Six May Events to Experience Around Vero Beach

Summer Camps

It’s time to see if spaces remain in any of our local summer camps. Your children have lots to pick from! They can hone their musical skills with the Gifford Academy for Performing Arts (772-213-3007, giffordacademy.org); enjoy sports, including aquatics and gymnastics, at the City of Vero Beach Recreation Department (772-770-6500, covb.org/208/camps); try creative writing with the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation (772-569-6718, lauraridingjackson.org); make arts and crafts at Vero Beach Museum of Art (772-231-0707, vbmuseum.org); or explore nature at the Environmental Learning Center (772-589-5050, discoverelc.org), McKee Botanical Garden (772-794-0601, mckeegarden.org), or Pelican Island Audubon Society (772-226-1565, pelicanislandaudubon.org). Contact the organizations of your choice for their dates, costs, age ranges, and activities.

Pirate & Fairy Festival

For the 15th year, McKee Botanical Garden will whip up some whimsy with the annual Pirate & Fairy Festival, which will take place May 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children of all ages are invited to let their imaginations run wild as they dress in their fairy finery or swashbuckling suits. It will be a day filled with games, crafts, entertainment, and the application of fairy hair! Regular admission fees apply. For more information, call the garden at 772-794-0601 or visit its website, mckeegarden.org.

Vero Beach Air Show

The biennial Air Show will take place May 15–17 at Vero Beach Regional Airport. The headliner will once again be the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, scheduled to perform Saturday and Sunday. Aerobatic pilot Aarron Deliu will be in town with his Extra 330 aircraft, as will Tony Remudo and his Cold War–era MiG-17. Mini Jet Airshows is sure to captivate the audience with its tiny craft: a highly modified SubSonex jet that is less than 20 feet long, has an 18-foot wingspan, weighs 500 pounds, and can approach 300 mph! The fun begins Friday with a night show (6–9:30 p.m.). General admission tickets for adults (age 13+) are $20 and up. Saturday and Sunday (9 a.m.–4 p.m.) tickets are $25 and up. Children 12 and under are admitted free with a paid adult. Reserved and premium seating options are available, and concession stands will offer a variety of food, beverages, and souvenirs. Find all the details at veroairshow.com or call 772-410-4831.

Dancing with Vero’s Stars

At Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition’s premier fundraiser, 10 dancing couples will dazzle the audience May 16 at Riverside Theatre. The event, now in its 14th year, pairs prominent local figures with professional dancers. After months of practice, they take the stage in an effort to samba, rumba, and cha-cha their way to the coveted Mirrorball. This year’s star dancers include county commissioner Susan Adams, attorney Ryan Scarpa, and Brandy Buckner, owner of Sweet Desires. The time is 6:30 p.m., and tickets are $175 and up. For more information, visit irchealthystartcoalition.org/dwvs or call 772-563-9118. Shown here are Annamarie LaBella, Riverside Theatre’s director of special events; Adrianne Ward, IRCHSC development manager; Jon Moses, Riverside CEO; Megan McFall, IRCHSC CEO; and Ron Toperzer, DWVS committee chair.

Heritage Bluegrass

The inaugural season of bluegrass music at the Heritage Center (2140 14th Ave.) will wrap up May 22 with the Americana/bluegrass/folk band Remedy Tree. Founded in 2015 by St. Augustine couple Gabriel and Abigail Acevedo, the band also includes Nathan Beaumont of Fort Lonesome, Florida and Vero Beach’s own Isaac Taylor. All four are multi-instrumentalists, and the Acevedos find time to make music while rearing three small children. Remedy Tree has released several albums of original songs composed by Gabriel. The concert starts at 6:30 p.m. Entry is free, but prime seating can be reserved for $20. For more information, call 772-770-2263 or visit veroheritage.org.

‘Made in America’

The work of four great 20th-century American composers will be showcased by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra May 24 at the VBHS Performing Arts Center (1707 16th St.). Composer Kenneth Fuchs will present his hauntingly beautiful Quiet in the Land, and pianist Alessandro Fonseca will join the SCSO on George Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. In the show’s second half, selected youth musicians from around Central Florida will join their SCSO counterparts in performing John Williams’ Liberty Fanfare and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. The show starts at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at door; students 18 and under are free. Flexible pricing is available through SCSO’s Symphony for Everyone program. More information can be found at spacecoastsymphony.org.