Boca’s 10-day Festival of Arts About to Start

The tent will go up Feb. 26 over Boca Raton’s outdoor Mizner Park Amphitheater with a stage for the 19^th season of Festival of the Arts BOCA.

Opening on Feb. 28 with live performances and famous author talks through March 9, there’s “something for everyone,” said the festival’s longtime director and emcee Joanna Marie King.

• Coordinating with Boca Raton’s Centennial year, i.e. the 100^th anniversary of the city’s official naming, this year’s theme is “Back in Time.” That means the classic movie will be the 1985 sci-fi hit “Back to the Future” with a live orchestra, a Festival tradition. There will even be DeLoreans, the famous car in the film, courtesy of the DeLorean Club of Florida. And kids can check out the instrument petting zoo, where they touch and play orchestra instruments. The film and orchestra start at 7:30 p.m. Friday March 7.  Ticket link:  Back to the Future With Live Orchestra 

• The Festival officially opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday Feb. 28 with a performance by the Dallas Brass playing music from Broadway to Dixieland and Swing. Their finale will include 100 student musicians from two area high schools. Ticket link: Dallas Brass: An American Musical Journey

• Pavarotti Voices Gala starring four of the “brightest stars” of the annual competition is 7:30 p.m. Saturday March 1. Ticket link: Pavarotti Voices Opera Gala 

• Nestor Torres returns to the Festival to present and perform in “A NeoDance Story,” described as a “passionate evening that seamlessly blends the exuberant sensuality of salsa with the melancholy of tango” at 7 p.m. Sunday March 2. Ticket link: A NeoDance Story Featuring Nestor Torres  

• TV commentator and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin returns to the Festival at 7 p.m. Monday March 3 to talk about her latest book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” describing their public lives that gave she and her late husband an opportunity to make fresh assessments of John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Lyndon Johnson. Ticket link: An Evening with Doris Kearns Goodwin 

• The documentary, “Life in the Doghouse,” tells the story of Danny & Ron’s Rescue that has saved and found homes for more than 11,000 abused, abandoned and starving dogs, shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday March 4. Ticket link:  Documentary: Life In The Doghouse 

• Satirist Carl Hiaasen, with 13 novels to his credit and “Bad Monkey” series on Apple TV,  will regale the Festival audiences for an evening of storytelling and commentary at 7 p.m. Wednesday March 5. Ticket link: Florida Man: Carl Hiaasen

• “How to Solve Problems & Avoid Conflict,” art historian and lawyer Amy Herman’s take on using works of art to teach clients ways to hone perceptions and visual intelligence, at 7 p.m. Thursday March 6. Ticket link: Amy Herman: How to Solve Problems & Avoid Conflict 

• Former principal dancers from companies such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, José Limón, and Alvin Ailey, alongside new choreography, will perform in “An Evening of Contemporary Ballet,” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday March 8. Ticket link: An Evening of Contemporary Ballet 

• “Boca Raton Centennial: A Musical Celebration,” the Festival’s finale, will draw on archives from the Boca Historical Society in a “multimedia celebration of Boca Raton’s rich history and vibrant future.” Festival Boca Jazz Orchestra will perform music from the Roaring ‘20s to the present. The audience is encouraged to come dressed in clothes from their favorite decade. Ticket link:  Boca Raton Centennial Celebration