and returners. Mon, Aug 31 · 5:30 PM · Studio 211 at The 204, Harwich. 🪡 Quilting with Adele — bring a current quilt or start one. Mon, Aug 31 · 9:00 AM · Studio 211 at The 204, Harwich. ✂️ Craft What Matters: Card Making — handmade cards with Jen Bach, monthly. Mon, Aug 31 · 2:00 – 4:00 PM · The 204, Harwich. 🧶 Knit Lit — needles, yarn, conversation, all levels. Wed, Sep 2 · 12:30 – 2:30 PM · Brooks Free Library, Harwich. 🖌️ Thursday Open Painting Session — bring your own supplies, work beside local artists. Thu, Aug 27 · 1:00 – 3:30 PM · Harwich Community Center · Free.

🤝 Community

Editorial pick: Christ Church Centennial Birthday Party · Sunday, August 30 · 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Christ Episcopal Church lawn, Harwich Port · Free. A hundred years of a summer chapel in Harwich Port, marked with cake on the front lawn after the morning service and Sundae School for the kids. No ticket, no program, nothing to buy. What makes it worth an hour is the arithmetic: this building went up in 1926 for people who came down for the season and then didn't leave, and a century later the congregation that keeps it standing is mostly the same kind of person. Stand on the lawn and count how many of the hundred years are represented by somebody holding a paper plate.

🇺🇸 Celebrating 250 Years of America — Revolution and War of 1812 artifacts with Cape-specific local stories. Fri–Sun · 1:00 – 4:00 PM · The Meetinghouse, Orleans · Free. 🗳️ Massachusetts State Primary — polls 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM. Tue, Sep 1 · Brewster Baptist Church (all three precincts); see your own town for your precinct. 🏛️ Orleans Conservation Commission — Tue, Sep 1 · 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM · Nauset Meeting Room. 🏛️ Snow Library Board of Trustees — the September public meeting. Tue, Sep 1 · 4:30 – 6:30 PM · Snow Library, Orleans. 🏛️ Orleans Zoning Board of Appeals — Wed, Sep 2 · 7:00 PM · Skaket Meeting Room. 🏛️ Site Plan Review Committee — Wed, Sep 2 · 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Nauset Meeting Room. 🐕 Concert for Dogs for Better Lives — an afternoon of live music benefiting the assistance-dog nonprofit. Sat, Aug 29 · 3:30 PM · Kildee Road, Harwich Port. 🍽️ LOCAL Community Lunch — the Lower Cape lunch program, all welcome, to-go. Tue, Sep 1 · 12:00 PM · St. Joan of Arc Parish Hall, Orleans. 🏐 Adult Volleyball Open Play — drop-in, no teams, no season commitment. Thu, Aug 27 · 6:30 – 8:45 PM · Harwich Community Center · Free. 🧺 Corner Thrift Shop Open — Fri & Sat · 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM · Libby Stevens Corner Thrift Shop, Harwich.

🍽️ Food & Drink

Editorial pick: Chatham Bars Inn Farm 5th Annual Tomato Festival · Saturday, August 29 · 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM · Chatham Bars Inn Farm, Brewster · $10 per vehicle. Ten dollars a car, six hours, tomato tastings across whatever varieties came in this year, food and drink, lawn games, live music, and the proceeds go to local youth sports. The fifth year is the one where a farm event stops being an experiment and becomes a thing the town expects. Late August is the only week the tomatoes justify the whole exercise — go now or wait a year. If you can't make Saturday, the farm runs a free tomato tasting at Bayview Terrace Friday, 3:00 – 5:00, with wood-fired pizza for sale.

🐟 Supper on the Bay: Cod — family-style waterfront dinner around locally caught cod, paired wines, and a fisherman telling you where it came from. Thu, Aug 27 · 5:30 – 8:30 PM · Wequassett, Harwich · $148. 🥬 Farm Dinner at Chatham Bars Inn Farm — outdoor farm-to-table. Sold out — worth a waitlist call. Wed, Sep 2 · 5:00 – 8:00 PM · Brewster. 🦞 Lobster Roll Lunch — the seasonal Friday church lunch downtown. Fri, Aug 28 · 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM · First United Methodist Church, Chatham. 🐟 Friday Night Fish Fry — dine-in or takeout, full bar. Fri, Aug 28 · 5:30 – 7:00 PM · Orleans-Eastham Elks Lodge. 🍷 Summer Sampler Series: Truro Vineyards — tasting on the lawn. Thu, Aug 27 · 4:30 – 7:30 PM · The Barley Neck, Orleans. 🍺 Summer Sampler Series: Naukabout Brewing — the East Orleans lawn takeover. Tue, Sep 1 · 4:30 – 7:00 PM · The Barley Neck, Orleans. 🦪 Guided Oyster Bed Tour — walk the Brewster Flats at low tide and watch how the farm actually works. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:00 AM · Ocean Edge, Brewster · Free. 🥕 Orleans Farmers Market — Sat, Aug 29 · 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Old Colony Way. 🥕 Chatham Farmers Market — with Jim Nosler playing. Tue, Sep 1 · 3:00 – 6:00 PM · Our Lady of Grace. 🥕 The 204 Farmers Market — Thu, Aug 27 · 3:00 – 6:00 PM · Front lawn at The 204, Harwich.

💚 Health & Wellness

Editorial pick: Monday Night Summer Labyrinth Walks — Chase Park · Monday, August 31 · 5:00 – 6:00 PM · Chatham Labyrinth at Chase Park · Donation. Gail Smith leads the final guided walk of the summer series through the outdoor labyrinth by the Chase Park windmill. A labyrinth isn't a maze — there are no wrong turns, you just walk it, and the whole practice is the length of the path. Doing that on the last Monday of the summer, in a downtown that will be quiet by Thursday, is a better use of an hour than most things you could do instead. It comes back next June.

🧘 Floating Sound Bath — float in the indoor pool while singing bowls resonate through the water. Reservations required. Thu, Aug 27 · 7:00 PM · Bayside Indoor Pool, Brewster · $40. 🧂 Sound Healing and Salt Therapy Experience — crystal bowls inside the Himalayan salt cave. Thu, Aug 27 · 5:30 – 6:30 PM · Oceanair Himalayan Salt Cave, Orleans · $45. 🌒 Lunar Eclipse Ritual with Live Handpan Music — intention-setting, movement and an extended savasana. Fri, Aug 28 · 6:00 – 8:00 PM · Orleans Yoga · $45. 🔔 Sound Healing Collaborative — bowls, flutes, chimes and chanting. Sat & Sun · 7:00 PM · Masjah Studios, East Harwich · From $30. 🪡 Acu-Sound Happy Hour — relaxation-point acupuncture into a live sound bath. Mon, Aug 31 · 7:00 PM · Retreat Studio at Ocean Edge, Brewster · $50. 🌅 Yoga on Crosby Beach — all levels, beside the bay. Thu, Fri, Mon · 7:45 – 8:45 AM · Crosby Landing Beach, Brewster · $20. 🌊 Yoga on Chatham Lighthouse Beach — daily, all levels, kids 14 and under free. 7:30 – 8:45 AM · $20. 🩺 Ask a Public Health Nurse — blood pressure, glucose, consultation, county nurses. Tue, Sep 1 · 9:30 – 11:30 AM · Harwich Family Pantry.

🎶 Music & Live Entertainment

Editorial pick: John Gorka · Thursday, August 27 · doors 5:45 PM, show 6:30 PM · The 204 Cultural Arts Municipal Building, Harwich · $30. CranFest in the Courtyard gave its last night of the season to a songwriter whose whole method is understatement — the funny line that turns out to be the devastating one, delivered in a baritone that never raises itself to make a point. He has been doing this since the Fast Folk days in the eighties and he has never once oversold a song. A courtyard in Harwich at the end of August, a few hundred people, and the season ends when he stops. That is a better closing image than any fireworks.

Also worth the ticket:

🎹 Triple Cortado: First Light — ✦ See Don't Sleep On This. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:30 PM · Performing Arts Center, Brewster · $40. 🎻 Music at the Atwood: Anita and Julian Graef — cello, violin and viola in the Mural Barn, doors 5:30. Thu, Aug 27 · 6:00 PM · Atwood Museum, Chatham · $25. 🎤 Lynne Hanson House Concert — ✦ See The 5 Picks. Fri, Aug 28 · 7:30 – 9:30 PM · Brick Hill House Concerts, Orleans · Donation. 🎻 Tuesday Night Fiddle Concert with Rose Clancy — Celtic tunes, stories and rotating guests. Tue, Sep 1 · 7:30 – 9:00 PM · Chatham Drama Guild · From $10. 🎸 G. Love at the Cape Cod Jazz & Arts Festival — blues, hip-hop and soul closing out the Wequassett festival. Wed, Sep 2 · 8:00 PM · Wequassett Resort, Harwich · $95.

