Special Events: Black Swamp Arts Festival and Pioneer Days highlight the weekend

The largest free arts festival in the state, the Black Swamp Arts Festival runs Friday through Sunday throughout downtown Bowling Green. Enjoy music from both national (Daniel Donato, Amy Helm) and local (Echo Record) music acts, a juried art show, children’s area, and much more. Admission is free and no tickets are required to view music acts. For more information, visit blackswampfest.org .

■ Pioneer Days at historic Lyme Village in Bellevue, Ohio will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come experience how life on the prairie was lived during  the 1800s, with tours of the John Wright Mansion, music by the Moorhens, Civil War reenactors, and a special appearance from Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Lyme Village is located at 5001 State Rt. 4. Admission is $15 for adults, $13 for senior citizens, $6 for children ages 6-12, and all kids under 5 are free.

■ Enjoy a leisurely stroll down Main Street in Sylvania while enjoying unique art and attractions at the various shops and boutiques at the Red Bird First Friday Art Walk, held on the first Friday of every month. Stop off at the Cooke/Kuhlman House at 5717 Main St. and shop at the stalls of 16 vendors. For more information, visit heritagesylvania.org .

■ On Saturday and Sunday, author Carol Ford will speak at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton about her book on Bob Crane. Crane was known for his role on the popular sitcom Hogan’s Heroes in the 1960s and for becoming a controversial figure following his still unsolved 1978 murder and the details about his private life and habits that subsequently came out. The presentation will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday and Ford will be signing copies of Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and2 p.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday. For more details visit libertyaviationmuseum.org .

■ A Gordon Lightfoot tribute show will be hosted by the River Raisin Centre for the Arts in Monroe on Sunday. Mike Fournes, a former play-by-play man with more than a thousand broadcasts in professional hockey and baseball to his name, will play the role of Lightfoot, the noted Canadian folk singer of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” who died last year at age 84. The show starts at 2 p.m. For more information , visit riverraisincentre.org/Season/Seasons.php .