To do just that, take a short drive across the bay for the 44th annual Waterfowl Festival, which celebrates the Eastern Shore with a three-day weekend of wildlife arts, culture, and activities in the historic tidewater town of Easton.

A region rich in heritage, history, and tradition, people come from near and far to see the wildlife artwork—the paintings, photography, sculptures, and carvings on view and for sale by regional artists—and to observe or participate in the bucolic, bay-oriented activities—like goose- and duck-calling contests, dock-jumping dog competitions, retriever demos, live bird demos, and fly-fishing demos.

“It’s a true celebration of who we are as a community,” says Amy Steward, a longtime festival volunteer and public relations consultant for one of the event’s main venues, the Academy Art Museum. “The Eastern Shore has developed and changed but there’s still a real element of tradition here and a conscious effort to retain our way of life and our environmental heritage.”

Since it began in 1971, the festival has grown from 4,000 visitors to as many as 20,000, with attendees hailing from all across the state, up and down the Mid-Atlantic, and beyond. Like the shore itself, it has evolved, but also like the shore itself, it has stayed true to its roots.

In the early 70s, the Eastern Shore of Maryland was a quiet, beautiful, but rapidly changing place. The Bay Bridge had been erected in 1952, followed by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and new interstates, and with the country in a state of suburban sprawl, developers saw the lush, local region as a prime opportunity. They started moving in—draining and filling wetland; razing forest; converting farmland for new buildings, houses, and businesses—and before long, plans were under way for a second span of the bridge, with an expected completion by 1973.

At that point, the Eastern Shore’s fate started to look like a foreshadowing of much of its future wildlife—exposed, endangered, maybe one day even extinct—but a small group of Talbot County sportsmen and women had devised a way to share the East with the West. On the opening day of goose hunting season, they gathered 50 exhibitions of carvings, paintings, and artifacts at three local venues in Easton. Their aim was to teach the outsiders the insides of the region—the heart of it, the history, the deep-rooted heritage—and consequently help preserve it, along with its wildlife and habitat. Unbeknownst to the founders at the time, that’s exactly what it would do.

That first year, the festival raised $7,500 for Ducks Unlimited, and ever since, it has raised more than $5 million for hundreds of conservation projects up and down the East Coast, with an emphasis on the Chesapeake Bay. In 2011, the festival launched its own fundraising arm—Waterfowl Chesapeake—devoted to the creation, restoration, and conservation of waterfowl habitat throughout the watershed.

“I think people from the Western Shore really appreciate the provincial community feel of the Eastern Shore,” Steward says. “When they come over, they can experience the small-town charm and some of those open spaces and farmland that maybe doesn’t exist as much over there anymore.”

After a swing by the decoy auction or a peruse of the town’s shops, you can head to the wine and beer pavilion and, with a $10 wristband, taste local wines from the likes of Crow Vineyard in Kennedyville, Casinelli Winery in Church Hill, Far Eastern Shore Winery in Easton, or Linganore Winecellars in Mt. Airy, and imbibe in local beers from Reale Revival Brewery in Cambridge and Eastern Shore Brewing in St. Michaels.

And then there’s the food.

“People love coming for a cup of crab soup or a plate of raw oysters,” says Steward.

Vendors include local restaurants, churches, and fire departments, plus the Ruritan, Lions, and Elks clubs, who, in addition to crab soup and raw oysters, will be slinging the shore’s very best bites: oyster stew, rockfish corn chowder, soft-crab sandwiches, crab cakes, etc.

“It’s just a great tradition for people to get together,” says Al Silverstein, president and CEO of the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce.. “Every year, we meet people who say, ‘Oh, this is my 20th year coming,’ or ‘Oh, I was here 30 years ago,’ or ‘Oh, we’re meeting friends and going back and staying at the same B&B we always do. There’s something for everyone. You can even bring your dog.”

So this weekend, grab a friend. (And your pup.) Throw on a sweater. Drink a St. Michaels ale from Eastern Shore Brewing. Eat as many oysters as you can. Marvel at all the wildlife. Winter is coming but for a little while longer, we’ll still have those perfect days of fall.

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The latter will also feature music by two somewhat-surprising guests. They’re probably not what most posh partygoers would imagine for a champagne-sipping, cocktail-attired affair. They’re not your typical, to-be-expected, Top 40 DJs. There won’t be any Iggy Azalea. There won’t be any turning down for what.

Instead, the BMA has chosen
Matmos to perform a DJ set for their special centennial celebration. The experimental, electronic, Baltimore-based duo comprised of Drew Daniel and Martin “M.C.” Schmidt will be doing what they do best: turning (and shaking) things up, which is what they’ve done over the course of eight ambitious albums, full of mixed mediums, unusual instruments, and synthesized soundscapes. Their influences range from classical music and Civil War folk to hip-hop, electronic pop, and death metal, and they might be most famous for their collaboration with fellow nonconformist, the one and only Björk.

Though a seemingly curious decision at first, all you really need to do is listen to Matmos’s music to understand why the BMA awarded them top billing. Simply put, they’re artists, and so they’ll fit right in in the historic halls of our city’s outstanding art museum. They’ll be bouncing their beats off the works of other boundary pushers, other rule defiers, other convention breakers, other avant-gardes. Among Matisse, and O’Keeffe, and Warhol, they’ll be right at home, both figuratively and (as you’ll see below) literally.

We talked with them about their upcoming performance, the BMA, and Baltimore itself.

So how did this all get started?
Drew Daniel: We moved to Baltimore eight years ago when I was hired to teach at Johns Hopkins and our house was on Art Museum Drive so we literally looked out of our bedroom window at the BMA.

I take it you were regular patrons then.
DD: Of course, yeah! The BMA has always been such a fantastic resource. It’s got cool, weird slices of art history, all wedged together—great Renaissance holdings, great Impressionism in the Cone Collection, and then really cutting-edge contemporary stuff. It’s a small jewel of a museum.

Martin “M.C.” Schmidt: The fact that it’s free makes it an unbelievably pleasant resource to walk to and just have a beautiful afternoon or what not.

So is that how the Party of the Century gig came about?
DD: Doreen Bolger sent me an e-mail that said, ‘Hey, do you guys want to be involved in this event?’ And then Martin met the donors—the shadowy council of 50, or committee of nodules, or whatever. It’s cool that they reached out to us.

Were you a little surprised?
MC: I could tell in the people I talked to that hired us—some people were very excited and some people were like, “Oh,
no. What have we gotten ourselves into?” But that’s good art. You know you’re getting somewhere good if it’s a little bit scary.

DD: The public performance events at the BMA have always embraced the weird. They haven’t been safe and boring and I think that’s important. That spirit is part of what’s going to inform our DJing. We’re not there to play “The Macarena” and “The Electric Slide.” It’s not a wedding. You know what I mean?

Please no “I Gotta Feeling.”
DD: That kind of DJing has its place but that’s not who we are.

MC: And I don’t think that’s Baltimore. It’s certainly not the pulse of the Baltimore arts scene.

DD: I’m not trying to flatter myself here, but I think they showed some courage in asking us rather than someone whose more of a middle-of-the-road, gets-the-job-done, party DJ. It’s cool that they asked
us.

Yeah, I think everyone attending likely expected it to be some crowd-pleasing, iTunes-shuffling DJ, but the choice stays true to the BMA’s mission of catering to the entire Baltimore community, in all of its facets—showing them something that’s new or might teach them something.
DD: Yeah, that’s our goal. We don’t want it to be stuffy. We want to be inclusive. For me, that means I want to play Baltimore Club, and
musique concrete [French experimental music using recorded sounds as raw material], and indie pop, and, like, Hawaiian lounge music, and kitsch. I don’t want to decide in advance that people won’t understand, because I don’t think that’s true of Baltimore. They’re hungry for weird.

So no set list.
MC: DJing is a dangerous thing to over-prepare.

DD: You don’t want to script in advance. You need to be responsive to the crowd, the feeling, and your own mood. A gala is about networking, having fun with your friends, and talking about art in a good environment. People are not there to drop everything and stare at you for 40 minutes. We’d rather stay loose, keep it fun, and keep it moving, you know?

MC: Yeah, I’ve seen some disastrous DJ sets by people who were renowned as
the greatest DJs in the world, but they weren’t reading the crowds. We recently played an electronic music festival in Mexico City and these DJs from Berlin just pummeled the crowd with this relentless Berlin club music.

DD: Ice-cold minimal techno. No one was dancing—and this was a Saturday night in Mexico City! And everyone was drunk!

Yeah, how do you not dance in that situation?
DD: Yeah, and by the way, no one should treat this like, “Oh, this is what Matmos is like live.” When we play live, it’s a
very different thing. This is designed to be a helpful component of somebody else’s party.

A layer of you.
Both: Yeah.

It’s going to be pretty cool being and performing in the museum after all the new renovations.
We’ll be in the new lobby in the top left-hand corner at our little table between two columns, playing fantastic music.

“Between Two Columns.” Sounds like a Zach Galifianakis skit.
DD:
Snug.

MC: It’ll be snug and fun.

You’ve played some stellar venues, but as patrons and neighbors of the BMA…
MC: Yeah, it’s super exciting—
and convenient.

You can just roll home afterwards.
DD: We can get insanely trashed and then just stagger home, so that’s perfect.

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EAT

Oct. 25: Charm City Bacon Wars

Mother’s Federal Hill Grille, 1113 S. Charles St. 2-6 p.m. $20. 410-244-8686. mothersgrille.com

The third annual Charm City Bacon Wars take place this Saturday on the Purple Patio. Ten local restaurants will compete to create the best bacon dish, as chosen by you. This year’s competitors include Brewer’s Cask, Sweet Caroline’s, Ten Ten American Bistro, The Rowhouse Grill, C&R Pub, and last year’s winner, the competition’s own Mother’s of Fed Hill. 

DRINK

Oct. 25: Brewtimore

Hammonds Ferry Rd., Linthicum Heights. 12:30-6:30 p.m. $55. 443-583-3965. allgrainbrewtours.com

This six-hour brewery crawl takes you from Union Craft Brewing to The Brewer’s Art to Heavy Seas, where you’ll get taproom tours, beer tastings, and chats with the brew masters themselves, plus souvenir pint glasses and growler storage. All Grain Brew Tours,
a new craft-beer tour company based out of Columbia, provides all transportation, plus water and snacks along the way. 

SEE

Oct. 23-26: The Electric Pharaoh

Lithuanian Hall, 851 Hollins St. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 6:30 p.m. $10-40. 410-538-2767. baltimorerockopera.org

Ancient Egypt is now a futuristic city, full of garage and electric rock, in this sixth original musical, written and produced by the Baltimore Rock Opera Society. Swing by Lith Hall and check it out before it heads off to D.C. and Philadelphia.

HEAR

Oct. 25: Sharon Van Etten

Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St. Doors at 8 p.m. $16. 410-662-0069. theottobar.com

The Brooklyn singer/songwriter broke out of indie obscurity in 2012 with her breakthrough album,
Tramp, a beautiful, restless album, with tracks like “Serpents” and “Warsaw.” Now, on the heels of her fourth album—a raw, vulnerable, pretty thing that she produced herself­—Van Etten makes her way to Remington for a WTMD show, with opening act Tiny Ruins.

DO

Oct. 26: Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Executive Plaza, 11350 McCormick Rd., Hunt Valley. 8 a.m. $10-45. 410-938-8990. komenmd.org

Whether you’re riding on a high from last weekend’s Baltimore Running Festival or feeling left out because you didn’t compete, you’re in luck. The largest footrace in Maryland, the 22nd annual Race for the Cure features a 5K run/fun run/walk and 1-mile family walk and raises millions for breast cancer services—from screenings to treatment to support—with 75 percent of the proceeds going to local Maryland programs. 

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