Each week, ArtsATL curates a selection of the most exciting arts and culture events happening in Atlanta this weekend, highlighting nine must-see experiences.

:: 

Thursday

Atlanta Fringe Festival

With more than 60 artist groups, new and returning venues across the metro and the return of the Audio Fringe series, Atlanta Fringe Festival 2025 offers two full weeks of high-energy performances that promise to live up to the Fringe mission: providing a platform for adventurous artists and entertaining Atlanta with diverse voices and unique perspectives. The fest will continue through June 8. Check out our don’t-miss events at the Fringe Fest.

The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage, 1987) is among the films you’ll see at The Big Screen: Classic Psychedelia, Animation & Avant-Garde. (Courtesy of the Estate of Stan Brakhage and www.fredcamper.com)

OMD 

Synth-pop pioneers OMD (aka Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) will play Buckhead Theatre on May 29. The set list for earlier stops on the tour reaches back to the band’s 1980 self-titled debut and includes some of its best-known songs (“So In Love” and “If You Leave”), along with tracks from their most recent album, Bauhaus Staircase.

The Big Screen: Classic Psychedelia, Animation & Avant-Garde 

Film Love returns to the Plaza for a program of groundbreaking avant-garde shorts seldom seen on theater screens. The event features 10 short works, including hand-painted projects, a 115-year-old scientific film and one Cinemascope screening. It’s the first of four Film Love programs, held on the last Thursday of the month. Catch it at 7:30 p.m. on May 29 at the Plaza Theatre.

Friday

Larkin Poe and Katie Pruitt

North Georgia-born sisters Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell, aka Larkin Poe, will perform at The Eastern at 8 p.m. on May 30. Opening the show is fellow Georgian Katie Pruitt. What to expect? Well, Pruitt tells ArtsATL that she’s bringing her full band and “we’re going to rock it out because that’s exactly what Larkin Poe does every night.”

Saturday

Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective

The adventurous and uncompromising ensemble performs Deep Listening Scavenger Hunt (3 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 31) and Mid-Century Minimalist Classics (7 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 31) at South River Art Studios. The scavenger hunt will consist of percussion-centric pieces spaced throughout the facility in what ATLCMC Artistic Director Bryan Wysocki describes as a “choose your own adventure concert,” providing a soundtrack for an afternoon of browsing through the South River Art Studios’ shops and galleries. Mid-Century Minimalist Classics, a seated concert, will be divided between the works of Julius Eastman and Frederic Rzewski, both lesser-known modernist composers.

Voice of Note: Broadway Sideways

Just off the Atlanta Beltline, this annual Festival brings fine arts and crafts, a children’s play area, local food and beverage concessions, live acoustic entertainment on the lawn and more to one of the city’s most beautiful parks. The Festival begins at 10 a.m. May 31 and 11 a.m. June 1.

Sid Jerr-Dan and the Snake Mountain Boys will play the 2025 edition of the WigWag Festival. (Photo courtesy of the band) 

WigWag Festival

This free one-day, multi-act festival in Avondale Estates is reminiscent of the old Corndogarama Festival in East Atlanta, with a diverse slate of music and entertainment led by girlpuppy and Puddles Pity Party. Junkyard art will also figure prominently, including old cars as signage and the utilization of a big, empty warehouse space for an outsider art show. The all-day celebration begins at 11 a.m. and continues until 9 p.m. on May 31 and is centered around Olive, Washington, Pine and Franklin streets in Avondale Estates.

Mudcat

Danny Dudeck, known professionally as Mudcat, will celebrate the release of a new album, Rock & Roll Redemption, at Avondale Towne Cinema in downtown Avondale Estates at 7 p.m. on May 31. Dudeck’s contributions to Atlanta’s modern blues scene are legendary and include ties to such icons as Frank Edwards, Blind Willie McTell, Cootie Stark, Eddie Tigner, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, Jontavious Willis and countless others.

More things to do this weekend and beyond

Pianist Kirill Gerstein returns to the Symphony Hall to play Ravel’s jazz-infused Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for An American in Paris at 8 p.m. on May 29 and May 31. Guest conductor Stéphane Denève keeps the French theme going with Ibert’s Escales, Milhaud’s The Creation of the World and Gershwin’s An American in Paris … Groovin’ on the Square gets your weekend started at the Plaza at Colony Square (14th and Peachtree streets) on the last Friday of the month through October. On May 30, the Kayla Taylor Band will provide the entertainment. Shows take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. … Enjoy some California vibes as Canyonland, a super group of Atlanta musicians formed in October 2021, explores the music that originated in Laurel Canyon. They’re up next in the Glover Park Concert Series on the Marietta Square at 8 p.m. on May 30 … The Blanket Concert Series in Smyrna continues with Yes, Ma’am, a collaborative project that brings together the estimable talents of longtime Georgia musicians Diane Durrett, Caroline Aiken, Liz Melendez and Donna Hopkins at the Reed House (3080 Atlanta Road SE) at 6:30 p.m. on May 31 … Hudgens Family Day will celebrate the sculptures of German-born Atlanta artist Steffen Thomas (1906-1990) at The Hudgens Center for Art & Learning in Duluth, beginning at noon May 31. Thomas created many public monuments, among them the statue of Gov. Eugene Talmadge that adorns the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol … University of Georgia Senior Lecturer David Lowery, also known as a singer-songwriter and frontman for the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, will celebrate the release of his new album, Fathers, Sons and Brothers, with a show at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur at 5 p.m. on June 1 … Looking ahead, next week marks the opening of the highly anticipated Young John Lewis, Theatrical Outfit’s world premiere about the early years of politician, Civil Rights leader and Atlantan John Lewis. The show was written by hip-hop and spoken word playwright Psalmayene 24, with all original music composed by Atlanta composer Eugene H. Russell IV. It debuts on June 4 and runs through June 29.