April 16, 19-20
A festival of guitars
The Utah Symphony is staging its Guitar Celebrations Festival this week, paying tribute to the six-string wonder with a couple of programs. On Tuesday night, the collective Another Night on Earth — eight electric and acoustic guitarists from all over the world — will perform “An Evening of 8 Guitars,” at 8 p.m. at The State Room, 638 S. State St., Salt Lake City. (Note: The symphony will not be performing at this show.) Friday and Saturday at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, the Utah Symphony will accompany several guitarists, including Another Night on Earth (on Frank Zappa’s “G-Spot Tornado”) and South Korean guitarist/DJ Jiji on Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” (a work sampled by everyone from Led Zeppelin to Spinal Tap). Shows start at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets available at UtahSymphony.org.
April 17
Explaining the universe
Astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson is famous for many things: Leading the campaign to get Pluto demoted to “dwarf planet” status; hosting the 2014 remake of Carl Sagan’s landmark documentary series “Cosmos”; and getting humorously pedantic about the “Star Wars” movies. Tyson will be speaking on “The Cosmic Perspective,” Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, Salt Lake City. Limited tickets are available at live-at-the-eccles.com.
April 19-20
Tumbleweeds is for kids
The Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Kids, run by the Utah Film Center, is happening Friday and Saturday, at the Viridian Event Center, 8030 S. 1825 West, West Jordan. Entries in the festival’s kids’ film competition will screen Friday, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday will see a full day of screenings — four feature films and two short film programs — as well as workshops and guest speakers. Admission for the film screenings is free, though it’s recommended that people reserve their tickets. There are fees for most of the workshops. Go to https://tumbleweedskids.org/ for information.
