How hard can it be? The weekend, that is.
That depends on who you are and how much you’re willing to push. From dogged baseball believing and deep-rooted roller derby rowdiness to a mind-blowing pop-art exhibit suitable for super-cool selfies and a 5K obstacle-course fit only for the fit (and super-sweaty selfies), the choices and their challenges await.
Oh, there’s more … but can you take it?
The big challenge ahead for the 2015 World Series-winning Kansas City Royals is to remain competitive while rebuilding the team. Will the Royals achieve a winning record this year? Can they make the playoffs? Go to the World Series? Win it all? Those who find themselves at Royals Fanfest can be forgiven for wearing rose-colored glasses just beneath their blue ball caps. After all, it's baseball, and anything can happen – including wooing free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer back to Kauffman Stadium.
What’s definitely happening at this weekend’s Fanfest: Autograph sessions with many current and former Royals players, onstage chats involving players and coaches, interactive games for the whole family and two first-time events. A Royals fashion show and an amateur scouting roundtable hosted by Royals GM Dayton Moore make their debut. So, Dayton, what does first base look like?
Friday, 2-9 p.m. (noon access for season-ticket holders); Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (9 a.m. access for season-ticket holders); Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th St., Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: Friday $9 adults, $7 ages 6-17; Saturday, $15 adults, $10 ages 6-17.
The Royal Pains, Deadly Sirens, Lovely Lethals and Shotgun Sheilas are the women's competitive league teams kicking off the 2018 Fountain City Roller Derby season. Besides the heavy-duty action, the manic monikers of individual female skaters also pack a challenging wallop. For starters, there’s One Hit Thunder, the Mad Splatter, Sissy Facecheck, Micro Psycho, Queen of Hurts, Pippi Strongblocking and Aneeda Hurcha – no, really, you don’t. Would it help if I told you I bruise easily? That’s what I thought. Ow!
Saturday, 6 p.m.; B&D South Skate Center, 13903 E. Noland Ct., Independence, Mo.; tickets: $12, ages 12 and younger get in free.
This world-touring art exhibit created entirely from LEGO bricks by contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya must have been a challenge to dream up, let alone execute. It consists of 10 galleries of amazing constructs that are madly original (such as Yellow, a sculpture of a man tearing open his chest cavity with scads of LEGOs falling out), as well as objects surrealistically emulating historic works of art (including Leonardo da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa" and Vincent Van Gogh’s "Starry Night"). Your challenge? Building a personal tour de force of LEGO imagination in the visitors “creation gallery” at exhibit’s end.
Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $15.95 adults, $11.95 ages 3-12.
Make it through more than 20 outdoor obstacles in a 5K experience designed to bring out the beast in you. Or just watch others struggle, which can be a challenge, too, if you’re the sympathetic sort. Mud climbs, tire tosses, hay hills, peak leaps and two “vertigo” busses tilted at 45-degree angles are all part of the perspiring plan. Along the winding way, there’s also a so-called “car smash,” where runners, walkers and limpers can pause to heave big rocks at an increasingly wrecked car. Think that’s something? Keep going, you ain’t seen nothin’ Yeti!
Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (wave times 10 a.m.-noon); Zip KC, 12829 Loring Road, Bonner Springs, Kan.; day-of-event registration: $48.40.
Hard-knocks country music artist Travis Meadows lost a leg to cancer at age 14 and went on to battle drug and alcohol addiction for most of his life. More than seven years clean and sober, Meadows has become a critically hailed Nashville songwriter, whose honest-to-the-bone songs about memory, loss and hope have been covered by such hit country singers as Eric Church and Dierks Bentley.
Meadows’ latest challenging album, “First Cigarette,” embraces his increasing strength and lingering vulnerability in such wistful tracks as “Pontiac,” which offers: “I hope you get your heart broke at least once before you fall in love/I hope you wind up flat broke at least once before you have enough.” The man knows.
Thursday, 8 p.m.; Knuckleheads Saloon, 2715 Rochester St., Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $10.
Think you’re funny? Let’s hope so, if you get onstage for open mic night at Stanford & Sons Comedy Club. To avoid totally bombing, it’s a good idea to bring along a bunch of friends who will be up to the challenge of laughing at your best three minutes of material. What if you only have three minutes of material – good, bad or ugly? Well, you’ve got to start somewhere!
Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; Stanford & Sons Comedy Club, 813 Walnut St., Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $5.
Brian McTavish is a regular arts and culture contributor for KCUR. You can reach him at brianmctavish@gmail.com.
