GR|MAG’s Top Weekend Picks

Get ready to weekend hard Grand Rapids. Take a trip down the yellow brick road with the Grand Rapids Ballet’s Junior Company or visit the butterflies at Frederik Meijer Gardens. If you are on the lakeshore, stop in at the Muskegon Museum of Art’s newest exhibit. You can also score yourself a date for a good cause this weekend or pay tribute to the late Tom Petty.

Dorothy & Friends Tea Party @ New Hotel Mertens & “Wizard of Oz” Show
(Saturday)

Pull out those ruby slippers and get ready to travel down the yellow brick road! The Grand Rapids Ballet School’s Junior Company is presenting a themed tea party on Saturday, March 3 in honor of its premiere of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Beginning at 11:30 a.m. at the New Hotel Mertens, you and your little munchkins can enjoy a French-style tea service, photo booth, trivia and more. Don’t forget about the costume contest, either. The best Dorothy, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Wizard of Oz will get a chance to go backstage and meet the real thing in person.

Tickets are $50 per person and include admission to the 2 p.m. matinee performance immediately following at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre.

Choose “Tea with Dorothy & Friends” under ticket type at Grand Rapids Ballet.

The Poetry of Metal @ Muskegon Museum of Art
(Thursday)

Come and experience the beauty of visual art in Muskegon this weekend with the opening of the Muskegon Museum of Art’s newest exhibition.

“The Poetry of Metal: David Barnhill and David Huang” will be on display at the museum from March 1 through June 10. A reception that is open to the public will take place on Thursday, March 1 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Together, Barnhill and Huang merge a love of material with intricate surface design, tooling and metallurgy. Their collaborative series, “Layered Resplendence,” blends the unique patterns of Barnhill’s Japanese mokumé-gane with Huang’s sculptural vessels, adding further complexity and surface variation to their respective artistry.

Admission to this event is free and light refreshments will be provided. A special presentation will be given by the artists following the reception.

The Ultimate Tom Petty experience
(Saturday)

Pay tribute to Tom Petty this weekend with the Ultimate Tom Petty Experience at 20 Monroe Live. A team of musicians has joined up to form Southern Accents, which recreates the music, style and sound of Tom Petty. Each member of the band looks the part, plays the part and lives the part.

Doors open at 7:30 and it’s an all-ages show. Visit Ticketmaster for tickets.

Bid for Bachelors and Bachelorettes
(Saturday)

The 21^st Bid for Bachelors and Bachelorettes is Saturday, March 3 at the JW Marriott. The annual event is held to raise funds for Friends and Families of Cystic Fibrosis.

Bid on a date package or on a silent auction item in support of cystic fibrosis. You will also have the opportunity to hear from a man with cystic fibrosis who recently underwent a lung transplant.

Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the event runs until midnight.

Butterflies are Blooming
(Thursday)

Thousands of butterflies have moved into the Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

The annual Fred & Dorothy Fichter Butterflies Are Blooming exhibition at Meijer Gardens is the largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibition in the nation. Attendees can see over 60 species of butterflies through April 30, when the exhibit closes.