Free and outdoors — the last of them:

🎺 Chatham Band Friday Night Concert — the bandstand at Kate Gould Park, the way it's been done for generations. Fri, Aug 28 · 8:00 – 9:30 PM · Free. 🎺 Brewster Band Concert in the Park — marches, film music, Broadway. Sun, Aug 30 · 6:00 PM · Drummer Boy Park · Free. 🥁 Monday Concert: The Lynch Brothers — closing Brooks Park with a loose jam-style set. Mon, Aug 31 · 6:00 – 7:00 PM · Brooks Park, Harwich · Free. 🎸 Nauset Beach Summer Concert Series: The Dirty Water Dance Band — the season's last beach concert, food trucks on site. Mon, Aug 31 · 6:30 – 8:30 PM · Nauset Beach Gazebo, Orleans. 🎺 Harwich Town Band Summer Concert — the band's final night of the summer schedule. Tue, Sep 1 · 5:00 PM · Brooks Park, Harwich. 🎸 Concert: SummerTown Band — classic rock and Americana on the library lawn. Wed, Sep 2 · 5:00 – 6:00 PM · Snow Library, Orleans. 🥁 Pans in Paradise at Rock Harbor — steel drums into the Rock Harbor sunset. Wed, Sep 2 · 6:00 PM – sunset · Orleans. 🎷 Sound Dunes Combo at Chatham COA — a free public set from the swing-band members. Wed, Sep 2 · 12:00 – 2:00 PM · Chatham Council on Aging · Free.

The live-music grid

🌿 Nature & History

Editorial pick: Strong Island Nature Walk with Phil Kyle · Saturday, August 29 · 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · Strong Island, Chatham · $40. You cannot drive to Strong Island, and that is most of the reason to go. Phil Kyle has been reading this piece of Pleasant Bay for decades — the habitats, the wildlife, and the conservation history of a barrier system that keeps rearranging itself faster than the maps do. Three hours in late August puts you there while the shorebirds are staging. It is the rare local program where the guide's answer to a question is longer and stranger than you expected.

🌾 Cold Brook Eco-Restoration Tour — walk the restored preserve and see Cold Brook running free again. Thu, Aug 27 · 9:00 – 10:30 AM · Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve, Harwich · Free. 🦅 Cold Brook Preserve Bird Walk — passerines, hawks and waterfowl over restored wetland. Thu, Aug 27 · 8:00 AM · Harwich · Free. 🦅 Red River Beach Birding Field Class — shore, salt marsh and Sound birds with naturalist Peter Trull. Fri, Aug 28 · 7:30 – 9:00 AM · Red River Beach, Harwich · $20. 🦅 Bells Neck Conservation Area Bird Walk — reservoirs, marsh overlook, raptors. Tue, Sep 1 · 8:00 AM · Harwich · Free. 🏚️ Brewster's Ancient Burial Ground Tour — the town's oldest cemetery with a guide who knows the names. Thu, Aug 27 · 9:30 – 10:45 AM · Brewster · $15. 🏛️ Crosby Mansion Summer Open House Tour — docents, architecture and the family story. Tue, Sep 1 · 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM · Crosby Mansion, Brewster · Donation. 🚂 Model Trains Running — the multilevel O-gauge layout in motion. Fri & Sat · 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM · Chatham Railroad Museum · Donation. 🦈 White Shark Charter — spotter pilot, captain and an AWSC naturalist, 2.5 hours. Daily · 9:00 AM / 12:00 PM / 3:00 PM · Ryder's Cove or Outermost Harbor, Chatham · From $500. 🦋 Feed the Butterflies — ages 6+, hands-on, inside the Butterfly House. Daily · Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Brewster · $10. 🐠 Aquarium Feeding Frenzy — a before-hours feeding tour with the animal-care staff. Thu, Aug 27 · 9:00 – 10:00 AM · CCMNH, Brewster · $10.

📚 Talks, Books & Big Ideas

Editorial pick: The Democracy We Must Keep with David O. Stewart · Tuesday, September 1 · 2:00 – 3:00 PM · virtual, hosted by Eldredge Public Library · Free. Historian David O. Stewart on the founding ideas behind American democracy and why they still hold — on the afternoon of a primary election, which is either an accident of scheduling or the most pointed programming decision any Lower Cape library made this month. Eldredge, Provincetown and Truro are all hosting it. Register through your own library. Then go vote.

