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Weekend Features Walking, Zydeco And Texas!

Your  weekend holds music, culture, poetry and non-competitive walking, so let's get started. Up in Fredericksburg the AmericanVolkssportAssociation wants you to get up off your butt. Susan Medlin says "We're America's walking club."

As to who that "we" is who can walk, it could be most anyone. 

"We welcome everyone from the toddler in the stroller to the 90-year-old person with the cane."

It's the organization's 40th Anniversary and they're celebrating it in Fredericksburg, where the first walks in the German-originated club were held. Medlin says that the anniversary is being celebrated through a series of walks and other events.

"We kick off with an evening walk this Friday night, and then the next morning we have a walk at 6, a walk at 8, a bike and a swim event. And on Sunday morning we have a walk starting at around 6:30."

Then head to San Antonio's South Side to what used to be the Mission Drive-in Theater.

"We have a very fun event going on this Saturday at Mission Marquee Plaza."

That's the city's Kelly Kaupaun.

"It's called Viva Poesia, Musica Y Cultura. It's a summer celebration of poetry, music and culture. We're going to have special guests Jesse Borrego, a film screening, live music performances by Las Tesoros de San Antonio."

The Saturday evening event has food trucks, art demonstrations, poetry slams, and there is this important factor:

"It's free. Everything is free."

And happening all weekend--Friday, Saturday and Sunday--the Texas Folklife Festivalis a celebration of all of Texas's Cultures.

"They come together once a year to celebrate their food, their dance, their crafts."

Jo Ann Andera runs the Texas Folklife Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures, where this weekend you can eat your way around the world.

"The Lebanese Shish Kabob, the Filipino Inihaw, Chinese Egg Roll."

There is also a lot of live music, such as gospel, zydeco, flamenco guitar, and then a whole world of dance. Andera says you'll be glad you took Park-n-Ride--traffic and parking in the area will be a huge problem. 

Find more on the American Volkssport Association here.

Find more on the Mission Marquee Plaza here.

Find more on the Texas Folklike Festival here.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii