Tonight. Journey into outer space in “King Pakal’s Mayan Space Adventures” at Downtown Aurora Visual Arts. Middle school students in the DAVA job-training program created the street-theater morality tale as a summer project. Oh, yeah: The show is in the parking lot because it stars gigantic, 12-foot-tall puppets built by the students. 8 p.m. tonight. Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, 1405 Florence St.; 303-367-5886. Free.
Today-Sunday. Art, music and dancing will fill City Park all weekend during the 22nd annual Denver Black Arts Festival. Today is Youth Day, with children’s art activities, hip-hop performances, an African-American Greek step show and more. Saturday’s festivities kick off with the popular Boogaloo Celebration Parade around Ferril Lake in the park, followed by music and dancing all day. Sunday’s entertainment features gospel choirs from around the city and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. The Watu Sokoni (“People’s Marketplace”) will be buzzing throughout the festival, along with an art pavilion, sculpture garden and community mural painting. Noon to 7 p.m. tonight, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. City Park near East 17th Avenue and Steele Street. A $1 donation is requested.
Today-Sunday. Follow the sounds of bagpipes and bodhrans to the center of Clement Park for the Colorado Irish Festival this weekend. The festival moved to a larger space near the lake this year to accommodate the crowds of Celts. Three days of Irish sports, storytelling, dancing and shopping start tonight with a little post-work happy hour: Admission is free from 5 to 6 p.m., with drink specials to boot. Of course, the music is the main attraction all three days — catch contemporary and traditional acts like Gaelic Storm, Solas and The Barra MacNeils, and rock out with U2 cover band Under a Blood Red Sky. 5-10 p.m. tonight, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Clement Park, 7306 W. Bowles Ave., Littleton. Admission is free from 5 to 6 p.m. tonight and $10 after. Saturday and Sunday, admission is $12. Children under 12 are free all weekend.
Saturday-Sunday. Explore your creepy-crawly side at the Butterfly Pavilion’s Insectival. Back — and a day longer — by popular demand, the insectival invites families to learn about conservation and how it helps Colorado’s creatures. Educational activities abound, plus ladybug releases, face painting, games and — for the brave — cockroach races. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Butterfly Pavilion, 6252 W. 104th Ave., Westminster; 303-469-5441. Insectival is included in regular admission: $7.95 for adults, $4.95 for kids ages 3 to 12, and $5.95 for Westminster residents and seniors age 62 and older. Children under 3 are free.
Saturday. Fans of “Bob the Builder” will go nuts (and bolts) over “Junior Jobsite,” the newest exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Denver. Kids put on hard hats, grab the blueprints and play safely with real items from a construction site. The walls need painting and the pipes need checking, too, so they’ve got some work to do. In celebration of the exhibit’s opening day on Saturday, giant construction machines will be displayed on the plaza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — kids can chat with the machines’ operators too. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Children’s Museum of Denver, 2121 Children’s Museum Drive; 303-433-7444. Museum admission is $7.50 for visitors ages 2 to 59, $5.50 for children age 1 and seniors age 60 and older. Kids under 1 are free.
