Phoenix Events

Events

Event & Venue	Date (choose)
Recommended Events

Happy IndepenDANCE Day Modified Arts	Sat., July 4	Central Phoenix	Music
The folks at local label River Jones Music would prefer that you don't spend your fabulous fourth setting off fireworks or sucking down cheap-ass beer. Instead, they'd really dig it if you'd head for Modified to take in the quirky slate of indie rock and acoustic acts they've lined up,... More >>

Arcadia Neighborhood 4th of July Parade and Potluck Breakfast Arcadia 4th of July Parade	Sat., July 4, 8:00am	Central Scottsdale	Family Events Festivals Fourth of July Parades
If Ward and June Cleaver were Phoenicians, they’d live in Arcadia. Wally would be charming the pants off (not literally, of course) the pretty girls at Arcadia High, and Lumpy, Whitey, and the Beav would be bugging the crap out of the firefighters down at Engine Station No. 1. Meanwhile,... More >>

Island Hop Breakfast Paddle Lake Pleasant Regional Park	Sat., July 4, 8:00am	Outside the Valley	Fourth of July Nature Outdoors
You say you want a revolution? How ’bout a quiet, tasty one on the water at Lake Pleasant’s Island Hop Breakfast Paddle? The ranger-guided canoe/kayak tour of the loch’s northern isles features brief stops on each atoll for Guatemalan coffee and Danish pastry. Sounds pretty... More >>

Fiesta of Independence Naturalization Ceremony South Mountain Community College	Sat., July 4, 10:00am	South Phoenix	Fourth of July Public Interest
Before you stuff your patriotic head with barbecue and fireworks, see how democracy really works at this annual event, hosted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), in which new American citizens are sworn in by a presiding judge. About 200 newbies are expected to take the... More >>

David Ewing Duncan Changing Hands Bookstore	Sat., July 4, 2:00pm	Tempe	Book Events Environmental Green Events Mind & Body
You think you’ve got the whole biotechnology thing squared away, then David Ewing Duncan goes and publishes another book. The latest from Duncan, an American journalist whose beat is the environment and the development of green technologies, is Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body... More >>

Fourth of July Bike 'n' BBQ Festival Green	Sat., July 4, 2:00pm	Tempe	Music
Vegan chef extraordinaire Damon Brasch will be firing up his grill to cook up a mess of delicious (yet entirely animal product-free) hot dogs, burgers, and bratwursts for meatless types. Combo plates, which also include molasses baked beans and roasted garlic corn, are available for $6 and... More >>

July 4th Tempe Town Lake Festival Tempe Beach Park	Sat., July 4, 4:00pm	Tempe	Family Events Festivals Fourth of July
The 58th annual blowout in Old Town Tempe features a 40-minute fireworks display, live music, various food courts, an inflatable village, and a splash playground. The explosions start at dusk. More >>

Star Swim Fourth of July Bash feat. Miniature Tigers, Princeton, Dust Jacket, & DJ Ben Collins Wyndham Phoenix Hotel	Sat., July 4, 5:00pm-10:00pm	Central Phoenix	Fourth of July Music Nightlife
Instead of spending the Fourth of July drinking Coronas and trying to find a house party, then showing up at a house party where a couple of other losers have wasted the day away drinking Coronas, you might consider rocking out to great bands and DJs at a poolside, rooftop party downtown.... More >>

4th of July All American Festival Peoria Sports Complex	Sat., July 4, 5:00pm	Peoria	Family Events Festivals Fourth of July
The west side's other big Fourth extravaganza boasts twin entertainment zones, an F-16 flyover, a Kids Zone, a Water Zone, and a large fireworks show, which starts at approximately 9:15. More >>

Surprise Fourth of July Celebration Surprise Recreation Campus	Sat., July 4, 5:00pm	Surprise	Family Events Festivals Fourth of July
The ginormous west-side affair features a 20-minute fireworks spectacular that starts at approximately 8:10 as well as an Arizona Summer League baseball game pitting the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs rookie-league teams. More >>

Fabulous Phoenix 4th Steele Indian School Park	Sat., July 4, 6:00pm	Central Phoenix	Family Events Festivals Fourth of July
The annual boomerama features one of the largest fireworks displays in the Southwest, as well as a classic-car exhibit and a Water Spray Zone courtesy of the Phoenix Fire Department. The fireworks go off at 9:20. More >>

Ray Reeves' Rockin' Fourth Trunk Space	Sat., July 4, 7:00pm	Central Phoenix	Music
Eclectic doesn't even begin to describe the diversity of acts that local audiophile/recording engineer Ray Reeves booked for this special event. There's the soulful vocalist/pianist duo Taraf Degrief, which performs traditional Jewish music, as well as cacophonous electronica outfit The Coitus,... More >>

Regicide, Violating Dead, Mordecai, Beyond Eternal Fate, & more Pennie Lee's (formerly Coyote Hill)	Sat., July 4, 7:00pm	Glendale	Music
Hard rock can be a very patriotic thing. Judas Priest helped establish new boundaries for the first amendment. Jimi Hendrix provided the most memorable rendition of "Star Spangled Banner" ever recorded. And there's no musician past or present who worships the dual altars of both the Bill of... More >>

