The Pulse tells you where the value is. This page tells you where to stand on Saturday. The weekend ahead and the season's dates worth planning around, curated by people who will be at several of them.
Family activities open at 5 PM and the grand prix goes off under the lights after 7. This is the last Saturday Night Lights of the summer; the series goes dark until September 19, then runs Saturdays through late October. The insider notes: parking goes paid at 3 PM, carousel rides are free, and leashed dogs are welcome.
The six-time Grammy winner closes his solo run at the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium, the open-air hall at the center of Brevard's summer festival. An hour from Greenville, in a mountain town built around music.
Saturdays from 8 AM to noon through the end of October, at the corner of Main and McBee. More than 75 vendors, and the most reliable argument for getting downtown before the heat does.
8 AM to 2 PM, every Saturday through November 21. Go early, buy the tomatoes, and let the rest of the morning organize itself around the square.
Live music on Ram Cat Alley in Seneca, Thursday evenings through October, music starting around 6:30. Free, bring a lawn chair. If you are scouting Lake Keowee, this is where the lake goes on a Thursday.
Saturday, July 25 at 8 PM and Sunday, July 26 at 7 PM, marking 50 years since Gill left home for a music career. Two sold-out nights in a hall this size is the kind of booking downtown Greenville gets now without anyone remarking on it. Resale is the remaining route in.
The Village Green Commons Lawn, 6 to 8:30 PM. Bring a chair, and note how many license plates around you are not from North Carolina.
A premium tequila tasting with chef-driven small plates and live music, 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Note for planners: Saturday Night Lights is on summer pause and does not run July 25; the grand prix evenings return September 19.
The violinist joins the festival orchestra Friday at 7:30 PM, and the orchestra plays John Williams's Return of the Jedi score live to the film Saturday at 8:30 PM. One weekend, both ends of the repertoire.
Friday at 6:45 PM with postgame fireworks, Saturday evening, and a Sunday afternoon game at 3:05. The Upstate's baseball rivalry, ten minutes from either downtown.
Forty-five seasons of chamber music at 4,000 feet, with concerts in Highlands and at Lewis Hall on the Village Green in Cashiers. The plateau's cultural anchor, and the reason a fair number of July houseguests extend their stays.
Three days at the Charleston Gaillard Center on Calhoun Street. The city's most polished long weekend of the early fall, and a fine excuse to test September on the peninsula.
The inaugural playing runs September 17 through 20 at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, with Biltmore Estate and Explore Asheville as co-title sponsors on a four-year deal. Book the mountain house early; September in Asheville did not need more demand, and now it has a TOUR event.
The festival's signature weekend runs September 17 through 20, anchored by Party in the Park at Fluor Field on Friday night and the Feast by the Field tastings Saturday and Sunday. Events sell out early every year; this year is no different.
The grand prix evenings resume September 19 and run October 3, 10, 17, and 24, 5 to 10 PM, free admission. Fall at Tryon is the corridor at its best; put one of these on the calendar now.
This year that is Saturday, October 31. A fixed date on the calendar is how a race becomes a tradition, and Aiken has been practicing traditions for two centuries.
The Calendar is curated by the Southern Escapes editorial desk. Dates and details come from the organizers linked in each entry; confirm before you drive. The weekend's plan also runs in Saturday's Weekend Escape.