📖 Pamela Kelley: Nantucket Second Chances — the local novelist reads and signs. Thu, Aug 27 · 5:00 – 6:00 PM · Eldredge Public Library, Chatham. 📖 High Altitudes & High Stakes: A Miss Marple Mystery with Lucy Foley — the bestselling thriller writer on taking on Marple. Virtual, hosted by Brewster Ladies' Library and Truro Public Library. Thu, Aug 27 · 2:00 PM · Free. 📖 First Tuesday Book Club: Atmosphere — Taylor Jenkins Reid; copies at the desk. Tue, Sep 1 · 3:00 – 4:00 PM · Snow Library, Orleans. 🎞️ Golden Oldies: His Girl Friday — the 1940 Hawks comedy, still the fastest dialogue ever filmed. Tue, Sep 1 · 1:00 – 3:00 PM · Chatham Community Center. 🌱 Outreach Table: Ask a Master Gardener — bring the plant, bring the photo, bring the bug. Tue, Sep 1 · 10:00 AM · Brewster Ladies' Library.

🎭 Theater & Classical

Editorial pick: Girl from the North Country · Thursday–Sunday · Cape Rep Indoor Theater, Brewster · From $30. Conor McPherson's play built around Bob Dylan songs, set in a Depression-era Duluth boarding house full of people who have run out of options — and the trick of it is that the songs aren't used to move the plot, they're used to stop it, so a character steps out of the scene and sings something that explains nothing and clarifies everything. Cape Rep has been building toward exactly this kind of production for years. Four chances this week: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 2:00 and 7:30.

🏴‍☠️ Treasure Island — Jim Hawkins, pirates and buried treasure, staged for families. Thu & Fri 7:00 PM, Sat & Sun 4:00 PM · Cape Cod Theatre Company, Harwich · $32. 🎭 All Our Best — Cape Rep's Saturday-night slot. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:30 PM · Cape Rep Theatre, Brewster. 🎹 Triple Cortado: First Light — ✦ See Don't Sleep On This. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:30 PM · Performing Arts Center, Brewster · $40. 🎻 Music at the Atwood: Anita and Julian Graef — ✦ See Music & Live Entertainment. Thu, Aug 27 · 6:00 PM · $25. 🧸 Puppets, Paul and Mary Sing Songs by the Seashore — the family morning show in the Barn. Tue, Sep 1 · 10:00 AM · Cape Rep, Brewster · $12.

🌊 Out Toward the Tip

The tip carries its own gravity this week, and most of it is ending too.

Provincetown

🎤 An Evening with Marilyn Maye — a cabaret singer who has been interpreting the Great American Songbook since the Johnson administration and is still doing it better than almost anyone alive, with music director Tedd Firth. Town Hall, one night. Sun, Aug 30 · 8:30 PM · Provincetown Town Hall. 🎭 The Jack of Hearts Club — Jon Richardson's musical about chosen family and queer joy in 1963 Provincetown, back in the room where its story is set. Thu–Sun · Provincetown Theater. 🖼️ Free Friday at PAAM — three hours of free admission to the current shows. Fri, Aug 28 · 5:00 – 8:00 PM · Free. 🎞️ Film Screening: Lyne LaPointe — The Spirit of Matter — documentary plus Q&A. Wed, Sep 2 · 6:00 – 7:30 PM · PAAM · $15. 🌿 Provincetown Conservation Trust Annual Meeting & Green Party — the year's accomplishments, keynote from Andrew Gottlieb, and the people who actually protect the land. Thu, Aug 27 · 5:00 – 7:00 PM · Harbor Hotel · Donation. 🎷 Chandler Travis Philharmonette — horn-powered alternative Dixieland, late, on the bay. Thu, Aug 27 · 9:00 PM · Bubala's by the Bay. 🎼 Ken Field & Sue Goldberg — sax and bass on the patio, free. Mon, Aug 31 · 3:00 – 5:00 PM · Bubala's by the Bay · Free. ⛵ Full Sturgeon Moon Sail — sunset and moonrise from the deck of the Hindu. Fri, Aug 28 · 5:45 – 7:45 PM · $85. 🗼 Race Point Lighthouse Public Tour — climb the tower at the most remote station on the Cape. Sun, Aug 30 · 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM · Donation.

