Paint the Park and Brighton Art Fair are this weekend, plus Bourbon and Blues Fest brings the groove to Eastern Market and more.

Brighton Art Fair

Main St. in Brighton
Aug. 21-23
 Free

In the heart of Brighton’s downtown, the Brighton Art Fair brings 125 juried artists together. Attendees can shop craft items, make their own goods, and listen to live music—not to mention visiting Brighton’s established shops and restaurants in the area! 

Paint the Park and Downriver bike ride

Downtown Allen Park
Aug 21-22
Free

The Mural People and Allen Park’s Downtown Development Authority host Paint the Park this weekend, alongside Slow Roll Detroit. As eight murals come to life across the city, guests are welcome to watch art demonstrations, shop vendors and get craftkits. Plus, Slow Roll Detroit hosts their first Downriver bike ride on Saturday morning. 

EVE premiere

 Arab American National Museum
Aug. 21-22
$15

The Arab American National Museum hosts the premiere of “Eve”, a retelling of John Milton’s Paradise Lost through the lens of queer Palestinian resistance. The play is a 90 minute live performance written by Arab American National Museum writers-in-residence George Abraham and Fargo Missim Tbakhi.

WIDAFEST

 Windsor, Ontario
Aug. 20-23
Free entry

With vibrant music, cultural performances, and workshops all around, WIDAfest promises to bring carnival energy to Lanspeary Park and offers plenty of delicious food to buy and unique artisan crafts too. This year, the African and Caribbean celebration joins forces with the Toronto Caribbean Festival to bring more fun than ever before.

Outlaw Music Fest

Pine Knob
Aug. 22
$27+

Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston hosts iconic artists including Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble, the Avett Brothers, Sierra Hull and more, headlined by Willie Nelson. As it returns for the eleventh year, the eclectic show brings rare talents together across generations for a boot-stomping performance.

Renaissance Festival

 Holly, Mich.
Aug. 22-Oct. 4
$50 in advance, $55 at door

Enter a realm of medieval magic, with trained performers, artisans, pub crawls and more at Michigan’s Renaissance Festival. This weekend marks the opening of the season, with the theme “Pirates and Pups.” 

Detroit Bourbon and Blues Fest

Eastern Market Shed 5
Aug. 23
$25 

For the fourth year running, Detroit Bourbon and Blues brings live music, bourbon and whiskey tasting, and great vibes to the Eastern Market. Stop by to enjoy the songs and drinks anytime from noon to 7 p.m.

This weekend offers a feast of food-based festivals around metro Detroit, including a pierogi fest, a vegan extravaganza, the aptly named Detroit Foodie Fest and a zesty Pickle Festival. In the coming week, it’s time for live music with WDET’s Sounds Like Detroit and more.

Dearborn Homecoming

Ford Field Park
Aug. 7-9
 Free

Dearborn Homecoming is back. Visit a collection of local artists and non profits manning the booths. Meet DCFC players, PAWS the Tigers mascot and more. Activities include crafting, a kid-centered “Baby Bash”, live music with headliners Martina McBride and Chance the Rapper. Plus, we can’t forget the firework show! Check the schedule to see what events are going on, from noon to 10:30 p.m. both days.

CatVideoFest

Detroit Institute of Arts
Aug. 7-9
$11.50

Sit back and enjoy a curated showing of feline films. Handpicked by organizers who receive unique submissions throughout the year, the CatVideoFest is an annual event at the Detroit Film Theater. Tickets cost $11.50 for general admission, with a discount for members, seniors and students. A portion of ticket sales go to supporting pet-centered charities, shelters, and humane societies.

Sweetest Heart of Mary Pierogi Festival

 Sweetest Heart of Mary Church
Aug. 7-9
Free

Starting at noon both days, this festival offers Polish culture on a platter. Enjoy cuisine like the pierogi, live music, a beer tent, a resale shop or take a stroll through the church’s gift store. 

Pickle Fest

 Blake’s Orchard and Cider Mill in Armada, Mich.
Aug. 8-9, 15-16
$11.37

Pickle lovers, this one’s for you. Blake’s Pickle Festival gives attendees the chance to get hands-on pickling experience from picking cucumbers to building your own brine, as well as an array of pickled food and drinks. And no festival would be complete without a unique blend of music and market stalls to catch your eyes and ears. There’s also pickle contests to properly celebrate the pros. Stop by between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Detroit Foodie Fair / Detroit Vegan

 Eastern Market Shed 5
Aug. 9
Free

The 7th annual Detroit Foodie Fair is hosted in conjunction with Detroit Vegan to offer a wide spread of delicious bites from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Taste the best food truck court Detroit has to offer and browse stalls selling kitchen wares and goods. Learn more about getting plant-based foods in your diet. You’ll have the chance to vote for Detroit’s Best Foodie Find as well.

