1. Hayti Heritage Film Festival
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (919) 683-1709
Address: 804 Olde Fayetteville St.
Description: Formerly the Black Diaspora Film Festival, the event features films by African-American directors as well as lectures and discussions featuring African-American filmmakers and actors. Filmmakers can enter full-length features or short films in competitive categories. In revamping the 15-year-old festival, organizers have put an emphasis on giving undiscovered filmmakers an opportunity to grab the spotlight. Passes to the three-day festival are $50. One-day passes are $25. Admission to blocks of film screenings are $8 each.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 309 W. Morgan St. (and other downtown lo
3. Bennett Place Re-Enactment
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (919) 383-4345
Address: 4409 Bennett Place Memorial Rd.
Description: On April 26, 1865, two weeks after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops at Appomattox, U.S. General William T. Sherman accepted Confederate General Joseph Johnston’s surrender of about 90,000 troops at the Bennett family farm. It was the largest troop surrender of the war, and the details had been worked out at the family’s farmhouse. Costumed re-enactors set up camp at the historic site to re-create life as it was during the Civil War, including cooking over open fires and practicing musket fire. Many of the re-enactors sleep out overnight beneath cloth tents or under the stars to recall the lives of the era’s soldiers.
4. American Dance Festival
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (919) 684-6402
Address: 123 Vivian St.
Description: Hundreds of modern dancers and dance aficionados from around the world make their way to Durham every summer for six and a half weeks of performances, workshops, and celebrations of their art. The festival, which began in Bennington, Vermont, in 1934, relocated to Duke University in 1977. Many of the country’s most avant-garde and renowned dance troupes—Pilobolus and Paul Taylor Dance Company among them—make regular appearances. Choreographers stage works commissioned expressly for the festival. In addition to a constant program of stage performances, the festival offers a series of youth classes and community programs designed to introduce young people to modern dance. Tickets to individual performances range from $22 to $43. Admission for most community programs is free.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 5101 N. Roxboro Rd.
6. North Carolina Gay And Lesbian Film Festival—Durham
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (919) 560-3030
Address: 301 W. Morgan St.
Description: The four-day film festival showcases works that explore and celebrate issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered life. The schedule includes short films, documentaries, and feature-length movies with a good mix of the comic and the consciousness-raising. Community organizations attend to get the word out about gay-friendly groups, social clubs, and volunteer opportunities. Admission is $8.50 to individual screenings or $70 for a 10-movie pass.
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 428 Morris St.
8. Centerfest
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (919) 560-2722
Address: 534 Foster St.
Description: A jury of respected artists chooses more than 100 artists and artisans to display and sell their works at this two-day event. Mediums include painting, pottery, photography, blown glass, wood, jewelry, fibers, stained glass, and metal. A range of performers, from choral singers to steel drum bands and cloggers to jump rope teams, keep three stages busy. Kids can paint pictures and make masks, magnets, and musical instruments. The festival sponsor, the Durham Arts Council, asks for a $4 per person donation or $12 for families of four or more.
9. Vegetarian Society Of The Triangle Thanksgiving Feast
City: Durham, NC
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 2200 W. Main St.
Description: Organizers say it is the largest vegetarian Thanksgiving Day event in the country. It draws as many as 600 people, all of whom prefer tofu to turkey and long for kinship on a day traditionally spent devouring meat. Diners come from the Triangle’s healthy vegetarian communities and from other states as well. The buffet menu includes gourmet vegan dishes such as cardamom pickled beets, seared seitan with peppercorns and fig glaze, and carpaccio vegetale—vegetables sliced paper thin. There are two seatings to accommodate the crowds. The cost is $26.50 for adults, $7 for children ages 5 to 10, and free for those 4 and younger. Ticket sales are in advance only.