WEEKEND TEN
1 TIFFANY
Park Plaza, 6000 W. Markham St. at University Avenue, Little Rock, is turning the big 3-0 and celebrating with a 1980s-theme Park Plaza 30th
Anniversary Celebration. Today will have special shopping; the main event, Friday and Saturday, features ’80s makeovers, fashion shows, cartoon characters and ’80s music — including, at 7 p.m. Friday, ’80s pop star Tiffany performing in the mall’s parking lot. Admission is free. Call (501) 664-4956 or visit bit.ly/2O0AVT5.
2 THUNDER
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Center for Humanities and Arts, at University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, main campus, 3000 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. The Salty Dogs will open the show. Tickets are $35-$85 ($10 for student standing room), $120 for a VIP package (includes premium reserved seating plus entry to the Trio’s VIP Room, VIP parking and a separate private entrance). Visit uaptc.edu/charts. See story on Page 4E.
3 TYING THE KNOT
Everything from the invitations to the honeymoon will be on display at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Bridal Show, 12:30-5 p.m. Sunday at Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center. Vendors and experts provide tips and samples on flowers, food, music and all the other pieces that make up the special day. Tickets are $10, $35 for “VIB” passes, all plus fees. Call (501) 378-3807 or visit arkansasbridalcommunity.com.
4 THEATRICS
Local celebrities will pull out all the stops as they compete in the Lip Sync Battle for Make-A-Wish Mid-South, 7 p.m. Saturday at Robinson Center Performance Hall, West Markham Street and Broadway, Little Rock. Tickets are $33. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com.
5 TRUCKIN’
School is right around the corner and families can get the new year off to a fun, safe start at the annual Junior League of Little Rock’s Boosters and Big Rigs event, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Jack Stephens Center, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. The event offers health screenings for children, visits by community service vehicles, games, obstacle courses and bounce houses. Lunch will be provided; the first 400 children will receive free school supplies. Admission is free. Call (501) 3755557 or (501) 425-2641 or visit jllr.org.
6 THIRTEEN FEATURES
The annual Kaleidoscope LGBT Film
Festival, which kicks off Friday and runs through Aug. 18, will feature screenings of 13 feature films — seven “narratives” and six documentaries — starting Friday with
We the Animals, directed by Jeremiah Zagar, and including the U.S. premiere of the awardwinning Obscuro Barroco. All films screen at the Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. All-access passes are $90. Individual tickets are $10. Visit kaleidoscope film festival.com/passes-tickets. Flyway Brewing hosts the inaugural Kaleidoscope Queer Arts Street Fair, noon-6 p.m. Saturday on North Little Rock’s Fourth Street between Main and Maple, featuring vendors, communitycentered nonprofits, food trucks, locally brewed craft beer from Flyway, music and street performances. Admission is free. Visit the Facebook page, facebook.com/ Kaleidoscope Film Festival or email info@ kaleidoscopefilmfestival.com.
7 TREASURES
Hunt for rare books, documents, maps and other treasures at the 33rd annual
Arkansas Book and Paper Show, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, at the Jacksonville Community Center, 5 Municipal Drive, Jacksonville. Admission is $5, $2 for students and school employees. Call (501) 985-1663 or visit arkansasbookand papershow.com. 8 TRIO R&B trio En Vogue performs at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Timberwood Amphitheater, Magic Springs Theme & Water Park, U.S. 70 East (East Grand Avenue), Hot Springs, part of the park’s 2018 Summer Concert Series. Gates open at 6 p.m.; opening act Ki Koy Ki takes the stage at 7. Provide your own outdoor chair or blanket for lawn seating; reserved seating is $8-$10 above the park’s daily admission charge, $59.99, $39.99 for children and senior citizens. (Season passes are $74.99.) Call (501) 624-0100 or visit MagicSprings.com.
9 (BOOM)TOWN
Arkansas native Buddy Jewell headlines the Boomtown Opry, 7 p.m. Saturday at the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, 100 W. Eighth St., El Dorado. Featured performers include Kristina Fisher, Nancy Nelson, Brandon Gabbert and comedian Frank Cheek. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door; a portion of the proceeds benefits the El Dorado Boys & Girls Club. Call (870) 6659315 or visit facebook.com/boomtownopry.
10 TRAVEL
It’s music, mirth and mayhem a-cruising on the high seas as the Royal Players stage Anything Goes (music and lyrics by Cole Porter, original book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, subsequently adapted by Russel Crouse, Timothy Crouse, Howard Lindsay and John Weidman), 7 p.m. todaySaturday and Aug. 16-18, 2 p.m. Sunday and Aug. 19 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. Sponsor is the W.W. & Anne Jones Trust. Tickets are $15, $12 for senior citizens, military and college students, $6 for K-12 students. Call (501) 315-5483 or visit theroyalplayers.com or ticketleap.com.
In the summer of 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Die Hard were burning up the movie screens, artists like George Michael and Debbie Gibson were rocking the airwaves and, at the corner of Markham Street and University Avenue, the “new” Park Plaza opened its doors to avid shoppers and mall-hungry central Arkansas teenagers. (The original shopping center opened in 1960 and was updated to a mall in 1988.)
Now people can relive the era in all its shoulder-padded, blue-eye-shadowed glory at Park Plaza’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, Friday and Saturday.
“We’re going to celebrate all things ’80s,” says the mall’s marketing director, Alicia Easley.
The highlight of the weekend, “most definitely,” Easley says, will be a concert by pop icon Tiffany.
“She obviously toured malls in the ’80s and that’s how she got her start,” Easley says. “It makes sense to put that together.”
The concert will actually be outside the mall, in the Dillard’s east parking lot at the corner of Markham and University. While the concert itself starts at 7 p.m., a DJ will start playing retro tunes at 6 p.m. and Chickfil-A will sell food. Lawn chairs are encouraged and so is ’80s attire.
Easley says, “Feel free to get here early. Set up a chair, pick a spot, hang out, have a Chickfil-A, beat the rush. Wear your ’80s best out here. Live it up.”
Admission is free, but the mall asks people to donate two canned goods for the Arkansas Foodbank.
Easley also recommends people not try to use the mall’s south entrance on Friday, since they’ll be using part of that outdoor space: “Try to go behind the mall and either park in the parking deck or the west end of Dillard’s,” she says.
The Tiffany concert won’t be the only ’80s flashback.
On Friday, the cosmetics department at Dillard’s will give ’80s beauty makeovers. Cartoon characters Hello Kitty and Michelangelo (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) will be near Dillard’s men’s department for a meet and greet. They’ll be joined by Smurfette and Mario on Saturday.
On Saturday, children can make slap bracelets with help from the Little Rock Police Department and Dillard’s will host a back-to-school fashion show.
To set the mood, a DJ will play ’80s music on both days.
“I think it’ll be fun,” Easley says. “A lot of people will be rushing to get last minute backto-school things. You’ll be here anyway to pick up last-minute backpacks or tennis shoes so just come and relive the nostalgia.”
Besides, “How many people can say they saw Tiffany perform at a mall?”