By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
June will arrive in a few days, and the summer entertainment season is getting ready to blast off.The month of May bids farewell this weekend with several very distinct and very entertaining shows – an all-female music festival in Delaware, classical music from India, a bizarre and very funny professional theater production and yet another visit to the area by a Cirque du Soleil production.
It’s time once again for the Ladybug Music Festival (Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, www.theladybugfestivalwilmington.com) -– a free festival held on Market Street in downtown Wilmington.
The 2026 Ladybug Music Festival will be held on May 30 at several venues along Market Street from noon-9 p.m. in the heart of Wilmington. The event is billed as “the largest free, women-led music festival in the United States.”
The popular annual event will be staged on Saturday on Market Street from Fourth Street to Seventh Street with some additional venues on side street. The Main Stage will be located at the corner of Seventh and Market streets.
The 2026 festival will feature more than 40 different female-fronted bands, duos, and singer-songwriters performing simultaneously at four indoor venues and on three outdoor stages on the 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Market Street.
The roster for this year’s 14th annual staging of the festival includes Mia Borders, Allie Sandt, Alyssa Hankey, Bel, Camp Bedford, Emily Moses McNatt, FORREST, Christine Irizarry, Max Davey, Strays & Misfits, Ndichu, Fawziyya Heart, J. Graves, Sofia Devitt, Jennifer Silva, Blank Page and Trainwreck Boyfriend.
Also featured will be Eat The Cake Band, Women in Sports, Reina Williams and The Remedy, LEX the Lexicon Artist, Rachel Ana Dobken, Jada Lee, Myla Ondra, Emily Moses McNatt, Kat Rivers & the Second Sight, Erin Frances, Selena Tibert, Meg Murray, Alyssa Hankey, Sofía Campoamor and Tabitha Meeks.
This year’s headliner will be Birdie Busch.
Busch makes and records independent music from her home base of Philadelphia. The music is put out by both herself and on adventurous independents like Bar None Records, Be Frank, and Styles Upon Styles creating a constellation of connect-the-dots that has people listening to her music all over the world.
She creates sonic song soundscapes with some of Philly’s finest musicians, producers, and engineers. Critics from American Songwriter to Village Voice have found her of kindred spirit from everyone from Syd Barrett to Eudora Welty.
Busch and her band have shared stages with everyone from Buffy Sainte-Marie and Richie Havens to Dr. Dog and Junip.
The Philly native has released more than 20 albums – the most recent of which is “Night Blooming,” which was just released on March 20, 2026.
Busch is a working sonic and visual artist who strives to reveal things in a way that doesn’t seem like a dissertation but rather a keyhole and places a lot of intention on distilling the complexities of our stories down to core truths via the paths of art and song.
She records and performs original music in tandem with making multimedia art, with a particular fondness for everyday Philadelphians and the neighborhoods they call home. Sometimes the two are intertwined or one influences the other.
Busch comes from a lineage of Polish immigrants that settled in Camden, New Jersey in the latter 19th century. A lot of her work is informed by her love of the folk art of her own ancestry, as well as collage and pattern work.
Another top attraction at Saturday’s festival will be Mia Borders.
Borders is an American singer-songwriter from New Orleans with a sound that mixes soul, funk, rhythm and blues, and electronic music.
She has released seven albums, three singles, and three EPs — the latest being 2024’s release, “Firewalker.”
Over the years, the Ladybug Music Festival has featured an array of top-caliber national acts such as Nalani & Sarina, Phoebe Legere, Rachael Sage, Gina Zo, Gretchen Emery Band and West Chester’s Nicole Zell.
From 2012 through 2017 the event grew to be one of the most popular in Wilmington, with attendance doubling every year. At the 2017 event, the Mayor of Wilmington made a Mayoral Proclamation of Ladybug Day.
The Ladybug Music Festival is a celebration of women in music taking place annually in both Wilmington and Milford, Delaware. Started in 2012 by Gable Music Ventures, the idea was to offer an alternative to the Firefly Music Festival that was focused on local independent artists, and free for the community to attend.
Michael and Debbie Schwartz, owners of the popular Shops and Lofts at 2nd & LOMA, engaged the company to throw a live music block party for their tenants shortly after Firefly was announced.
Gable used the timing of the request to put on the first ever “Ladybug Festival,” featuring an all-female lineup of artists local to the Wilmington/Philadelphia music scene.
As Ladybug grew, so did its reach and impact. The festival expanded to additional locations across Delaware and into Maryland, earning multiple music and tourism awards along the way, as well as official proclamations recognizing Ladybug’s cultural significance.
What started as a single-day experiment evolved into a multi-stage, multi-city experience that continues to draw thousands of music lovers each year.
Even during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ladybug adapted. In 2020, the festival transformed into a global virtual event, featuring artists from around the world and reaching audiences far beyond city limits.
In the years that followed, Ladybug experimented with new formats—smaller in-person events, themed music crawls, and week-long programming that kept the spirit of the festival alive while reimagining how communities gather.
