Your guide to entertainment in Charlotte this week

Friday

In a rare Charlotte appearance, Van Cliburn’s Steinway CD 375 will be played by Cliburn medalist Benedetto Lupo. Works performed will include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Totentanz, and Ligeti’s Concert Romanesc.

The annual festival offers family fun, music, rides, food, arts and crafts, a local student art show, a pie-eating contest at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, and entertainment by Band of Oz, Mr. Nigel, Kenya Safari Acrobats and more.

The featured performers are Alice Gerrard & the Piedmont Melody Makers, a N.C.-grown quartet. Gerrard is perhaps best-known for her collaboration with Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens in the 1960s and ’70s, though she was nominated for a 2015 Grammy for Best Folk Album for her solo recording of “Follow the Music.”

Saturday

Participants will bike, walk and/or ride transit to a variety of destinations in Center City, Wesley Heights and South End during Sustain Charlotte’s second annual event. The more stamps collected in your Biketoberfest Passport, the more chances to win cool prizes. At 6 p.m., there will be an after-party with live music, a raffle, food trucks and more.

Poets, novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, comedy writers, lyricists and storytellers will inspire writers and readers alike. Children’s and young adult activities will be hosted from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at First Ward Park and ImaginOn (300 E. 7th St.); the festival concludes with spoken-word poetry and readings from selected plays for more mature audiences at 7 p.m. at Spirit Square’s Knight Gallery (345 N. College St.).

The inaugural festival of fun, love and unity will feature vendors, artists, food trucks, music, performances, games and activities for both children and adults.

The annual weeklong, 500- to 600-mile cycling adventure is the primary public outreach and engagement event of the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund. Celebrate with the cyclists (who are scheduled to arrive at 11:30 a.m.) with a tree-planting ceremony, vendors, and seedling and book giveaways.

Sunday

The fifth annual event (rescheduled from Oct. 1) celebrates Hispanic heritage and culture with live Latin music and cultural performances, a Latin American Cultural Village with 15 countries represented, educational activities for children, and authentic Latin foods.

Duke University’s string quartet in residence, The Ciompi Quartet, performs compositions by Mozart and Haydn, as well as transcriptions of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, and St. Anne’s Prelude and Fugue.

The 16th annual event – presented by the Stumptown Tractor Club – features an antique stock tractor pull, a super stock pull, a modified pull and a 4WD truck pull. Attendees also can observe various demonstrations and hands-on exhibits such as a hay press, sawmill, corn shredder, steam engine and more.

Week ahead

When The Charlotte Observer closed its building at 600 S. Tryon St. this year, the Charlotte Museum of History rescued three large glass panels that hung in the newsroom, each covered with decades of bumper stickers – most of them from North Carolina and many political in nature. The museum hosts a panel discussion about the history of these bumper stickers featuring four veteran journalists: Tim Funk, Jim Morrill, Mary Newsom and Ed Williams.

Rollins is an actor, author, DJ, voice-over artist, TV show host and comedian – to name a few things outside of music. He’s toured the world as a spoken-word artist and frontman for both Rollins Band and Black Flag. In 2014, Rollins received the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award for his lifelong contribution to the arts.

Join an operatic quest for love filled with gossip, laughs and melodies you’re sure to recognize in this classic from Rossini. Student Night is the final dress rehearsal, and open to K-12 students and their families and chaperones. There’s be pre-rehearsal performances by young singers and a Q&A with the opera’s stars.

The 1997 movie about a Chicago poet trying to decide whether he’s serious about a photographer has become a stage play with music. The tour stars Musiq Soulchild, Chrisette Michele, Marsha Ambrosius, MC Lyte, Dave Hollister and Raheem DeVaughn.

Seven magicians – all male, all hip, mostly young – return to Charlotte to perform the show that dazzled people at Knight Theater in January 2015. The piece, designed as a theatrical experience rather than a simple series of tricks, has moved to a venue twice as large, but they work with oversized video screens.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 8:19 AM with the headline "Your guide to entertainment in Charlotte this week."