Yes, we know it’s the Labor Day weekend and many of you will head out of town or to the Parkway for the Made in America Festival. But those of you who will stay in West Philly might want to check out the events below, all happening on Saturday, Aug. 30. Have a great weekend!

• The Ultimate Back 2 School Basketball Challenge will be held at the Kingsessing Recreation Center, 4901 Kingsessing Ave, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The goal of the tournament is to collect school supplies for local schoolchildren. The event is hosted by State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and a group of other locally elected officials will be there, including Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, and Rep. James Roebuck. This is a free event, but all attendees are asked to bring a school supply to donate. Sixteen basketball teams will represent 16 West Philly schools and the winning team will then donate all of the collected school supplies from the tournament to their selected school. Approximately 20 vendors will be offering food, free beverages and resource information. More details can be found here.

• If you want to learn more about the Pagan community and their beliefs, come to Clark Park at 43rd and Baltimore this Saturday, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to celebrate Pagan Pride Day. The festival, which is intended to bring together Heathens and Pagans of all traditions, will feature a wide array of vendors, workshops, and entertainment. Project Wendigo is the musical act that will be performing at the event. Doug Stafford, a juggler, illusionist, and otherwise awesome performer is also on the entertainment lineup, according to the organizers. Workshops begin at 11 a.m. The event is free but the organizers are asking to bring a nonperishable food item to benefit the Mazzoni Center’s food bank, or a make a monetary donation to one of the festival beneficiaries. Visit the Pagan Pride Day website for more details, list of vendors, and schedule of events.

• The Stooges Brass Band from New Orleans is a headline performer at a Saturday afternoon concert organized by City Tap House in collaboration with the production team from The Blockley. This is the second and last concert in the August outdoor concert series (the first one was held last Saturday). The concert will take place outside of City Tap House at 39th and Walnut from 3 – 8 p.m.. New Sound Brass Band (from the Mummers community) will also perform. Admission is $15 and tickets can be purchased here. 21+

• The University City District and The Rotunda invite all residents to the next free outdoor music concert in the 40th Street Summer Concert Series this Saturday. As always, the event will be held on the green lawn behind the Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut) starting at 6 p.m. Nation Beat and The Highwater Preachers (Facebook page) will be performing. Also, there will be ice cream vendors and entertainment for kids. The last concert in the 2014 series will be held on Sept. 27. Click here fore more info.

5 Broken Cameras flyer in Clark Park.

The 2014 Clark Park Summer Film Series, which brings documentary and other independent film screenings into the park’s bowl near 45th and Regent, concludes Friday, Aug. 29. 5 Broken Cameras, the winner of the World Documentary Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and Academy Award nominee for the best documentary feature, will be screened, starting at 7:30 p.m.

The film, shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, portrays non-violent resistance in the West Bank (see trailer below).

This is an outdoor screening, free and open to the public. Bring your chairs, blankets and popcorn!

A few other great events are scheduled in the area this weekend. Clark Park will host Pagan Pride Day on Saturday and there will be a couple of live music concerts. More info is coming soon.

Update (8/21/14): Due to the weather forecast for Thursday night, Bat Night at the Woodlands has been canceled.

Here’s our roundup of outdoor events in the area where you can enjoy this nice August weather and food and drinks with your friends, listen to some great music and even learn a thing or two about nature:

Wednesday, Aug 20

Penn Museum’s Summer Nights Concert Series presents Brazilian duo Minas

Penn Museum, 3260 South St, 5:00 p.m.

Celebrating 30 years since moving from Rio de Janeiro to the Philadelphia area, Minas’s innovative yet timeless sound blends folk, blues, jazz, scat, and samba, with a unique combination of Brazilian and American roots. The concert will take place in the museum’s Stoner Courtyard. $10.

Thursday, Aug 21

Dîner En Sweatpants

Clark Park “A”, 43rd and Baltimore,  5:30-8:30 p.m.

Ticketleap invites folks to a silly, FREE event this Thursday in Clark Park. Bring your picnic blankets and baskets or buy some delicious food from the food trucks after the regular Thursday Farmer’s Market! http://events.ticketleap.com/diner/

Bat Night at the Woodlands

The Woodlands Cemetery, 40th and Woodland, 6:00 p.m.