Today, Ladybug is under the stewardship of IDEA (Igniting Delaware’s Edutainment Association), a nonprofit organization dedicated to blending education, entertainment, and community engagement.
This alignment allows Ladybug to deepen its mission—connecting music with conversations around women’s leadership, health and wellness, financial literacy, creativity, and cultural history.
At its core, Ladybug remains rooted in the same values that sparked its creation. The festival exclusively features women and women-identifying artists or women-fronted bands, and it intentionally seeks to hire women across festival operations whenever possible.
A typical Ladybug Music Festival welcomes 4,000–6,000 attendees, activates multiple indoor and outdoor stages in partnership with local businesses, showcases dozens of artists, and features artisans, nonprofits, and food vendors — all while remaining free to attend.
Video link for Birdie Busch — Birdie Busch – City of Brotherly Love _ YouTube Music.mhtml.
The 2026 Ladybug Music Festival will be held on May 30 from noon-9 p.m. The festival features free admission.
On May 30, SRUTI (www.sruti.org) will present a special show that features both music and dance from India. The doubleheader will get underway at 2 p.m. at Agnes Irwin School, which is located at 275 South Ithan Avenue in Bryn Mawr,
Medha Hari
The event will feature Medha Hari with a Bharatanatyam Dance presentation and a Grand Carnatic Vocal Music Concert featuring Gayathri Venkataraghavan.
SRUTI, The India Music and Dance Society is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. Every year, around 10 or more world class music and dance recitals are presented during the Spring and Fall seasons by SRUTI in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Many of the performances are staged in Chester County including shows in recent years at three West Chester schools – Henderson, Peirce and Fugett.
The Bharatanatyam Dance program by Hari will run from 2-3:30 p.m.
Hari, a Bharathanatyam practitioner with more than 25 years of experience, has matured into one of the promising artistes of her generation. Her dance is a seamless blend of fluid and graceful movements with a striking sense for musicality and rhythm.
With sensitive articulation through evocative abhinaya and innovative choreography, her dance breathes a freshness drawing diverse audiences. Her performances brim with a certain vigor and vitality.
Abhinaya is the art of expression in Indian aesthetics. More accurately it means “leading an audience towards” the experience (bhava) of a sentiment (rasa).
The concept, derived from Bharata Muni’s “Natya Shastra,” is used as an integral part of all Indian classical dance styles.
Abhinaya has four interrelated aspects: angika (the body), vacika (the voice), aharya (costumes, make-up, scenery), and sattvika (mental states)
Driven by a pursuit of excellence, Hari perseveres towards making her dance an engaging and wholesome experience while staying relevant to her audience. Her immense love for the art form compelled her to choose it as her profession even though she is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Hari is one of the most senior disciples of Smt. Anitha Guha and underwent advanced lessons in abhinaya with Smt. Bragha Bessell. She is currently training under renowned Dancer and choreographer Smt. Priyadarsini Govind.
Her notable achievements include “Seetha Venkateswaran Endowment Award” from the Music Academy, “Kala Rathna” at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, and “Best Individual Performer” from Music Academy in their HCL Concert series.
At 4:30 p.m., it will be time for the Grand Carnatic Vocal Concert by Gayathri Venkataraghavan, accompanied by Mysore V. Srikanth on violin and N. C. Bharadwaj on mridangam.
Blessed with a sublime, melodious and pitch perfect voice that can traverse different octaves, Venkataraghavan has created a niche for herself in the world of Carnatic music.
Carnatic music is a classical music tradition that originates from South India, encompassing the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. It is one of the two major systems of Indian classical music, the other being Hindustani music from North India.
Venkataraghavan’s uncanny ability to deliver complex ideas and dwell in creativity with total ease is an asset. She has honed her skill through the years, making her an extremely sought after artist both in India and abroad.
She belongs to the Shishya Parampara of Vidwan Sri. A. Sundharesan and Sri. P. S.
She belongs to the Shishya Parampara of Vidwan Sri. A. Sundharesan and Sri. P. S.
Narayanaswamy. Venkataraghavan also believes and performs keeping in mind the fact that music can calm the mind and remove stress.
As a much-travelled artist, she recognizes the universality of music and its amazing ability to unite people around the world. She has held on to the classical idiom even as she enthralled audiences through concerts across the globe.
Venkataraghavan is the recipient of several awards including Isai Selvam, Isai Peroli, Shanmukha Sangeetha Shiromani, Kala Ratna and Naada Vallabha, Lifetime Achievement Award by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Venkataraghavan is the recipient of several awards including Isai Selvam, Isai Peroli, Shanmukha Sangeetha Shiromani, Kala Ratna and Naada Vallabha, Lifetime Achievement Award by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
She is passionate about sharing her knowledge through her school Gaana Vinyāsa. Her educational uploads in Gayathri Venkataraghavan’s YouTube channel have been widely used by students and Rasikas who love to learn more about this divine art.