Truro

🎶 Valerie June with Tianna Esperanza — ✦ See Out Toward the Tip in the Low Down. Sun, Aug 30 · 6:00 PM · Payomet, North Truro · From $36. 🕯️ The Beatles Candlelight Experience — string trio, candlelight, the 1827 Meeting House. Two shows. Fri, Aug 28 · 6:30 PM & 8:30 PM · From $25. 🎸 Start Making Sense: Talking Heads Tribute — seven pieces recreating the catalog and the live energy under the tent. Doors 7:00. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:30 PM · Payomet · From $35. 🎺 Tuba Skinny — the New Orleans street-jazz ensemble that turned busking into a discography. Wed, Sep 2 · 7:00 – 9:00 PM · Payomet · From $47. 🎸 John Doe — the X co-founder solo, roots-side. Tue, Sep 1 · 7:00 PM · Payomet. 📜 Charles Coe Poetry Tribute — poets and readers celebrating the late Massachusetts poet. Sat, Aug 29 · 7:00 PM · First Congregational Meeting House · Donation. 🎵 Truro Summer Concert: Toast and Jam — Julie Charland and Tim Dickey close the library-lawn series. Thu, Aug 27 · 6:00 – 8:00 PM · Truro Public Library Lawn · Free. 🦭 Seal Walk — Center for Coastal Studies educators, gray and harbor seals off High Head. Thu 4:30 PM & Wed 9:00 AM · High Head Road · Donation. 🗼 Highland Lighthouse Tower Tour — Tue & Wed · 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM · From $6.

Wellfleet

🏡 Wellfleet PorchFest — ✦ See Don't Sleep On This. Sat, Aug 29 · 1:30 – 5:00 PM · Free. 🖼️ Wellfleet Gallery Stroll — galleries open late, receptions all over downtown, including Left Bank's group show and Suzette Lebenzon at AMZehnder. Sat, Aug 29 · 5:00 – 8:00 PM · Free. 🎭 The Realistic Joneses — Will Eno's dark comedy about two couples, mortality and the limits of language. Thu, Fri, Sat 7:00 PM · Sun 5:00 PM · Wed 7:00 PM · Harbor Stage Company. 🎪 Summer in the City: The Circus That Never Sleeps — Payomet's Cirque by the Sea under the Big Top at WHAT. Thu 6:00 PM · Sun 4:00 PM · Tue 6:00 PM · From $25. 🗡️ Hamlet — KnightHorse Theatre, outdoors at Mayo Beach, streamlined. Mon, Aug 31 · 7:00 – 9:30 PM · Donation. 🎸 3rd Annual Outer Cape Music Festival — local bands on the town pier, benefit format. Mon, Aug 31 · 4:00 PM · Wellfleet Town Pier. 📖 Author Talk: Meera Subramanian — in conversation with Elizabeth Bradfield. Tue, Sep 1 · 7:00 – 8:00 PM · Wellfleet Public Library. 🐢 Turtle Patrol: In Search of Terrapin Hatchlings — guided hatchling search; this is the window. Tue, Sep 1 · 4:30 – 6:00 PM · Wellfleet Bay · From $14. 🦪 Wellfleet Shellfish Farm Tour — onto a working grant at 7:15 in the morning. Sun, Aug 30 · Location to ticket holders. 👻 Wellfleet Ghost Tour — Thu & Mon · 9:00 – 10:00 PM · $20.

Eastham

🎤 Dawn Derow on Windmill Green — the vocalist closes the August concert schedule in the open air beside the windmill. Mon, Aug 31 · 6:00 – 7:00 PM · Free. 🗼 Lighthouses: Family, Politics and Preservation — Susan Abott, Kate Smails and Joe Lebherz on who actually keeps a light standing. Thu, Aug 27 · 7:00 PM · 1869 Schoolhouse Museum. 🖼️ Eastham Painters Guild Outdoor Fine Art Show — original work on the museum lawn, artists on hand. Thu–Sat · 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM · 1869 Schoolhouse Museum Lawn. 🌕 Full Moon Paddle on Great Pond — on the water as the sky changes, the night before the eclipse. Thu, Aug 27 · 6:00 – 8:00 PM · From $80. 🤹 Juggle Jams — all-ages circus-skills drop-in. Sat, Aug 29 · 4:00 – 7:00 PM · Eastham T-Time · Free.

🗓️ Recurring weeknights & ongoing

Bookmark this. It doesn't change much week to week.

Editor's note

The mill has been grinding on that brook since before there was a town to put around it. The concerts stop this week because the people who play them have jobs in September; the mill stops for nothing. That difference is the whole reason some of us are still here in the third week of October wondering where everybody went.

Vote Tuesday. Look up Thursday night. Eat the cornbread while it's warm.

Next week: Labor Day weekend — the last big one, the traffic on 6 eastbound Friday and westbound Monday, and the first full week of the year-rounders' calendar with nobody standing in front of it.

— Arthur