Downtown Raleigh belongs to Hopscotch this weekend, and Durham is holding its own with a literary celebration, a 60th anniversary, and Oktoberfest, all landing on the same Saturday. Add a new outdoor concert series in RTP and a plant-based festival closing out Sunday, and there’s plenty to fill the whole weekend across Durham and the Triangle. Here’s where to start.
Hopscotch Music Festival
Friday & Saturday
City Plaza and venues throughout downtown Raleigh
Hopscotch has anchored downtown Raleigh every September since 2010, and this is year 16. Friday’s City Plaza headliner is Cory Wong, with Duckwrth, Thee Sinseers, and Butcher Brown, and Saturday tops out with King Princess, Soccer Mommy, Willis, Sasami, and Annie DiRusso. For a lot of longtime fans, the real draw is everything around those headliners: dozens of club shows spread across venues like Lincoln Theatre, King’s, and The Pour House, plus a free Moore Square Commons with local food and makers open to anyone.
Ruby Bridges Literary Day
Saturday, 10–11:30 AM
Book Harvest
Book Harvest hosts its first Ruby Bridges Literary Day, a free morning built around honoring Ruby Bridges’s legacy and building literacy-rich, culturally affirming spaces for kids. Author Kwame Mbalia, who created the Tristan Strong trilogy and the Jax Freeman series, gives a reading and signs books, and the first 30 families to arrive take home a copy of one of his titles.
Eno River Association’s 60th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, 1–5 PM (free) & 6:30 PM doors, 7:30 PM concert
DPlex Plaza and Carolina Theatre
The Eno River Association marks six decades of protecting the river with a free afternoon at DPlex Plaza, featuring puppet theater from Paperhand Puppet Intervention, live music, square dancing, and craft and community booths, before the celebration moves into Fletcher Hall for a ticketed benefit concert. Indigenous artists Pura Fé and Cary Morin, folk singer-songwriter Jake Xerxes Fussell, and Tre. Charles headline an evening of music and poetry honoring the region’s landscapes and the organization’s decades of conservation work.
16th Annual Durham Oktoberfest
Saturday, 1–5 PM & 6–10 PM
Motorco Music Hall
Motorco’s Oktoberfest returns for a 16th year with the Little German Band & Dancers playing both sessions, a German food and beer menu, and the patio open to walk-ups all day. The 1 to 5 slot is the family-friendly session, and things get louder and more festive from 6 to 10. Reserved tables are already sold out, but roaming and bleacher tickets remain available.
Concerts on the Creek: Rissi Palmer
Saturday, 3–5:30 PM
Hub RTP
Hub RTP’s new outdoor concert series brings in Rissi Palmer, whose 2007 single “Country Girl” made her the first Black woman to chart a country song on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs list in nearly two decades. Bring a lawn chair or blanket for the creekside stage and settle into an easy Saturday afternoon of music between lunch and dinner.
Triangle Vegfest
Sunday, 12–5 PM
Durham Central Park
Durham Central Park goes plant-based for the day at Triangle Vegfest, presented by Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge, with dozens of vegan and vegetarian food vendors, a DJ, free face painting for the kids, and a beer fundraiser from The Glass Jug Beer Lab. Admission runs on a suggested donation.
Plan Your Weekend
Wherever you land this weekend, from City Plaza to a plant-based afternoon in Durham Central Park, we hope you get out and enjoy it.