Spend your weekend at summer fairs, concerts and baseball games, or simply stay in and cheer on your home team at the Olympics.

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By
Seattle Times staff

1. Go to all the fairs

If you saw or heard five thunderous, very synchronized blue jets overhead yesterday, you witnessed the U.S. Navy Blue Angels preparing for Seattle’s annual Seafair Weekend, which kicks off today. Head to the event today for free, or catch the aquatic activities this weekend with a $30 advance ticket. (Plan for traffic, though.)

Prefer the arts? Head to the Seattle Art Fair, now in its second year. There, you will find work from the likes of Kehinde Wiley, Kazumi Nakamura and Dale Chihuly, as well as lesser-known artists, plus parties and performances.

2. Get pumped for the Olympics

Sure, conditions may not be ideal in Rio right now. But don’t let that overshadow the fact that the world is setting aside its differences for a couple weeks to celebrate its elite-most athletes, the vast majority of whom (I’d like to think) got there through sheer passion, grit and work ethic.

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Get familiar with some of our local athletes:

And keep track of all 43 of them in our handy-dandy local Olympians tracker. The 2016 Olympics opening ceremony airs tonight at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

3. Head to a free concert

The KEXP Summer Concerts at the Mural series starts this evening at Seattle Center and, true to KEXP’s spirit, every show is free. Tonight’s concert features The Thermals, hailing from Portland, as well as Seattle bands Acapulco Lips and Mommy Long Legs.

4. Splurge on this rooftop bar

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a pretty magnificent rooftop bar in the heart of downtown Seattle, where you can enjoy, fancy cocktail in hand, a grand view of the Puget Sound and the city below. Unsurprisingly, the Nest is a bit spendy, at $15 a cocktail ($20+/person if you’d like to reserve a spot). But if you take the view into account, that’s like a $10 cocktail and $5 admission fee, right?

5. Pay homage to “The Kid”

It’s Griffey Weekend, in celebration of Seattle Mariners great Ken Griffey Jr.’s induction into the Hall of Fame. At each of the three Mariners games this weekend you can snag some Griffey swag — from a bobblehead to a replica jersey. Congrats, Junior.

For more festivities, subscribe to our Weekender newsletter and check out our complete Summer Guide. Have a great weekend!

This story was corrected on August 5 at 9:21 a.m.. The Olympics opening ceremony airs at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

Shirley Qiu: sqiu@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @callmeshirleyq.