🥳 Summer Fridays start NOW

☀️ Need some summer reading list inspo? The Globe just dropped its list of 75 exciting books coming out this summer, featuring titles across several genres. And let’s just say, the romance section looks STACKED.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Welcome to our first Summer Friday of the season! Every Friday through Labor Day, you’ll get a short, sweet, things to do-focused newsletter to get weekend ready. We know you’re itching to slam your laptop shut on Fridays, so we’re shaving down your normal five-minute read to three.

Here’s what’s happening this weekend:

🏳️‍🌈 Start Pride month off with a bang. The celebrations are just heating up this weekend with this BIPOC Pride-themed block party in Downtown Crossing on Saturday, or The Painted Burro’s first ever drag brunch, and this “Made with Pride” market at Time out on Sunday.

🎸 Groove to some local tunes. Dorchfest (a.k.a. Dorchester’s version of porchfest) is back for year three on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m., where over 40 local musicians will be playing all sorts of tunes. Not in Dot? Medford and Newton also have porchfests this weekend, too. 

🖼️ Watch Beacon Hill transform into an art gallery. On Sunday from noon to six, the walls and gardens of Beacon Hill will become an impromptu art museum, where anyone can walk around and view the art while listening to roving musicians (for free!).

🛍️ Shop from local, women-owned businesses. Boston Women’s Market’s summer market series is back this Sunday from 11 to 2 (and every first Sunday of the month through August) at Faneuil Hall, where you can shop over a dozen businesses.

🪩 Hit up a vintage market with block party energy. FOUND’s summer block party series is kicking off this Saturday, where they’ll be throwing an epic block party every weekend in Central Square with food, music, drinks, and most importantly, vintage shopping. 

💅 Relive last Summer’s “Barbie” craze. The Loring-Greenough House’s campy movie night series is starting off strong with a screening of “Barbie” tonight for just $3. And, yes, pink fits are encouraged.

🎯 Put your lawn game skills to the test. Tickets to enter a team at Sunday’s annual North End Cornhole Classic are a little steep, but they include (at least) two games, two drinks, free T-shirts, and a Pauli’s sandwich package per team of two. Plus, the proceeds go to charity.

🌴 Party like you’re in the Caribbean. Celebrate Caribbean American Heritage month at the Caribbean American Heritage Fest with music, food, art, and shopping on Saturday. And you can keep the party going on Sunday at Somerville’s Carnaval parade and celebration.

⛴️ Take a cruise around the city. At City Cruise’s “alive after five” cruise, you and your pals can see Boston from the sea with a drink in hand and a live DJ tonight or tomorrow evening. 

🚇 New month = New MBTA shutdowns. Red Line, Orange Line, and commuter rail riders, this one’s gonna be a doozy. Red Liners will see mini shutdowns nearly every weekend this month, starting out strong tomorrow with one between Alewife and Harvard. Orange Liners: Not to rub salt in your shutdown wound, but you’re also looking at another shutdown between Wellington and North Station later this month. Commuter railers: Expect weekend shutdowns across many lines, and, notably, a new construction schedule all summer on the Haverhill line.

🛒 Stop & Shop may stop your shopping. Translation: The company says it’s going to close “several” of its underperforming stores in order to help the brand’s finances. But it’s too soon to tell when and if that includes any Mass. locations, which make up the majority (125ish) of the store’s total (400ish) spots. But in better news: Part of the business’s reshuffling might include reevaluating prices, which, as you may or may not know, can be pretty steep here in Boston.

🎓 Northeastern’s making some money moves. First off, the school has entered into an agreement to merge with Marymount Manhattan College, in NYC, to create their 13th satellite campus, absorbing their students and (for now) faculty. But details about when Northeastern students could study at the new campus are still TBD. Plus, the Huskies also filed a proposal to replace their 124-year-old Matthews Arena, currently the world’s oldest ice hockey venue, with a shiny new 290,000-square-foot athletics facility. But don’t hold your breath, the proposal’s review alone might take months.

Quick note: During our Summer Friday sends, we’ll also be sharing a weekly tidbit of relationship advice from Love Letters writer Meredith Goldstein. On today’s agenda: Remembering that summer mems > your ex. 

“We do not spend the summer crying about a recent breakup! Yes, in this season of uncuffing, breakups can be miserable — and grief must be processed. But please don’t waste all of the sunny days to come hoping someone will change their mind. Do as Meredith tells this letter writer. Find a new walking path. Experiment with a new coffee shop. Make a new memory in Boston that has nothing to do with your ex. (Get a ride to Ponyhenge, for instance, and take selfies for that next profile pic.) Let warmer weather give you the chance to invent new routines. June is coming, and it’s a very good time to be single.”

If you’re around the Roger Williams Zoo this weekend, keep your eyes peeled for … a runaway blue throated piping guan.

Father-son duo Monster and Chip, two of the zoo’s guans (a.k.a. smallish chicken-like rainforest-dwelling birds), took an early summer vacation of sorts when they escaped from their enclosure. Several days later, Monster was recovered by animal control. He’s reported to be in good health, but as of Thursday evening, Chip is still on the run, and was last seen taking in a view of Roger Williams Park from a nearby treetop. 

But as usual, any zoo animal escape draws incredible reactions from townies, which are on full display in these Facebook comments. 

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🐓 Thanks for reading! I love a good missing zoo animal story. That said, I hope Monster and Chip are happily reunited soon. 

🎤 The results are in: B-Siders were all over the map on Boston Calling’s wild Sunday crowds. But one thing is for sure: Lots of those who were there wrote in to confirm the madness. One reader said: “Couldn't see a thing, couldn't breathe, couldn't move!”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].