Baltimore Summer Events!

If your own skin didn't already inform you that it's warm outside, there's that overhead hum-drip of window-mounted air conditioners, the shimmering of heatwaves on every concrete surface, and the street vendors hollering about ice-cold snowballs and $1 bottles of water. In short, this week has brought summer on with an absolute furnace of tropical heat.

Fortunately, Baltimore offers a simmering sample of distractions on these roasting hot, clingingly humid days of summer. Here are a few festivals and events happening in the near future that are definitely worth checking out:

• The Strand Theater's 2011 Friends & Neighbors Festival from June 1-19
• Federal Hill's Jazz&Blues Wine&Art Festival on June 5
• The Greek Folk Festival from June 9-12
• HonFest from June 11-12
  
• Baltimore Pride 2011 from June 17-19
• The Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival on June 18
• ROOTS Fest 2011: Many Communities, One Voice from June 22-26
• LatinoFest 2011 from June 25-26
• The African American Festival from July 2-3
• Artscape from July 15-17

To see the MANY, MANY more events happening in and around Baltimore, visit http://baltimore.org/events/ OR http://www.baltimoresun.com/events/.