Mysore V. Srikanth will accompany Venkataraghavan on violin.
Born to Sri R Venkataraman and Smt Geetha, Srikanth is a senior disciple of the great Guru, Vidwan Sri H. K. Narasimhamurthy of Mysore in the lineage of Parur Sri Sundaram Iyer, Sri M. S. Anantharaman and Sri M. S. Gopalakrishnan.
He started learning violin in the South Indian Classical (Carnatic) style at a very young age. He has undergone rigorous training.
Mysore Srikanth is an incredibly talented musician and is one of Carnatic music’s most sought-after violin accompanists. He has gained rich experience playing alongside almost all the top artists and legends of Carnatic music for many prestigious music organizations throughout the world.
Srikanth recorded a number of albums with many legends in genres like Carnatic classical, contemporary fusion and world music. His recordings, both solo and duet with his brother flautist Raman Kalyan in the “Music for Deep Relaxation & Meditation” series, have been chart toppers.
N. C. Bharadwaj will accompany Venkataraghavan on mridangam.
The mridangam is an ancient percussion instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is a double-sided drum whose body is usually made using a hollowed piece of jackfruit wood about an inch thick.
Bharadwaj is today one of the most popular percussion artists of South India. Having started learning mridangam when he was six, Bharadwaj had his initial training under Srivanjeyam K Gopalan and further with Nanganallur Sri R Sriram.
His advanced training under the legend Padma Vibushan Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. Umayalpuram K Sivaraman has seen him emerge as a front-line musician.
Bharadwaj is the recipient of the Best Mridangist Award from The Music Academy, Chennai. He is a young wizard who has collaborated with many artists across genres all over the globe.
Video link for Gayathri Venkataraghavan — https://youtu.be/E2hqFVXOosc.
Tickets for Saturday’s show are $40 for adults, $25 for seniors and $20 for students.
Death and humor most of the time are not what would be described as compatible partners. Most people do not find it a laughing matter when it is time for them or their loved ones to cash in their chips.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” is a play in which comedy and death share the stage – and provoke a lot of laughs from the audience.
The Candlelight Theater (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) is presenting “Arsenic & Old Lace” now through June 20.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.
The play opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941.
The play, a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood for their numerous acts of charity.
Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells “charge” as he bounds up the stairs.
Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” revolves around drama critic Mortimer Brewster, whose engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat.
Mortimer rushes to tell Abby and Martha before they stumble upon the body themselves, only to learn that the two old women aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him.
The “murderous old lady” plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising “lifetime care,” and poisoned them for their pensions.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” runs through June 20 and features a themed meal and free parking.
Tickets are $83 for adults and $38.50 for children (ages 4-12). Tickets for show only are $43.50 (adults and children).
Cirque du Soleil’s new production “LUZIA” will run through June 7 under a big top at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, www.phillyexpocenter.com).
Billed as “A Waking Dream of Mexico,” the show looks at our neighbors from the south.
Poetically guided by light (“luz” in Spanish) and rain (“Lluvia”), “LUZIA” chronicles the encounters of a parachuted traveler with the culture, nature and mythology of a dreamlike land inhabited by a mystifying menagerie of characters.
Refreshing and unexpected, “LUZIA” enchants by artistically incorporating water into the acrobatic presentation — a first for a Cirque du Soleil touring production.
As the sun rises, the running woman awakes an imaginary Mexico, honoring the monarch butterfly’s migration.
In a series of grand visual surprises and breathtaking acrobatic performances, “LUZIA” takes audiences on a surreal escape to an imaginary Mexico – a sumptuously vibrant world suspended between dreams and reality.
Smoothly passing from an old movie set to the ocean to a smoky dance hall or an arid desert, “LUZIA” journeys through a colorful tapestry of multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.
Video link for “LUZIA” — www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia.
“LUZIA” will run through June 7 in Oaks.
Ticket prices start at $25.
Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center (226 North High Street, West Chester, www.uptownwestchester.org) is hosting High Noon on May 30, Purple Piano on May 31 and Dueling Pianos on June 3.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) is hosting Geraldine on May 29.
The Colonial Theater (227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, thecolonialtheatre.com/events) will present Hush on May 29 and Total Mass Retain on May 30.
Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) is presenting Billy the Kid and The Regulators on May 29, Chris Duarte Band on May 30 and AC Steel and the Perpetrators on May 31.
Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) hosts Shotguns N Roses on May 29, Darlingside on May 30 and Robert Earl Keen on June 2.
Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com) will host Broken Arrow: Neil Young Tribute on May 29.
The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will present Gary Louris (of The Jayhawks) on May 29, Joe Grushecky on May 30 and Dirk Quinn Band on May 31.
The venue also gets off to a strong start in June with Jackrabbit featuring Dermot Mulroney on June 2, Sponge on June 3, crowd favorite The Slambovian Circus of Dreams on June 5 and Jann Klose on June 6.
