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For one weekend, South Norwalk hands its main street over to the makers. The SoNo Arts Festival — a Norwalk summer tradition run by Gordon Fine Arts — turns Washington Street and North and South Main into a two-day, open-air gallery: a juried show of painters, printmakers, jewelers, and sculptors, live music on the corners, hands-on art tables for the kids, and food vendors to keep you fed while you browse. The signature moment lands Sunday at 1, when a giant puppet parade winds down the festival route — homemade creatures towering over the crowd, half art project, half neighborhood party. Come for an hour, stay for the afternoon. It’s free to walk in, and the whole thing is built for wandering.

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Summer Concert: Forever Ray

Midweek, bring a chair to the sand. The city’s free Summer Concert Series rolls on at Calf Pasture Beach with Forever Ray, a tribute to Ray Charles — Georgia-on-my-mind soul with Long Island Sound as the backdrop. Come early, watch the light go down over the water, and let somebody else handle the setlist. Free, and about as easy as a summer night gets.

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Community Day on Academy Street

Saturday afternoon, the block around 19 Academy Street turns into a neighborhood gathering. Bethel Norwalk Community Works & Foundation of Hope hosts its annual Community Day — music, raffles and prizes, free supplies, and a spread of local resources and services set up for anyone who stops by. It’s a come-as-you-are afternoon built on the simple idea that a community shows up for itself. All are welcome, and it’s free.

The arts festival draws its crowds to Washington Street, a block South Norwalk built on the oyster — and the beds are still worked. Just off the coast, Norm Bloom & Son, the family behind Copps Island Oysters, farms thousands of acres of shellfish grounds, running one of the largest oyster operations on the East Coast out of the same harbor that gave the trade its start. Norwalk still lands its shellfish by the boatload, and still throws itself an Oyster Festival every September down at Veterans Park. So the art on Washington Street this weekend sits a few blocks from a working waterfront that never really stopped.

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