Dixie Fried Concert & Car Show feat. Curse of the Pink Hearse, Dirty Dan & the Distributors, & more The Ruby Room	Sat., July 4, 8:00pm	Central Phoenix	Auto Fourth of July Music
The gem of the Team America soundtrack, "America (Fuck Yeah)," rattles off a stunning litany of the things that make the United States great. Unfortunately, sweet hair, hot babes, and classic cars escaped mention, so AZ Rockabilly pays tribute with its own Independence Day bash, the Dixie Fried... More >>

Shake! Fourth of July The Rogue Bar	Sat., July 4, 9:00pm	South Scottsdale	Music
William Fucking Reed has a habit of throwing holiday-themed dance nights (like Adios Motherfucker on New Year's Eve, for instance), and our country's birthday is no exception. The reigning hipster king of Saturday night will is bringing in L.A. electro-rock duo Acid Girls for the evening and... More >>

Harem Nights Red Sea Hookah Lounge	Sat., July 4, 11:00pm	Tempe	Music
Make like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland by smoking some sweet shisha until the wee hours at this after-hours Tempe nightspot will DJs spin up smoking beats. Even better, pretend you're some debaucherous sultan and feast on chicken shawarma or other Mid-East treats while booful beauties... More >>

Thieves Market Thieves Market	First Saturday of every month, 6:00am-12:00pm	Cave Creek	Festivals Flea Markets Pop Culture Shopping
As much as we love Cave Creek, the northeast Valley burg wouldn’t be the obvious first choice if we were in the market for, say, a mid-century-modern accent for the living room or an atomic-age dinette set for the kitchen. Correction: It would be now, thanks to the town’s new... More >>

"Archaeologica: The Disposable Museum of Jessica Drenk" Mesa Contemporary Arts	Every week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from Fri., April 24 until Sun., August 2	Mesa	Art
Here’s our promise to you with this piece about Jessica Drenk: We're not going to talk about the green movement. Of course, being that the Tucson-based artist makes works out of disposable items, it would be an easy comparison. But we’re not going to go the wussy route. Instead, we... More >>

"At the Crossroads of American Photography: Callahan, Siskind, Sommer" Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art	Every week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from Sat., January 31 until Sun., August 9	Central Scottsdale	Art Museum Exhibits & Events
They labored in isolation in Prescott, yet the work that Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer created in the middle of the 20th century has gone on to international acclaim. The three self-taught photographers, toiling together in solitude, began the transformation of classic... More >>

"FUSE: Portraits of Refugee Households in Metropolitan Phoenix" Arizona Historical Society Museum	Every week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from Tue., May 12 until Sun., July 19	Tempe	Art Museum Exhibits & Events
Eliza Gregory's amazing portraits of recently resettled refugees in the Phoenix area illustrate an experience that most of us complacent Americans would find nearly impossible to imagine: suddenly fleeing your home, leaving behind not only political unrest and/or violence, but friends, family,... More >>

"La Casa Murillo: A Life-Size Shadowbox" Heard Museum	Daily from Fri., October 3 until Fri., August 21	Central Phoenix	Art Museum Exhibits & Events
AZ ain't Connecticut, so our lifestyle gurus are the anti-Martha. Namely, Patrick Murillo and Kathy Cano-Murillo, the latter of whom, Crafty Chica, has already been zazzing us up with her newspaper column, cruises, events, and new line of supplies. "La Casa Murillo: A Life-Size Shadow Box,"... More >>

"Resurrect: The Art of the Reclaimed Object" Mesa Contemporary Arts	Every week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from Fri., June 12 until Sun., August 9	Mesa	Art
It’s apparently “hip” to recycle, reclaim, and reuse these days, but when you think about it, the act of doing so is a little, well, ordinary. If anything, it shouldn’t be used as a bragging tool to up your indie cred. On the other hand, the creative types showing works in... More >>

FiestaCon Tempe Mission Palms Hotel	Fri., July 3, 10:00am-1:00am more dates/times	Tempe	Conventions Pop Culture
Sixty-two years ago, when the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (a.k.a. Westercon) was founded, the term “geek” hadn’t been coined. Here in the 21st century, home of an all-powerful communications network those no-name nerds couldn’t have envisioned, geeks rule. The... More >>

Sharks 3D IMAX Theatre Arizona Science Center	Daily from Mon., June 1 until Fri., September 4, 12:00pm	Central Phoenix	Film Film - IMAX
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to IMAX . . . it is. Though it’s about one of the most-feared creatures on the planet, the IMAX smash Sharks 3D is mostly about dispelling fears. Producer Jean-Michel Cousteau and director Jean-Jacques Mantello show what they call the "lions... More >>

Wicked Gammage Auditorium	Sat., July 4, 2:00pm more dates/times	Tempe	Family Events Theater
She’s ill-tempered and bossy and has green skin. She rides a broom and screams a lot and, if you piss her off, she’ll sic one of her flying monkeys on you. The Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t always a spiteful hag. When she was young, people liked her and called her by her name,... More >>