This weekend in Norwalk: the Silver Steel Band at Calf Pasture, ten days of paddling for the Sound, and a marine art show in Rowayton

Morning, Norwalk. The Third Taxing District's Sunday concert series hits its fourth act this week, Save the Sound opens a ten day paddling fundraiser Friday, and the Rowayton Arts Center just hung a room full of marine and coastal work that runs through most of August. The harbor is doing a lot of the programming this weekend, which is about right for the first weekend of August.

Best for families this weekend: the Silver Steel Band at Calf Pasture Beach on Sunday, free and outdoors, and the Kids Boating Class at MarineMax on Saturday morning.

Sunset Yoga Social at The Galley, 50a Calf Pasture Beach Road, 6:30 PM. An hour of all levels yoga on the water at the Point, then food and drinks at The Galley afterward for anyone who wants to stay. Check in at 6 PM and bring your own mat. Free parking, which at Calf Pasture in July is not nothing. Free, adults, outdoors. Details.

Mahjong for Beginners, Session 1 at the Norwalk Public Library, 1 Belden Avenue, 10:30 to 11:30 AM. This is the start of a fresh four week run, so unlike last month's sessions you can walk in cold. Free, adults. Details.

Reader's Choice Book Group: Genealogy of a Murder by Lisa Belkin at the Norwalk Public Library, 1 Belden Avenue, noon to 1:30 PM. Belkin's book braids three lives together around a 1960 killing. A book group that picks something with teeth is worth an hour. Free, adults. Details.

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Paddle for the Sound opens and runs through August 9. Save the Sound's ten day fundraiser lets you launch a kayak, canoe, or paddleboard from wherever you like, log your miles, and raise money for clean water work across Long Island Sound and its rivers. The suggested goal is $150 per paddler, the top fundraiser and top mileage prizes run over $1,000 in gear and gift cards, and any team of five or more gets bucket hats. Registration required, all experience levels, outdoors. Details.

Cruise and tour to Sheffield Island Lighthouse departing 90 Water Street in South Norwalk. Three hours total, roughly ninety minutes of it on the island, with a narrated run past Peck Ledge and Greens Ledge on the way out. The Norwalk Seaport Association has been doing this trip long enough to have it down. Ticketed, all ages, outdoors. Details.

90 minute guided house tour at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue, 2 to 3:30 PM. First floor period rooms, the second floor bedrooms, the servants' quarters, and both current exhibitions. Ticketed, all ages, indoors. Details.

The city wants architects to design its backyard cottages for free, and the pitch is better than it sounds. Norwalk opened a contest for accessory dwelling unit designs, the small secondary homes that come out of the 2025 Affordable Housing Action Plan. Any design that scores 70 or better on a 100 point scale, weighted toward building appearance at 45 points, goes into a pre approved library that homeowners can build from without months of custom drawings. There is no cash prize. The winning firm gets to sell stamped plans over and over instead. Planning and Zoning Director Steven Kleppin is running it, submissions close October 16, and Edward Erfurt of Strong Towns pointed out the city carries no risk and pays nothing. Source: NancyOnNorwalk.

Manresa Wilds drew more than 100 pages of resident letters, and the fight is mostly about noise. Two weeks after Planning and Zoning first took up the park's special district request, neighbors including Jessica Petronella and Jessica Huse filed objections over sound, light, idling cars, and an amphitheater they read as a concert venue. Executive Director Jessica Vonashek says the amphitheater is an outdoor classroom for 30 to 50 students, that on site lighting has been cut in half, and that parking will be reservation only with shuttles. Kleppin has proposed making amphitheater use a special permit, banning live music after 8 PM Sunday through Thursday and 9:30 PM Friday and Saturday, and capping sound at 45 decibels at the property line. The park presents its revisions in August. Source: NancyOnNorwalk.

The old LA Fitness on Main Avenue is getting a tenant. Club Studio is taking 761 Main Avenue, near the Wilton line, in the building LA Fitness left in April. The chain runs boutique class studios and wellness services inside a full gym, and it has a Stamford location listed as coming soon. No opening date yet, only a presale waitlist. Source: Patch.

Marine and Coastal Art at the Rowayton Arts Center, 145 Rowayton Avenue, 10 AM to 1 PM. The center's exhibiting members hung this one on July 26 and it stays up through August 23. Rowayton has been running a community art center for more than sixty years, and a marine show three blocks from the water is the least surprising and most correct thing it could be doing in August. Free, all ages, indoors. Details.

Kids Boating Class at MarineMax Norwalk. Built for young first mates who need to feel safe and useful on a boat rather than just along for the ride. If you keep a boat, this is a better Saturday morning than another lesson about not touching the throttle. Registration required, kids welcome. Details.

Sunset cruise with the Norwalk Seaport Association departing 90 Water Street, South Norwalk. Two hours round trip, capped at 49 passengers, and you bring your own food and drink. Bring cups and an opener too, because they will not have them. Ticketed, all ages, outdoors. Details.

Weekly Wellness Walks with The Wellness Community at Calf Pasture Beach, 1 Calf Pasture Beach Road. A community walk at a social pace along the water, same as every Saturday this summer. Free, all ages, outdoors. Details.

Pilates in the Park on the Norwalk Green, 8 Park Street. An outdoor mat class on the same green that hosted Read on the Green last week. Bring a mat. Registration required, adults, outdoors. Details.

Third Taxing District Summer Concert: the Silver Steel Band at Calf Pasture Beach, 1 Calf Pasture Beach Road, 5 to 7 PM. Fourth of six in the district's Sunday series, and a steel band at the beach in the first week of August is the easiest yes on this list. No rain date, so the sky decides. Free, all ages, outdoors. Details.

The Seaport Association's Sheffield Island clambake runs Tuesday, August 4 at 6 PM from 90 Water Street, with lobster and non lobster plates. Clambakes go every Tuesday through August. Details.

Captain Jack, a Billy Joel tribute, plays the city's summer concert series at Calf Pasture Beach Wednesday, August 5 at 7 PM, free. Details.

The Seaport Association's combined Greens Ledge and Sheffield Island lighthouse cruise sails Saturday, August 8. Two lighthouses in one trip instead of the usual one, which is the version to take if you have only got one Saturday. Details.

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Cooper

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