Seventeen things to do in the Wilmington area for the first weekend of spring

It feels like it's been spring for a while now, but this week makes it official.

Accordingly, the number of Wilmington-area events has exploded like a bunch of flowers in bloom, and with the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments also holding court, it should be a lively weekend.

As I've said before, with all that's going on in Wilmington, a list of 10 or 20 or even 30 events isn't going to come close to covering it all. What I'm trying to do here is hit the major highlights in the worlds of theater, visual art, film, music (both local and touring), comedy and festivals, and maybe sneak in a surprise or two. Think of it as me showing you how to have a good time :)

Here's what I've got for this week.

ALL WEEKEND

UNCW Jazz Fest

March 22-23 at UNCW: The University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Music celebrates the 40th year of putting on this festival, with concerts by a mix of guest artists, faculty musicians and students. A UNCW Big Band/jazz faculty concert on Friday night at Beckwith Recital Hall in the Cultural Arts Building on campus celebrates the legacy of jazz great Wayne Shorter. Headlining UNCW Jazz Fest on Saturday at Kenan Auditorium is five-time Grammy-nominated jazz keyboardist and composer Chuck Owen and his band, ReSurgence. 7:30 p.m. March 22 at Beckwith Recital Hall, tickets are $9.34. 7:30 p.m. March 23 at Kenan Auditorium, tickets are $14. 910-962-3500.

Uptilt Film Festival

March 22-24: Film festival with a foodie focus returns for three days of fun and screenings, with all movie shorts written and/or directed by women (or by people who identify as women) from Wilmington and all over the world. Friday opens with drinks and dinner at 12 N. 5th Ave., followed by a screening of comedy shorts at Thalian Hall. Saturday brings three more screening blocks to Thalian (themes are family, relationships and horror) followed by a 6 p.m. shrimp boil. The festival wraps on Sunday with four blocks of short films at Thalian, themed under animation, identity, strong female protagonists and sci fi/suspense/experimental. Screenings at Thalian Hall are 7:30 p.m. March 22; noon, 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. March 23; 10:30 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. March 24. Most individual screenings are $15, or $10 for students. Festival passes are $75, with other film/party ticket packages available. 910-632-2285 or UptiltFilmFest.org.

Feast Wilmington

March 22-24 at Live Oak Bank Pavilion: This brand-new festival of food and drink features dozens of area restaurants and breweries. Feast Wilmington kicks off 6 p.m. Friday with a VIP event for festival passholders that showcases lots of good food along with jazz from the esteemed Benny Hill Quartet. There's an "elevated" brunch 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by a 6 p.m. "pier party" with a coastal food theme and tunes from rockers The Hatch Brothers. The festival wraps up with an event starting noon Sunday that pairs local craft brews with food from 20 chefs. Individual events are $100 and $150, or $500 for a full festival pass. For a full schedule and more information, go to FeastWilmington.com.

'Ride the Cyclone'

March 22-24 at UNCW Amphitheater: It's been many years, maybe even decades, since the University of North Carolina Wilmington staged a musical theater production. But this weekend, the long drought is over thanks to the UNCW Musical Theatre Club. It's a fun show, too: "Ride the Cyclone" is a musical comedy about six Canadian teens in a chamber choir who are killed in a freak roller coaster accident. Finding themselves in the limbo of the afterlife, each teen gets the chance to tell a story (and sing a song, maybe?) to possibly win their lives back. Nat Pressly directs the outdoor production, with Sarah Holston as musical director. 7:30 p.m. March 22-24, tickets are free.

Ali Macofsky

March 22-23 at Dead Crow Comedy Room: Super-funny comic is an alumna of the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival's New Faces of Comedy and has been featured on Comedy Central. Macofsky has some great material about being addicted to her phone, strategies for posting to Instagram and life lessons she's learned from watching "murder shows." 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. March 22-23, tickets are $25 and $35.

'A Night You Won't Remember'

March 21-24 at UNCW's SRO Theatre: Students in the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Department of Theatre — Andrew Page, Jake Denise and Trip Cameron — present four nights of improv comedy. Each show is guaranteed to be very different, so feel free to attend more than once. A production of the theater department's Student Lab series. 7:30 p.m. March 21-23, 2 p.m. March 24. Tickets are $9.34, $2.80 for youth. 910-962-3500.

FRIDAY

Empty Bowls 2024

March 22 at First Baptist Activity Center: Long-running fundraiser features original pottery made by area artists. Proceeds benefit Wilmington organizations The Good Shepherd Center and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. Donations gets you a beautiful bowl of your choice, along with some hot soup from area restaurants to fill it with. 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. March 22. Tickets are $35 (includes advance sales online only. Day-of-event sales at the door, if available.)

