At - Entertainment A Weekend Of Festivals In addition to Arts, Beats & Eats, Labor Day weekend offers a number of signature events. Take your pick: Labor Day Michigan Renaissance Festival: Through Oct. 3, Holly. (800) 601-4848; www. michrenfest.com . With its move to Royal Oak, Arts, Beats & Eats promises holiday fun for the whole family. Michigan Peach Festival: Sept. 2 6, Romeo. www.peachfestromeo.com . - Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News A s visitors move through the new Royal Oak setting of the Arts, Beats & Eats festival over Labor Day weekend, a group of metro area non- rofits will be partnering with the event and benefiting from proceeds. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and JARC are among the designated organizations. "We are excited to partner again with this wonderful event',' says Michael Benghiat, community-marketing director of Federation. `Arts, Beats & Eats provides a great way to have fun while supporting our Jewish community "Since providing about 15 volunteers and realizing $3,000 last year, we put out another call for volunteers and have more than 40 so far. It is our hope that with greater participation, Federation will garner a higher contribution." Jon Witz has been the producer of Arts, Beats & Eats since it started some 13 years ago and has lined up national and local music stars, includ- ing country hit-maker Clint Black; juried artists in a range of media; pop- ABE producer ular food vendors; and Jon Witz hands-on kids' activities. ._ 41.1 I Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News am LE Feature Debut , Drew Barrymore and Justin Long co-star in the romantic comedy Going mom the Distance, opening Friday, Sept. 3. Barrymore plays Erin, a charming ,gal who is spending the summer in New York City before heading home to San Francisco. She meets and hits it off with Garrett (Long), who lives in the city. Their six-week romance turns into something serious; and when Erin returns home, the couple decide to try to pursue a long- distance romance via modern technology Nanette like cell phones, Burstein ig - a 92 September 2 • 2010 Festival visitors can attend any or all days, Friday through Monday, Sept. 3-6. "Royal Oak provides an incredibly inter- active environment with theaters, shops, restaurants and nightspots," Witz says. "People can swing between established ven- ues and street concessions. The Royal Oak community has been very welcoming." After checking an activities map and performance schedules on the Arts, Beats & Eats website (www.artsbeatseats.com ), visi- tors driving to the fair can avail themselves of more than 10,500 parking spaces and shuttle services from different locations. Bicycle parking and rides on SMART buses also will be available. WWJ radio will have festival traffic updates every 10 minutes. "The festival will have a very eclectic feel;' says Witz, a member of the Jewiswh community who prepares for the annual event by meeting with stakeholders, from business representatives to area residents. "We planned our musical entertainment this year with the help of a 14-person com- mittee representing the Detroit music scene. "On the Vince & Joe's Stage, which will have international music styles, there will be cooking exhibitions four times a day. We've tripled the family areas with arts and crafts projects, inflatables and carnival fun?' Mayer Hawthorne, who grew up in Ann Arbor as Drew Cohen and built an interna- tional career with his soul style, will appear 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 4, on the Michigan texting and sexting. Distance is directed by Nanette Burstein, 38, who is making her feature-film debut. Burstein, who grew up in a Reform home and attended an Orthodox day school, is best known as a documentary filmmaker. Her works include the Oscar-nominated doc The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), about legendary Hollywood executive Robert Evans. Bad Timing The Toronto Film Festival begins on Sept. 9, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and ends the day after Yom Kippur. Martin Knelman, writing for the Toronto Star, pointed this out as very unfortunate because a very large proportion of the festival's key patrons are Jewish – as are so are many of the industry's key players, like buyers and Detroit International Jazz Festival: Sept. 3-6, downtown Detroit. www.detroitjazzfest.com . Mayer Hawthorne will take the stage at Arts, Beats & Eats. Lottery Stage. "We're planning a dynamite soul revue with our whole band, the County?' says Hawthorne, 31, a multi-instrumentalist with falsetto and breakbeat sounds."We'll be doing songs from our recording A Strange Arrangement, and we might have a few guests from Detroit." With increasing attention to his CD — hip-hop hotshot Kanye West recently tweeted about it, saying, "That Mayer Hawthorne album brings me back to that golden time in music" — Hawthorne has been featured at festivals throughout America and Europe. "I love the outdoors',' says Hawthorne, who moved to California. "It's totally differ- ent from the club experience. It feels more spontaneous, and anything can happen. "I'll be releasing a lot of new songs in the next few months and an album next year," says Hawthorne, who had his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor and turned his middle name and Ann Arbor street name into his stage name. "I wake up every morning thanking the Lord I get to do this." Also performing at Arts, Beats & Eats sellers of films. A festival spokesman said they had no choice but to stick to the festival's usual starting and ending dates but had added additional screen- ings of the films scheduled to premiere on the Jewish High Holy Days. Traditionally, Canadian films open the festival, but the biggest Canadian feature film, Barney's Version, from the Mordechai Richler novel, will not be shown on Sept. 9. Robert Lantos, the film's producer, insisted that it not premiere on the High Holiday as origi- nally schedule. Starring Paul Giamatti as Barney (a Canadian Jew), with Dustin Hoffman play- ing his father, Barney will come to area the- aters this December. 4h Robert Lantos River Raisin Labor Day BBC): Sept. 4, downtown Monroe. www.monroeinf.com . Hamtramck Labor Day Festival: Sept. 4-6, downtown Hamtramck. (313) 974- 2242; www.hamtownferst.com . Round Up: Sept. 6, downtown Franklin, (248) 626-9666. will be local performers known in the Jewish community: Billy Brandt at 11 a.m. Friday on the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Stage, Kidz Klez of Michigan at 1:30 p.m. Monday on the Vince & Joe's Stage and Jesse Palter at 3:30 p.m. Monday on the Pepsi Stage. "I believe this year's Arts, Beats & Eats raises the quality of what already was high quality?' Witz says. "I look at many other festivals, and I think this is the most unique and fun-filled. We built this event for the entire community " Arts, Beats & Eats runs 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Sept. 3-5, and 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 6, in downtown Royal Oak. $3 admission fee. (248) 334-4600; www.artsbeatseats.com . Cheer For Ashley Ashley Tisdale, 25, whose mother is Jewish, played bad girl Sharpay Evans in Disney's hugely suc- cessful High School z Musical series. If she Ashley Tisdale is very lucky, her new CW series, Hellcats, will give Tisdale the follow-up hit her career really needs. The show pre- mieres 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept 8. Hellcats centers on Marti (Alsyon Michalka), a smart-but-poor college student who loses her scholarship. She has no choice but to join the school's big-time cheerleading squad because cheerleaders get financial aid. Her roommate, Savannah (Tisdale), a peppy but tough girl, is the head of the squad.