Artsplosure, the annual arts festival that draws tens of thousands downtown each year, celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend.

And this year organizers want everybody to get their own creativity flowing, not just watch the performers on stage and browse the arts and crafts in the stalls that line Moore Square.

"Artsplosure is kind of everybody's festival," said Terri Dollar, Artsplosure program director. "We want everybody to bring out the artist in themselves."

The festival already has held a digital art competition for professional, amateur and student artists, whose works will be displayed at the festival. And earlier this month, it held a Be That Band competition to pick a band to open for Buckwheat Zydeco when he performs at 8 p.m. Saturday. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy headlines Sunday at 5 p.m.

There also will be easels sprinkled around the festival for people to express themselves.

The crowd can entertain itself at The Octamasher, an interactive music installation that allows up to eight wannabe DJs to play on keyboards that simulate drums or bass, for instance.

And they can help build what the Paperhand Puppet Intervention is calling the Cardboard Constructionist Living Sculpture Conglomeration, a recycled cardboard maze that will be made over a three-day period from Friday to Sunday. Kids and adults can walk and climb through the sculpture.

For the kids this year, the arts and crafts at Kidsplosure will have a birthday party theme. The Kidsplosure stage includes local school groups and others performing family-friendly entertainment.

They include Aerial Angels, which performs on the Kidsplosure Stage at 2 p.m. Sunday, but also throughout the festival on Saturday and Sunday. The Michigan-based group brings a freestanding trapeze rig that lets them perform aerial acts.

Marbles Kids Museum will hold its Kids Rock with crafts and other activities aimed at making rock stars out of your kids. Kids Rock is free in the main courtyard at Marbles on Hargett Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday (great for early risers who can't wait for Artsplosure to open at 11 a.m.). Inside the Zanzibar Room at Marbles, the public also is invited to check out the Artsplosure Student Art Exhibition.

The art market will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday (people in wheelchairs, with strollers and other mobility issues are encouraged to shop the market at 10 a.m. on Sunday). The live music continues until 10 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Also ....

Enjoy a morning of fishing and games at Harris Lake County Park, 2112 County Park Drive, New Hill, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Kids ages 7 to 14 can participate in the N.C. Bass Federation's "Reel Kids for College" casting contest. Registration for the tournament starts at 9:45 a.m. But all ages are invited to fish with their own rod or borrow one of Harris Lake's. The event also includes fishing tips from Triangle Bass Anglers, bass boats and live holding tanks. The Coast Guard Auxiliary will be there with information about water-related safety programs. Harris Lake also will celebrate its birthday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 30 with live music and other activities.

"Thomas & Friends: A Circus Comes to Town" opens at 7 p.m. today at the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts. The live show runs through Sunday with five shows. Tickets start at $17.

Check out the farms on the Franklin County Farm Tour and Festival. The tour runs Saturday and Sunday. It includes a youth fishing rodeo on Saturday plus arts and crafts, live music and visits to farms in Franklin County. Tickets are $5 per person (small children are free).

Inside Raleigh's Beltline, the Hen-side Beltline Tour d'Coop runs from 10 a.m .to 4 p.m., Saturday. Learn about all the urban chickens who make their home in and around downtown Raleigh.

And Mordecai Historic Park in Raleigh will host its first Blast from the Past with free trolley rides, performances, crafts and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. 

As always, there's more on the Mom2Mom calendar.