Artscape

R&B artist Brian McKnight, rockers Clutch and funksters the Rebirth Brass Band will headline this year's Artscape festival, set for July 20-22. The performance lineup, along with other details of the three-day festival that attracts about 350,000 visitors each year, was announced Wednesday by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. McKnight, a 16-time Grammy nominee whose albums have sold millions of copies, will perform at 7:30 p.m. July 20. Clutch, whose four members hail from Germantown, has released nine albums, most recently 2009's "Strange Cousins from the West.

If things go wrong at Artscape on Saturday night — and you just never know — 10 of Baltimore's most intrepid comics will suffer a long, excruciating and very public death by microphone. For the first time in 29 years, the festival will offer a night of stand-up humor, LOL@Artscape. The stakes are high, because laughter is a notoriously unpredictable compound, and an open-air festival doesn't offer the ideal circumstances for generating yucks. But the 10 funny men and women who auditioned for the two-hour showcase can't wait for the chance to try out their favorite punch lines.

Jam rock band Gov't Mule, neo soul singer Musiq Soulchild and Washington-based rapper Wale will headline this year's Artscape festival, according to organizers. The full lineup for the three-day celebration of visual arts and music, which will be announced at a news conference today, also features indie rockers Cold War Kids, soul singer Maysa, singer/songwriter Jackie Greene and reggae group Rebelution, among others. This year's roster could appeal to a younger audience than festivals from years past, which typically feature several vintage acts.

Artscape stopped taking online reservations for ticketed events today. Those tickets are now only available at Guest Services at Lyric Opera House, or at the ticket stations on site. Some readers had complained about glitches on the ticketing website today. Tracy Baskerville, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, said the website's server was overwhelmed. "We have had a high a volume of folks on the web site [sic]... and our web company is increasing our space," she wrote over e-mail.  But as for the tickets, all pre-event reservations have sold out, Baskerville said.

  The Wisconsin-style fried cheese curds are back at Artscape . You can find them at Stella Jeanne's Festival Foods booth, which is near the Lyric theater on Mount Royal Avenue but facing the Mount Royal Station stage. Above is the Baltimore Sun cheese-curd finder. Curds are a by-product of the cheese-making process. They have a consistency most people describe as squeaky. And the perfect thing to do with them -- fry them. The folks that make them are based in Philadelphia but the wife, who is expecting a child any day now, is from the Midwest, where cheese curds are huge.

She said she had a boyfriend but he didn't come to Artscape. “Well then, I was wondering, can I be your boyfriend for the next five or six minutes,” asked the multi-platinum R&B singer Brian McKnight to the fan he plucked from the crowd. As she sat on a stool in the middle of the Wells Fargo stage in mid-town Belvedere Friday night, her smile beamed on the big screen. To the surprise of no one (except perhaps that boyfriend), she agreed. McKnight, in the middle of his 75-minute headlining set, began serenading her with “Another You,” from his 2009 album “Evolution of a Man.” Toward the end of the song, the new couple stood up and McKnight embraced her in a tender hug, to envious screams.

It's 3:37 p.m., and 2-year-old Hattie's right leg is covered in melted SpongeBob SquarePants. She came by the cartoon-shaped ice cream less than 10 minutes before at a roving stand near the intersection of Mount Royal and Lafayette avenues. Hattie hadn't eaten much when the treat puddled in her lap, devoured by the sun's mid-80s heat. Behind her in a two-kid stroller, her brother Will, 4, was doing a bit better with his ice cream sandwich, as were their cousins, Zeb and Fiona, ages 3 and 5, respectively, who were stumbling alongside their mother and aunt.

Thursday night's thunderstorms did little damage to Artscape, the giant free arts festival that opened as planned at 11 a.m. today, organizers said. "A few things blew around a bit and some installations got wet, but that's all," said Tracy Baskerville, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. "I was just up there, and a few things looked wet, but it didn't look like they couldn't carry on. " The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for the Baltimore area, beginning at noon today and running through this evening.

Bob Sicard is in charge of lining up partnerships for Artscape. He's the guy who has to find sponsors willing to put up enough cash to ensure that the country's largest free outdoor arts festival remains the country's largest free outdoor arts festival. In a time of recession, in a city staring down a $121 million budget deficit, you'd think Sicard would be in a tough position. Trying to raise money at a time like this can't be easy, right? But Sicard says that he's coming off his best year ever.

With a kiddy Grand Prix race, a gathering of videogame programmers and artists, and plenty of hands-on arts and crafts, this year's Artscape will offer plenty of family-friendly activities. In fact, Artscape director Kathy Hornig has made it a mission to offer families plenty of free options at the three-day event. "They've evolved over the years," Hornig said about the offerings. "When I first started, there were things for kids to do, but they cost money. We've worked very hard to make sure that parents can come down and have something the whole family can do for free.