Bring some dinner and your flashlight on Thursday from 6-9 p.m. for a rare chance to spend the evening in the Cemetery after dark and see the resident bats! Also, take a walk with a bat expert and learn about special plants that will attract bats to your garden. This is a free event and sweet treats from Lil’ Pop Shop will be available for sale.

Saturday, Aug 23

Outdoor Concert feat. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah w/ Illinois, and Mo Lowda and the Humble

City Tap House, 39th and Walnut, 3:00-8:00 p.m.

City Tap House is joining forces with the booking and production team from The Blockley and Brooklyn Brewing Company to throw a couple of August, Saturday afternoon concerts on their beautiful outdoor patio space. The first concert, on Aug 23, features local indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, led by longtime frontman Alec Ounsworth. They’ll be sharing the stage with Illinois, also Philly-based rockers. Mo Lowda and the Humble, one of the city‘s finest up-and-coming groups, will open the show at 3:30 p.m. $15. 21+. Tickets are available here.

Illustrious jazz drummer and West Philly native Justin Faulkner will be a featured guest at tomorrow’s (Sunday, Aug 17) Community Unity Music Festival, which will take place at Clark Park (43rd and Chester), from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. The free festival will feature a variety of local and nationally acclaimed musicians and spoken word artists (check the festival’s Facebook page for details).

Faulkner, who grew up in Cedar Park, has been a member of the Branford Marsalis Quartet since 2009. “The undertone of this festival is to give children and young people in the area other alternatives,” Faulkner told WXPN’s The Key.

In addition to live music, Sunday’s festival will feature games, food, drinks, vendors, information booths, face-painting, stilt-walkers, a theatrical drill exhibition by the Cadets of the Philadelphia Police Explorers and performances by the Kimmel Center Creative Youth Ensemble.

Elissa Sklaroff with the Clark Park photo collage.

West Philly residents Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen, whose Clark Park photography project was featured in a June post, are inviting everyone to check out their photo collage in the park on Saturday, Aug 16. Elissa and Jim were documenting events in the park and capturing images of diverse Clark Park visitors of all ages – people who “bring the magical park to life.” Since the beginning of the summer, they have been sharing their photos with the park community and with their “models” by creating a “photo garden” – from nearly a thousand photos taken over the course of the summer, they selected and posted the most representative ones in clusters on the kiosks around the park.

“Feedback has been positive, including lovely comments posted by some who have stopped to look,” Elissa wrote us in an email.

Now, as Elissa and Jim are nearing the final stages of their Clark Park photo project, they have created a collage with an idea to capture the project and the park in a more complete way. All the decorative materials used in the collage were made from recycled materials: “green” shopping bags, soda cans, etc.

The collage will be displayed in the park on Saturday and from 2-4 p.m., Elissa and Jim will be giving prints out to anyone in the park whose picture they used. Additional copies or posters will be available to the public later by request, at either Elissa’s email address (elissa.sklaroff [at] gmail.com) or Jim’s (klasen.james [at] gmail.com).

It should be very festive, writes Elissa, as it is an Uhuru flea market day as well. Many of the vendors have agreed to display printed copies of the collage at their tables and even on food trucks! Elissa and Jim want those in the photos to be happily surprised to see themselves in many locations.

When a friend asked Elissa, “Why are the pictures so close together?” she replied, “Because as humans we are all close together and these photos show how the diversity in Clark Park emphasizes our commonality. This is what we hope we are saying to everyone.”

“We thank everyone with whom we connected during this project”.

(Photos by Elissa Sklaroff and James Klasen)

Clark Park Farmers’ Market.

There will be a nice promotion at the Clark Park Farmers’ Market happening this Saturday. Chipotle Mexican Grill will be at the market giving away free $5 vouchers to the first 1,000 people who come to the market. The vouchers can be used for anything sold by official market vendors, including Weckerly’s Ice Cream, Triple Tree Flowers, and Tacos Don Memo. Chipotle will only have 1,000 vouchers with them, so once they run out, that’s it! No purchase is necessary to receive a voucher.

Chipotle has pledged to purchase 20 million pounds of locally-sourced produce in 2014 and has partnered with The Food Trust, who runs the market, to promote Philadelphia-area farmers’ markets during National Farmers’ Market week.

The vouchers are only valid at this Saturday’s Clark Park Farmers’ Market, and cannot be honored at any other location or on any other date. If you have any questions about the promotion or how can spend your voucher, stop by the market manager table (right next to the Friends of Clark Park table).