Empty Bowls in Wilmington: From meal to tickets, here's what to know

Fourth Friday Gallery Night

March 22, downtown Wilmington: Monthly self-guided tour of downtown art spaces and galleries returns for its first show of the spring. Highlights include new work by Jonathan Summit at the new Soda Pop Gallery on Princess Street, located in the former Parchie's building. Summit's paintings are like a beautiful fever dream populated by impossibly sprawling structures you'd spend your entire dream trying to find your way out of. 6-9 p.m. March 22. For a full listing of participating galleries and art spaces, go to ArtsWilmington.org.

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy

March 22 at CFCC Wilson Center: The members of this Canadian married Celtic fiddling couple were musical exemplars even before they wed back in 2002. Now, along with some of their seven children, they tour a song-and-dance-filled show that encompasses everything from traditional Celtic and folk tunes to more contemporary sounds. 7:30 p.m. March 22, tickets start at $38. 910-362-7999.

Florencia and the Feeling

March 22 at Bourgie Nights: Band out of Johnson City, Tennessee, plays a poppy, danceable brand of soul and funk. Good stuff and good times. Opening acts are Greensboro's Ranford Almond Duo and Wilmington treasure Sean Thomas Gerard. 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show March 22, tickets are $12 in advance, $17 day of show.

SATURDAY

Wilmington Symphony Orchestra

March 23 at CFCC Wilson Center: Concert pianist Richard Dowling headlines the Wilmington Symphony's annual "pops" concert, billed under the title "Masquerade." Dowling will play George Gershwin's "Concerto in F" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's brand-new symphonic suite from his musical "Phantom of the Opera." Conducting will be Steven Errante, who will be retiring from the WSO at the end of this season after serving as conductor since 1986. 7:30 p.m. March 23, tickets start at $25. 910-362-7999.

The Wilmington Cypher, round 2

March 23 at Waterline Brewing: Wilmington hip-hop artists Fuzz Jaxx and Haji P co-host this show, which is a combo concert and open mic. Fuzz, who gave a freestyle clinic at the Opera Room on Grace Street a couple of weeks ago, and Haji P will both perform songs with DJ RizzyBeats backing them up, and the Pure Pain Mafia will be on stage as well. Open mic-ers will have their chance to impress the crowd, too. 8 p.m. March 23, free.

Invasion of the Pirates

March 23 at the Cotton Exchange: Family-friendly celebration hearkens back to Wilmington's old Feast of the Pirates Festival held in the late 1920s. Pirate-themed games, performances (including traditional sea shanties from the Southport Shanty Crew), historical and weapons displays and plenty of pirate paraphernalia will be located throughout the sprawling Cotton Exhange shopping complex on North Front Street in downtown Wilmington. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. March 23, free to attend.

Cape Fear Pop Culture Fest

March 23 at the Elks Lodge: Second annual comic book and collectibles show returns with more than 80 vendors. Items include comics, new and vintage toys, video games, vinyl, Pokémon cards, Hot Wheels, Legos and more. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 23, $3 admission, free for ages 12 and under.

Jess Klein

March 23 at Live at Ted's: Singer-songwriter Klein plays folk, rock, country and other styles into a sound that recalls such greats as Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt. Klein's got her own thing going, though, with personal yet socially conscious songs that cut deep. She's toured all over the world, playing such acclaimed gigs as the Newport Folk Festival. 8 p.m. March 23, tickets are $12.

SUNDAY

'A Prairie Home Companion'

March 24 at CFCC Wilson Center: Erstwhile public radio staple that first aired in July of 1974 returns for its 50th anniversary tour featuring storyteller, author and musician Garrison Keillor. If you were a listener of the show, you'll be reintroduced to such familiar things as the Royal Academy of Radio Actors (Sue Scott, Tim Russell and sound-effects whiz Fred Newman) as well as "Guy Noir, Private Eye," "The Lives of the Cowboys" and "Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian.” Not to mention commercials for such fictional delights as the Catchup Advisory Board and Powdermilk Biscuits. "A Prairie Home Companion" ran for years without incident before Keillor fell from grace in 2017 following a #MeToo scandal, so your enjoyment of the show will likely depend on your feelings about all that. As for Keillor, “I have no regrets,” he was quoted as saying by The Washington Post in 2021. "I have enjoyed thinking about my mistakes, and the disasters … It’s all amusing at this point. Ambition is gone. Thank you, Jesus!” 7:30 p.m. March 24, tickets start at $46. 910-362-7999.

'Right in the Eye'

March 24 at Thalian Hall: Experience the work of groundbreaking French filmmaker Georges Méliès in this show billed as "A Movie Concert featuring the films of Georges Méliès." Twelve of Méliès' short films will be screened to live, and original, musical accompaniment by the Alcoléa et Cie Ensemble. Presented by Thalian Hall's Main Attractions series. 2 p.m. March 24, tickets at 910-632-2285 or ThalianHall.org.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Things to do and what's going on in Wilmington NC March 22-24