{"id":261882,"date":"2026-05-07T11:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:37:08","slug":"weekend-spotlight-country-thunder-lands-in-clearwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261882\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend spotlight: Country Thunder lands in Clearwater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kane Brown, Gavin Adcock, Zach Top and Shaboozey are the headline acts at the Country Thunder country music festival, Friday through Sunday at Coachman Park in Clearwater.<\/p>\n<p>Other performers include Gretchen Wilson, Randy Houser, Max McNown and well over a dozen more, on two stages.<\/p>\n<p>This, of course, is the event moved, at the 11th hour, from St. Pete Beach over concerns about potential impacts to the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Country Thunder info and tickets are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countrythunder.com\/florida?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=search&amp;utm_campaign=guptamedia&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23346517328&amp;gbraid=0AAAAACoxJuR4lUs5m8DvZOPY8gArcHE4X&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwzevPBhBaEiwAplAxvhHRJEwUVt1S-1xHQMq9qk_sfDDd-9K3IdfZPLwwPSltUEIPWYXb3xoCCWcQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Symphonic sweets<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea Gallo conducts The Florida Orchestra for Sunday\u2019s Free Pops in the Park which, you guessed it, does not require a ticket or admission fee. The 7:30 p.m. concert takes place at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, Tampa \u2013 across the Hillsborough River from the Straz Center (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampa.gov\/parks-and-recreation\/featured-parks\/riverfrontpark.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here\u2019s a map<\/a>). Bring a blanket and a picnic (no glass please). Happy Mother\u2019s Day from TFO.<\/p>\n<p>Fate and Fantasies is the new program from conductor Mark Sforzini and the Tampa Bay Symphony. Concerts are Friday (8 p.m.) at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newtampaartscenter.org\/events\/tbs-fates-and-fantasies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New Tampa Performing Arts Center<\/a>, and Sunday (2:30 p.m.) at the <a href=\"https:\/\/palatspc.na.ticketsearch.com\/sales\/salesevent\/29625\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Palladium Theater\u2019s Hough Hall<\/a> (the big room).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115882\" class=\"wp-image-115882\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-Magicians-Table-Straz-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"443\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-115882\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Live theater, music and lots of close-up magic are part of the package wih Great Britain\u2019s \u201cThe Magician\u2019s Table,\u201d through May 31 in the Straz Center\u2019s Jaeb Theatre. Photos provided.<\/p>\n<p>On theater stages<\/p>\n<p>Actor Matthew McGee has a Mother\u2019s Day cabaret at 2 p.m. Sunday at freeFall Theatre, pre-empting the Sunday show of And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, which otherwise continues through May 17.<\/p>\n<p>McGee and his mother, actress and singer Debbie McLeod, call their show Mama, I\u2019m Coming Home. It\u2019s to be an afternoon of showtunes and stories, \u201creminiscing and laughing about 50 years of unforgettable memories.\u201d Find all freeFall tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/ci.ovationtix.com\/34941\/production\/1269146?performanceId=11783345\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Jobsite Theater is opening its new production, John Patrick Shanley\u2019s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Friday in the Straz Center\u2019s Shimberg Playhouse (there\u2019s a preview performance tonight). Summer Bohnenkamp directs Georgia Mallory Guy and Alex Teicheira as troubled Roberta and troubled Danny, in a one-act drama Variety calls \u201cA dark and dirty riposte to meet-cute Hollywood romances about lovable losers finding each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Find showtimes and tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jobsitetheater.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Actor, writer, rapper (and middle school history teacher) Lance Markeith Felton \u2013 he starred as Malcolm X in the recent Stageworks production of the play The Meeting \u2013 will debut songs from his new album Emancipation Friday (7-10:30 p.m.) at the Fringe Theatre, Ybor City (1624 East 7th Ave., Suite 211). It\u2019s part of the Get Free Open Mic Night.<\/p>\n<p>Felton, accompanied by the band Maturity, will intersperse the music with monologues.<\/p>\n<p>His next stage project is American Stage\u2019s The Hot Wing King (opening June 3).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Soccer superstar<\/p>\n<p>Legendary soccer player Clyde Best, whose career spans many successful years in England, as well as an especially prolific few years with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 1970s, will be at the Palladium Theater Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Best will speak and answer questions following a nightly screening of the documentary Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story. Read more, and find tickets, <a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/soccer-legend-clyde-best-here-with-documentary-this-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Art openings<\/p>\n<p>Dali in America opens Friday at the Dali Museum, on the heels of the May 2 opening of The Architecture of the Dali. The former traces the artist\u2019s transformative relationship with the United States, while the latter explores the groundbreaking art museum\u2019s past, present and future here in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p>To discuss them both, Curator Peter Tush guests on Friday\u2019s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast.