🍦LakeFest lineup

Good morning, Columbia. Here's a fact to drop at the farm stand this month: strawberries aren't actually berries (bananas technically are), and the average strawberry wears around 200 seeds — all on the outside.

In today’s Columbia Scoop:

Let’s get to it.

— Michelle Sinclair

ROCO Kitchen + Coffee just made it official.

The Hickory Ridge spot we first told you about in March — when it soft-opened with a stripped-down "ROCO 1.0" menu — just threw its grand opening weekend.

If you missed the first lap:

Owners Samantha Rocco-Canfield and Brad Canfield always promised a bigger menu was coming. Grand opening means it's go time.

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Columbia's lakefront is about to get loud, weird, and wonderful.

LakeFest, the unofficial kickoff of summer, takes over the Downtown Columbia Lakefront this weekend. And the headliner isn't a band. Italian vertical dance company eVenti Verticali will perform SPHERE up to 60 feet in the air.

That said, there will be a ton of live music on the new LakeStage including Nik West, Ariel Posen, Tartan Terrors, and Garifuna Collective.

LakeFest is June 12–14 with the following hours.

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☕ Coffee with a Cop - Chat with patrol and community outreach officers over free coffee at ROCO Kitchen + Coffee.

🍽️ Food Truck Wednesdays in the Merriweather District - Cousins Maine Lobster and D's Tropical Breeze set up at Merriweather Row Plaza, 11 AM–2 PM.

🐮 Merriweather District Farmers Market - Weekly farmers market returns with fresh food, local crafts, and artisanal goods every Thursday through August 27.

🤠 Hardy @ Merriweather - The country songwriter turned country star comes to Columbia’s favorite pavilion with Tucker Wetmore and McCoy Moore opening.

🎶 Bleachers @ Merriweather - The band that brought us indie anthems like Rollercoaster, I Wanna Get Better, Don’t Take the Money, and an incredible collab with Bruce Springsteen comes to Merriweather.

🎭 Chesapeake Shakespeare Company In-The-Ruins Presents The Tale of Cymbeline - Outdoor Shakespeare at Patapsco Female Institute through July 19. Kids under 18 free with a paying adult.

🍦 🎈 Summer Sounds Series - Ice cream social with live music at Hickory Ridge Village Center.

🎨 🎈 Free LakeFest Weekend 2026 - The 39th annual Columbia Festival of the Arts takes over the Downtown Columbia Lakefront June 12-14 with free live music, Italian aerialists eVenti Verticali, 50+ artisans, kids' crafts, food trucks, and beer garden.

🎸 All Good Now - Two-day jam band festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Saturday and Sunday.

🍺 Manor Hill 11 Year Anniversary Festival - Free festival at the brewery's 54-acre farm Saturday with beer releases, three stages of live music, food trucks, and blacksmithing demos.

💎 Gem Miner's Spring Show - Over 60 vendors selling beads, jewelry, gems, minerals, and fossils at Howard County Fairgrounds all weekend.

🌿 The Laurel Garden Tour - Nine late spring gardens in Old Town and West Laurel, including Bay-Wise and wildlife-certified gardens.

🎭 Toby's Dinner Theatre Presents: Mean Girls - Broadway musical with dinner all weekend. Multiple showtimes.

🎶 🎈 Summer Sounds Series at Kings Contrivance Village Center - 40th anniversary celebration with live music Sunday.

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🎻 Carnegie-bound — Centennial grad Qiao "Jacqi" Fan (viola) and Atholton's Samuel Lee (bassoon) made the 2026 National Youth Orchestra — comprised of just 97 teens nationwide. This summer, they'll train at SUNY Purchase, play Carnegie Hall on July 31, then tour Europe. Some summer break.

⚖️ The Elkridge ICE fight inches along — A federal judge tossed parts of the developer's lawsuit against Howard County, after the county said its private-detention ban wouldn't apply to the proposed facility anyway. Still up in the air: whether the revoked building permit gets reinstated. ($)

🏗️ What’s the Source of all this drama? — The nonprofit behind Columbia's $70M community center has now allegedly punted two meetings with the County Council — the next one now falling after the June 23 primary. Member Deb Jung wants answers on $25M in county funds; Chair Opel Jones says no meeting was ever officially set. The latest. ($)

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80 🌡️ 56 | ☀️ | 0% ☔ | 💨 E 9 mph

84 🌡️ 63 | ☀️ | 4% ☔ | 💨 S 8 mph

90 🌡️ 70 | ⛈️ | 44% ☔ | 💨 S 9 mph

95 🌡️ 71 | ⛈️ | 24% ☔ | 💨 W 7 mph

Cured 1821 | Kevin Howard | 6 PM 

Cured 1821 | Bob Butta | 6 PM 
Collective Encore | Never Never | 7:30 PM |  Ticket

Cured 1821 | Jon Waller | 6 PM 
Merriweather | Hardy | 7 PM | Ticket
The Morgan Inn | James Naill | 6 PM

Thanks for reading Columbia Scoop today. If you found something useful, please share it with someone who still hasn't gotten out on the water yet this summer. Yeah I know it’s not technically summer yet. Big deal. It was almost 90º yesterday.