Perseid Meteor Shower Viewing

 Cranbrook Institute of Science
Aug. 12
$50 in advance, $55 at door

Stay late at the Cranbrook Institute of Science to catch a meteor shower alight in the night sky. Cranbrook offers a spread of activities to keep guests engaged, including yard games, a dusk nature walk, astronomy lessons and more. The Warren Astronomical Society will be in attendance to speak to the science behind the stars and provide telescope viewings. Get tickets in advance— pre-sale ends on Monday, Aug. 10!

SOUNDS LIKE DETROIT

 Batch Brewing Company
Aug. 13
$30 / $35 

Join WDET at Batch Brewing in Corktown for a Detroit Tiny Desk concert! Selected by listener votes, four local artists will be performing live and on stage, including KTCHN, Aisha Ellis, Jubilee Jackson, and Michelle Held. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show going from 7-10 p.m.

This week, I was joined in studio by two local indie-folk singer-songwriters who both treated WDET listeners to a live performance during the show.

For Detroit-based artist Michelle Held, it was a return to MI Local, (she was here last fall and recorded a song, live), and hopefully she’s becoming more and more familiar to WDET listeners, since she was among the four Michigan-based NPR Tiny Desk Submissions to be selected to perform at our annual Sounds Like Detroit Showcase, happening on Aug. 13 at Batch Brewing! Find more info AND get your tickets, here!

Our second guest was the Ypsilanti-based folk singer Ananda Murari, who blends his soulful voice with profoundly ruminative lyrics over his dynamic finger-style guitar playing.

Murari talked about moving to Michigan five years ago, which corresponded with the start of his significant creative output, with a flurry of singles and his debut album, “Ripen Off The Vine.”

Murari is performing at the Ark in Ann Arbor on Aug. 9, with a jazz-folk ensemble known as the North Ingalls Band, led by Corazon Szell (who, notably, performed at last year’s Sounds Like Detroit Showcase). Murari played a new song about his newfound love for his current hometown, Ypsilanti.

Held, meanwhile, performed a song called “I Like Words,” inspired by Ann Arbor poet Dick Siegel. We also listened back to the beautiful recording of Held’s performance at WDET back in the fall of 2025, where she performed the song “Unresolved.” The video that Held submitted to the Tiny Desk Contest, that WDET listeners voted on, also featured her performing “Unresolved.”

Also on the show, we spun new tracks from local artists like Stef Chura, Kelsey, Bluhm, and Ohly. Chura has a new album out in October, while Kelsey has an album release party coming up on August 21 at the Arboretum Music Venue in Saline. Ohly, otherwise known as Christian Ohly, has a new album that’s album coming out closer to the fall, and we were able to give listeners a sneak preview of his single, “On The Map,” which is officially out this Friday.

Thanks for listening! And hope to see you at Sounds Like Detroit on Aug. 13!

Alongside comfort classics from Talking Heads, TV on the Radio, Doves, Wes Montgomery and Abdullah Ibrahim are some of the year’s most interesting newer releases from James Blake, Benjamin Booker, pôt-pot, Nirosta Steel and others.

In the 2 p.m. hour, pianist Michael Malis and Constantine Novotny perform their new album “Another Shore, Another Country” live in our studios ahead of their Concert of Colors performance on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Hellenic Museum of Michigan.

Malis’s original song cycle is based on the poetry of C.P. Cavafy, the seminal poet of the Greek diaspora. They will also perform traditional songs in an intimate, stripped-down setting, evoking the beauty and majesty of Greece.

Malis is a recipient of Greek America Foundation’s 40 Under 40 Award. His music has been described as “downright transcendental” and he has shared the stage with luminaries such as Marcus Belgrave, Marion Hayden, Tyshawn Sorey and many others.

Novotny is a baritone who has performed with Apollo’s Fire Singers, American Bach Soloists, Audivi, and many others. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and St. John the Divine Cathedral.

