Spring is here and that means festival season is upon us. But you don’t have to run off to KC’s Middle of the Map to fill your festival needs. We’ll be showcasing several festivals and festival-like events in LFK over the next few weekends alongside the other worthy picks.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/10/289870/

CS Luxem/Mat Shoare Release and Tour Kickoff/La Guerre (full band), 10 p.m. Thursday, Replay Lounge

Consider kicking off the weekend early with this nice triple-header at the Replay. The prolific and always-experimenting CS Luxem headlines an evening that also serves as a release party for Mat Shoare (check out his new video “Murder” via PopMatters). Make sure to get there early, as Katlyn Conroy’s La Guerre will be expanding to a full-band for this show, and La Guerre in a full-band incarnation is a treat.

The Facebook event page is here.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/11/289899/

Record Store Day, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Love Garden

Record Store Day is like an early Christmas for music-loving scenesters, and Love Garden is the best (and pretty much only) place to celebrate in LFK. Visit their Facebook event page here for helpful links regarding the day’s exclusive releases. And make sure to study the page closely, as you’ll find Love Garden’s specific regulations that have been devised to keep you crazed collectors from getting too unruly as you try to snag such treats as a colored-vinyl heart-shaped 7″ of Father John Misty’s “I Love You, Honeybear.”

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/14/290017/

Farmers’ Ball semifinals, doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Saturday, Bottleneck

KJHK’s long-running and ever-popular Battle of the Bands competition known as Farmers’ Ball returns this weekend and the next. The eight bands chosen for Saturday’s semis range from familiar faces like Dean Monkey and the Dropouts (who have been performing in holes in the ground behind the train station as far back as 2011) to newer bands like NO CAVE (who play “dark bandicoot jazz,” according to their Facebook page).

As always, the audience votes on the winners, who then advance to the final round on April 24. Top prize is $2,000, which buys a lot of PBR or perhaps some recording time, depending on the band’s work ethic.

The Facebook event page is here with helpful details but (unhelpfully) no links to the respective Facebook pages of the eight participating bands. You can, however, check out Fally Afani’s I Heart Local Music blog where she gives a quick rundown of the participating bands. Also click here and see a cool profile of Arc Flash on YouTube via KJHK, and maybe more will be added as well.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/10/289863/

Pop-Up Festival, 11:30 a.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, North Sands Warehouse

The Farmers’ Ball is sort of like a festival, in that it has a lot of bands. But a true festival really needs several stages. Saturday’s Pop-Up Festival in North Lawrence has two stages, and they will be filled to bursting all day and (literally) all-night long on Saturday with many of the area’s solid bluegrass, folk and jam bands. Don’t miss those lovely Sugar Britches, who received the full Weekend Picks showcase treatment recently, along with local favorites like Tyler Gregory and Cowgirl’s Trainset, plus bands paying tribute to The Meters (cool) and Grateful Dead (groovy, if you like that sort of thing).

Hopefully attendees are not too stoned to find their way to the address listed on the flier above. What IS the North Sands Warehouse? Our personal North Lawrence music treks consist mostly of the Gaslight and Frank’s, so it’s a new venue to us.

The Facebook event page is here.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/10/289875/

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/11/289900/

‘Dark Command’ screenings and exhibit opening, Saturday, Watkins Museum of History

In 1940, none other than John Wayne (along with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers) came to town for the world-premiere of the Lawrence-set film “Dark Command,” based on Quantrill’s 1863 raid on our fair town. It’s a legendary Lawrence event, and some claim as many as 75,000 people turned out for the premiere and a massive parade. Read a great 1998 LJWorld piece on the event here and stop by Watkins Museum on Saturday to see a new exhibit about the premiere, as well as three screenings of the film at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.).

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/10/289871/

Second Annual Lawrence Poetry Fair, noon-4 p.m. Sunday, Lawrence Arts Center

Perhaps you prefer fairs to festivals? Stop by the LAC Sunday as it celebrates National Poetry Month with the second-annual Lawrence Poetry Fair. Here are some details via the LAC site:

“All poets who have published at least one book (or chapbook) and representatives from poetry journals are welcome to attend, sell books/journals, and participate in poetry reading at an open mic. Readings will be limited to 10 minutes each. If you plan to sell books or journals, please bring dollar bills for making change. To register, email Beth Schultz at: eschultz@ku.edu.”

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/apr/14/290019/

Letter Writing Club, 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Decade Coffee Shop (hosted by Wonder Fair)

If you’re like us, perhaps you enjoy taking occasional breaks from writing smart-ass tweets in order to pen heartfelt letters to friends and lovers (though we suppose angry rants to bitter foes could work just as well). This month’s installment of Wonder Fair’s Letter Writing Club promises to be extra-cool, marking the debut of the event’s custom return-address stamp carved by local paper/printmaker Kelsey Pike.

Give Letter Writing Club a “like” on Facebook here and find the full details about the events at the Wonder Fair site here so that you will know what to bring (pens and paper) and what NOT to bring (laptops…because this event is old-school!!)

Tweet us @LarryvilleLife with tips for next week, which is slated to include at least TWO Festivals: the second annual Riptide Comedy Festival and the inaugural (and free) See/Saw Film Festival at Lawrence Public Library.