San Diego Weekend Guide: April 21-23 – Earth Day edition

Everything good is coming up in pairs – or more – this San Diego weekend. There are festivals to mark Earth Day 2023, car shows for the auto inclined and some indie film goodness too.

Earth Day started in 1970 – launched by a former senator no less – and since has grown into a movement that includes nearly 200 countries. San Diego, naturally, will do its part:

• Mission Valley – help create an Earth Day Mural on the San Diego River Bikeway at 9 a.m. Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Volunteers may be asked to prep or paint the work, by artist Helen T. Kim, or do light gardening around it.
• Balboa Park – Two options, both on Saturday. a) Multi-Cultural Earth Day, free at 11 a.m., with music and dance, including reggae, drumming in the Native American, Middle Eastern and West African traditions and Brazilian Samba, at the WorldBeat Cultural Center, and b) San Diego EarthFest, free at noon, with more than 100 eco-friendly vendors as well as conservation and animal rescue groups. Go to the Park Boulevard side on the Presidents Way Lawn.
• Birch Aquarium – Four chances, beginning Saturday, to take part in Party for the Planet, with live music, crafts, a community art project, scavenger hunt and more. The event, included in the $25 general admission, continues Sunday and next weekend too.

If one of your favorite activities on this orb is taking in the art of classic cars, well, you might have a busy weekend ahead:

• The Chula Vista Community Collaborative hosts the free Day of the Child Classic Car Show at Memorial Park. Head out at 10 a.m. Saturday for live music, health, art and sports pavilions and People’s Choice awards for the best of the cars.
• The 53rd Chicano Park Day opens at 10 a.m. Saturday with a lowrider car show, crafts, food and three stages for more than two dozen performers. The theme for this year’s free fest is “Kindling the New Fire.”
• At the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance, see some of the top makes around, from Ferraris to Duesenbergs. There’s a free exhibit at 5 p.m. Saturday, Porsches on Prospect, ahead of the big show, at 9 a.m. Sunday. Admission for the latter costs $95.

Here’s our weekend lone ranger, a music fest! The Carlsbad Music Festival‘s Spring Eclectic Lawn hosts Shane Hall, the Tourmaliners, Rumba y Sol and Alexia Hunter at noon Saturday at St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church on Carlsbad Boulevard. Admission costs $24 and kids under 12 are free.

But back to the duos. Two mainstays of San Diego independent film offer special events through next Thursday:

• Spring Showcase – the San Diego Asian Film Festival‘s April event has 11 films, a mix of comedies, action and dramas, on tap Friday through Sunday at UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley. Per-screening admission costs $12.
• Digital Gym – features a documentary on one of rock n’ roll’s foremost pioneers. Little Richard: I Am Everything screens up to three times a day during the limited engagement in the East Village. Most shows cost $12.