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

In The Groove with Ryan Patrick Hooper playlist for July 17, 2026

• “Please Go Easy With Me” — S.E. Rogie
• “Soweto” — Abdullah Ibrahim
• “(Nothing But) Flowers” — Talking Heads
• “O Tempo (Foi O Meu Mestre)” — Fabiano do Nascimento & Vittor Santos e Orquestra
• “Thinkin Bout You” — Flea
• “I Had a Dream She Took My Hand” — James Blake
• “Train on the Island” — Aldous Harding
• “I’m Confessin’ (That I Love You)” — Joe Webb
• “Bossy Nova” — Gabrielle Cavassa
• “Northern Shuffle” — Julian Lage
• “NRG” — Pigeon
• “22° Halo” — pôt-pot
• “West Side” — Studio
• “FRESH FEELING” — Nirosta Steel
• “There Goes the Fear” — Doves
• “SAME KIND OF LONELY” — Benjamin Booker
• “Province” — TV on the Radio
• “Fishbrain” — Mount Kimbie
• “Gently Trapped” — Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer & Dafnis Prieto
• “Open the Door” — Betty Carter
• “Four On Six (Remastered 2025)” — Wes Montgomery
• “Spellbinder” — Gabor Szabo

Listen to In The Groove with host Ryan Patrick Hooper weekdays from noon-3 p.m. ET on 101.9 WDET or stream on-demand at wdet.org.

Is it possible to be ubiquitous and behind-the-scenes at the same time? That pretty much sums up Don Was and his long career in the music business.

After co-leading the funky pop-rock band Was (Not Was) in the 1980s, Was went on to win an armful of Grammy awards as a producer. He’s worked with Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Ringo Starr and Bob Weir, to name just a few. Since 2012, he has been president of the legendary Blue Note Records.

Was is also a son of Detroit. In recent years, he put together a band under his own name for the first time: Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. “We are on a mission to promulgate the indigenous sounds of our hometown of Detroit, Michigan,” he explains.

This is a tight and powerful group, with an emphasis on the groove, but all eyes and ears are on lead vocalist Steffanie Christi’an. In this Tiny Desk performance, she breathes a very different kind of fire into the Grateful Dead classic “The Music Never Stopped” and smolders on re-working of Hank Williams‘ “I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time.” The entire set is a perfect example of how, as the Dead used to say, “the music plays the band.”

SET LIST

• “The Music Never Stopped”
• “You Asked, I Came”
• “Midnight Marauders”
• “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time”
• “Insane”

MUSICIANS

• Don Was: bass
• Steffanie Christi’an: vocals
• Wayne Gerard Milton: guitar
• Luis Resto: keys
• Dave McMurray: tenor sax
• Vincent Chandler: trombone
• John Douglas: trumpet
• Jeff Canady: drums
• Mahindi Masai: percussion 
• Herschel Boone: background vocals 
• Terena Boone: background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Felix Contreras
• Director/Editor: Maia Stern
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Alanté Serene
• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

This article was written by Felix Contreras and originally posted on NPR.org.

On this week’s show, we heard new tracks by Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee, formerly of Pas/Cal, along with a new Allman Bros. cover by Jill Jack and a groovy pop song by Pesky Kid!

We had some in-studio guests, including Deadbeat Beat, who brought some new music to spin. We also talked about Detroit X Detroit happening this weekend with Danny VanZandt.

Deadbeat Beat’s new album and upcoming release party

Deadbeat Beat sprouted from a teenage friendship between drummer-vocalist Maria Nuccilli and guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Alex Glendenning, leaning into an intersection of garage rock drive and indie-pop catchiness. The band was rounded out by bassist Zak Frieling, who came from the Flint scene to join these high energy east siders as a power trio, releasing an album and touring fairly extensively.

There’s been new energy, though, over the last couple years, with the addition of Pete Steffy on keyboards and synthesizers. Deadbeat Beat’s 2019 album “How Far” was recorded by Jeff Else in his North End home studio, where Steffy lived at the time, and during these sessions he gave valuable advice.

The band talked about the ideas and stories behind the album’s title, and it’s two new singles, one of which was exclusively premiered on the show tonight.

Deadbeat Beat also discussed moving away from the well-prepared-yet-quickly-executed style of basement recordings to the more deliberate process of working with celebrated engineer Chris Koltay at High Bias Studio.

Deadbeat Beat have their album release party at the Paris Bar on June 12, which will be followed up by some touring and some more high-profile gigs that they also detail during our interview.

Detroit X Detroit this Saturday

Also, the annual Detroit X Detroit Showcase is Saturday April 15, 2026 at the Loving Touch.

This is a super-fun concert with more than a dozen local bands doing short, high-energy cover sets of other notable Detroit and Michigan artists. These contemporary bands and songwriters can choose to do covers of icons like Stevie Wonder or Bob Seger, or they can select a set of later trailblazers like The White Stripes.

Singer-songwriter Danny VanZandt, who performs solo but also has a full band, will be doing a set of Seger covers, with his group, at the event.

On the show, I also spun a track by the artist, Annemarie Jo, who will be doing a set of Marvin Gaye covers.

In the middle of our interview, VanZandt treated us to a live cover of “Night Moves.”