<\/p>\n<p>The National Geographic exhibit Wolves: Photography by Ronan Donovan opens Saturday at the James Museum of Western &amp; Wildlife Art. Read about it, and view some of the stunning images, <a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/james-museum-introduces-wolves-to-st-pete\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-eight artists provided works for REALM, opening Friday in the FloridaRAMA Gallery. The exhibition, curated by Chad Mize, opens with a reception, 7-9 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115883\" class=\"wp-image-115883\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/David-Lucas-Killers-of-Kill-Tony-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"576\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-115883\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Lucas is part of the Killers of Kill Tony comedy show Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater. Photo: Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>Comedy<\/p>\n<p>Heroes Off Duty (comedy from first responders \u2013 police, firefighters, doctors, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists and military veterans) is at the Capitol Theatre Friday at 7:30 p.m. Find tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rutheckerdhall.com\/events\/detail\/heroes-off-duty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Podcast comedians collectively known as Killers of Kill Tony have two shows (7 and 9:30 p.m.) Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater. Find tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/themahaffey.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Concerts<\/p>\n<p>Rapper Kid Cudi touches down Friday at Benchmark Arena. The artist, real name Scott Mescudi, fired opening act M.I.A. from his tour Monday, after she made incendiary comments about illegal aliens during the May 2 show in Houston. She was roundly booed from the audience. \u201cAfter the last couple of shows, I\u2019ve been flooded with messages from fans that were upset by her rants,\u201d Kid Cudi wrote on social media. \u201cThis, to me, is very disappointing and I won\u2019t have someone on my tour making offensive remarks that upsets my fanbase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Big Boi and A-Trak remain on the bill for Friday\u2019s 6:30 concert; tickets are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ticketmaster.com\/event\/0D006434C6AD8FC5?utm_source=BIA_Event_Page&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=BIA_2026_kid_cudi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cuban singer, writer, actor and producer Leoni Torres performs Sunday in Morsani Hall, at Tampa\u2019s Straz Center. Tickets for the Mother\u2019s Day show, at 7:30 p.m., can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strazcenter.org\/events\/2526-season\/rental\/leoni-torres\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Metal at Jannus Live Sunday, 6 p.m., from Exodus and Biohazard. Tickets are <a href=\"https:\/\/jannuslive.com\/events\/exodus-with-biohazard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Coming up next<\/p>\n<p>May 11 Kings Kaleidoscope at the Palladium Theater<\/p>\n<p>May 12 Tampa Bay Symphony: Fate and Fantasies at Straz Center Ferguson Hall<\/p>\n<p>May 12-15 Six (Broadway tour) at Straz Center Ferguson Hall<\/p>\n<p>May 13 Bush at the BayCare Sound<\/p>\n<p>May 13 Cellist Luka Sulic at the Mahaffey Theater<\/p>\n<p>May 14-21 Dead Canary Productions\u2019 HIR at The Studio@620<\/p>\n<p>May 14 Classic Albums Live Creedence Clearwater Revival \u201cChronicle\u201d at the Capitol Theatre<\/p>\n<p>May 14 Sit Down for Stand Up (comedy) at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret<\/p>\n<p>May 15 Foghat &amp; Nazareth at Ferg\u2019s<\/p>\n<p>May 15 Ruslan KD (Christian podcaster) at the Capitol Theatre<\/p>\n<p>May 15-17 Dream Child: The Trial of Alice in Wonderland at Powerstories Studio<\/p>\n<p>May 15 Journey at Benchmark Arena<\/p>\n<p>May 16 Jason Mraz at Ruth Eckerd Hall<\/p>\n<p>May 16 Pitbull at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre<\/p>\n<p>May 16 Our House: The Music of CSNY at the Capitol Theatre<\/p>\n<p>May 16-18 I, Banquo at Straz Center Shimberg Playhouse<\/p>\n<p>May 17 Willie Nelson at the BayCare Sound<\/p>\n<p>May 20 Bill Wharton The Sauce Boss at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret<\/p>\n<p>May 21 Sam Barber at the BayCare Sound<\/p>\n<p>May 21 Josh Gates at Ruth Eckerd Hall<\/p>\n<p>May 21 Forever Young\/Bob Dylan Birthday Bash with Have Gun Will Travel, Grant Peeples, The Currys, Bad Dog Mama at the Palladium Theater<\/p>\n<p>See the full list of announced May events\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/looking-forward-the-month-of-may-in-the-arts-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/category\/create\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Your Weekend Spotlight<\/a>\u00a0appears every Thursday in the\u00a0Catalyst\u2019s CREATE section.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Please add us to your mailing list \u2013 send all press releases and event info to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/weekend-spotlight-country-thunder-lands-in-clearwater\/mailto:bill@stpetecatalyst.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">bill@stpetecatalyst.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can also submit your events to the\u00a0Catalyst\u00a0calendar, by clicking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/contribute\/event\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kane Brown, Gavin Adcock, Zach Top and Shaboozey are the headline acts at the Country Thunder country music&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-261882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}