The fifth edition of Raleigh Wide Open is just two weeks away, and it looks like the committee has put together a fun-filled afternoon of entertainment. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this year.

As before the even takes place on Fayetteville Street, from the Capitol to the Marriott. The street and all cross streets will be closed in order to facilitate four main music stages (Cherry Bounce, World, Raleigh Rocks, Free Spirit), as well as a beer tent and other entertainment venues and booths. Additionally the space in front of the convention center will be used as well as the new downtown Raleigh amphitheater.

My experience has been that the best place to park for the event is in the municipal parking deck at Morgan and McDowell. A short walk puts you right in the heart of the action. Other options are the parking garages lining Wilmington Street, but be sure to swing several blocks wide of the Fayetteville Street axis in order to avoid stagnant traffic and pedestrians.

The Raleigh Wide Open crew has once again put together a very nice flyer (.pdf) which includes a map of the RWO territory as well as a schedule of the day’s events. Gogoraleigh adds to that experience, however, by publishing this calendar to Google Calendar. Simply subscribe to the Raleigh Wide Open Calendar or just add events that interest you to your personal Google Calendar by clicking on the calendar link, selecting “Agenda” in the upper right, then selecting the desired events.

We recently went to Taste of Chicago and Milwaukee’s Summerfest, both events with rolling musical events at different stages throughout the days. Each even had its own iPhone app, and it made the event much more fun to select events beforehand and let the app plan the day for us. While this isn’t a dedicated app, it still affords you the chance to add events to your calendar and turn on notifications to remind you of them as they approach!

 Subscribe in Google Calendar

Here is the RWO schedule:

11:00 am – Parade down Fayetteville Street
From Morgan through the City Plaza with marching bands, floats, and local celebrities!

Noon – Festival Opens
Food and art vendors, street performers, 4 stages throughout Fayetteville Street

RebBull Motocross Mayhem with Geoff Aaron 
Fayetteville Street between Hargett and Morgan St. Performance times are 2:45; 5:00; 7:15 (add according to time)

King BMX Stunt Show
Salisbury Street in front of RCC. Performance times are 1:30; 3:30; 5:00

Cherry Bounce Wrestling
Hargett and Fayetteville St. Performance times are 5:15 and 7:30

Fire Circus
Flames and high flyers set City Plaza ablaze. Performance times are 8pm and 10pm

Eating Contests
*Free Spirit Stage. Krispy Kreme Donuts at 3:00; Lumpy’s Ice Cream at 5:00

Cherry Bounce Stage

• Jews & Catholics 12:30-1:15pm
• Cherry Bounce SPECIAL Guest 1:45-2:30
• North Elementary 3:00-3:45
• Lake Inferior 4:15 – 5:00pm
• I Was Totally Destroying It 6:00-7:00
• Bomba Estereo 8:15-9:15
• Javelin 9:45 – 10:45pm

World Stage

• Crucial Fiya (reggae) 12:15 -1:45pm
• Shana Tucker Trio (soul) 2:15 – 3:30pm
• Mel Melton & The Wicked Mojos (blues / americana) 4:00pm – 5:00pm
• The Barn Burners (country) 5:30 – 7:00pm
• Old Habits (bluegrass) 7:30 – 8:45pm
• Rubberband (funk / hip hop covers) 9:15 – 10:45pm

Raleigh Rocks Stage

• Adam Pitts and the Pseudo Cowboys 12:30 – 1:15pm
• Will McBride Group 1:45 – 2:30pm
• Big Mama E & the Cool 3:00 – 3:45pm
• Wax Planet 4:15 – 5:00pm
• Sleep Control 5:30 – 6:15pm
• Airiel Down 6:45 – 7:30pm
• Design 8:00 – 9:00pm
• Nigthshift 9:30 – 10:30pm

Free Spirit Stage

• Kappa Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi (stepping) 12:15 to 12:30
• D.LIV(E) (spoken word/hip-hop) 12:45 to 1:05
• Schizophrenic Octopus (breakdancing) 1:30 to 2:00
• Sabrosa (spoken word/hip-hop) 2:15 to 2:35
• Krispy Kreme Donuts (Eating Contest) 3:00 to 3:30
• Spotlight Creative Studios (Bollywood Dance) 3:45 to 4:00
• Dasan Ahanu (spoken word) 4:15 to 4:45
• Lumpy’s Ice Cream (eating contest) 5:00 to 5:30

Downtown Raleigh Amphitheater

Barenaked Ladies 9:15 – 10:45pm (ticketed event through www.LiveNation.com and also avalable at the Amphitheater box ofice.)

10:45pm – Fireworks

Note: I will repost this on Friday, July 30, as a reminder.