Maestro James Rawie and Friends, a soft rock band, and the singers of the TOCCATA chorus mix Beatles’ music Mozart, madrigals and folk-rock music in a concert on Aug. 20 at 7:30pm at Sand Harbor State Park.

Tickets are $80, $42 and $25 and are only available through the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival box office online  or by calling (800) 74SHOWS (747.4697).

For more information, visit TOCCATA online  or call (775) 313.9697.

The Art, Wine and Music Festival returns to The Village at Squaw Valley on July 14-15 from 11am to 5pm. The event partner  is Sierra Nevada Classical Guitar Society and features fine wine, artwork from 30 artists and classical and world guitar music.

The festival features concerts on each day,  including the Celso Machado and Friends, Thakur Chakrapani Singh, Rene Izquierdo, Connie Sheu, Giacomo Fiore, March Teicholz, Samantha Wells and Larry Aynesmith.

Wine samples from 18 wineries, including Zaca Mesa Winery, Lola Kay Wines, Domun Estate, Masut, Hatcher and Yorba will be offered each day from 2-5pm.

The event is free. Wine tasting is $25 each day and includes a commemorative festival wine glass. All proceeds benefit Disabled Sports USA Far West.

By Anne Knowles

If you arrived for the start of the holiday parade at Stateline past 10:15am, you were in for a letdown.

The Cowley-Crawford family from Sacramento watching the 4th of July parade.

South Lake Tahoe’s inaugural Fourth of July parade started on time and ended quickly.

The parade began promptly at 10am and the 30 or so participating vehicles traveled a two-mile stretch of Highway 50 in the right-hand westbound lane at near-normal speed. In fact, if you planted yourself at the end of the route, at Rufus Allen Boulevard, at 11am, you were probably out of luck, too.

But a smattering of parade watchers lining the highway seemed to enjoy the hour of holiday fanfare.

“Want to see the fire truck come,” yelled young Will Cowley-Crawford, sitting on the shoulders of his father, Brett, to get a bird’s eye view of the parade. “It’s coming, girls!”

A decorated parade vehicle being passed by ongoing traffic.

The “girls” were Will’s mother Millie and infant sister Claire, all visiting from Sacramento for the 4th.

The fire truck and several cars carrying waving members of the South Lake Tahoe City Council were the first parade vehicles to breeze by. They were followed by cars festooned with flags, a military truck and colorful garbage truck among others.

And also flying by was plenty of other Highway 50 traffic, coming and going, for other Independence Day festivities.

An orange garbage truck added color to the parade.

“It was a wonderful first parade,” said a woman from Stoneham, Mass., visiting with her granddaughter from San Francisco. “Hopefully, the fireworks will be better.”

“The parade was a little short but nice,” chimed in her granddaughter.

Lori Rhinebeck, visiting from Visalia, Calif., had high hopes for the parade before it started.

“I hope the casinos have floats and throw chips at the adults,” said Rhinebeck.

No such luck.

The Sierra Nevada Amateur Radio Society invites the community to learn about Amateur Radio on Field Day 2012 at Sky Tavern on June 23 from 11am-6pm.

Meet and talk with Reno’s ham radio community, check out their radio equipment, and see what Amateur Radio is all about. A special “Get-On-The-Air” station will be set up so people can try ham radio — including kids.

Reno’s Amateur Radio operators, or “hams,” will join other hams across the country in setting-up radio stations in unusual locations, using only emergency power, and then try to make radio contact with as many of those other hams as they can.

The Sierra Nevada Amateur Radio Society will be operating from the parking lot at Sky Tavern, 21130 Mount Rose Highway, 10 miles up Highway 431 from Highway 395.

For more information, call Jim Deahl at (775) 741.6937, or email field-day@snars.org.

Tahoe Maritime Museum is celebrating the ’20s in Tahoe. On June 30, the Homewood museum becomes the Swinging Summer Night Dinner and Dance place.

Cost of the 5:30-8:30pm event is $65 per person. RSVP to katena@tahoemaritime.org or (530) 525.9253, ext. 103 by June 25.

Sawmill Pond continues to be stocked with fish and will be full for the June 9 annual Kids Fishing Derby.

Look for some big cutthroat trout to be on the lines.

This pond on the edge of South Lake Tahoe at Sawmill Road and Lake Tahoe Boulevard is only for kids 14 and younger. No one older is allowed to fish there.

The Department of Fish and Game is bringing in the trout from Heenan Lake for the derby, which is from 8am-noon.

Unity at the Lake’s Huge Yard Sale and Fundraiser is June 30 from 9am-1pm at 1195 Rufus Allen Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

For more info, call (530) 544.2266.

On June 24, Unity at the Lake will have guest speaker Kathy Zavada who will lead a chanting workshop.

Unity is at 1195 Rufus Allen Blvd. across from South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center.

Zavada will follow the 10am service with a chanting workshop at noon which will feature a variety of chants that are easy to sing, uplifting to hear, that open the heart, quiet the minds, and bring a sense of ease and joy to the entire being.

Songbooks are provided and the program is 90 minutes.

Suggested love offering is $15 for chanting workshop. All are welcome.

For more info and a current schedule of events, call (530) 544.2266.

Heart rate training for athletes is what cardiologist David Young will talk about July 18.

The 6-7pm lecture is at Lake Tahoe Community College, 1 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, call (530) 543.5537.

Orthopedic surgeon Kyle Swanson will talk about what’s new for treating shoulder arthritis on July 11.

The 6-7pm lecture will be at Lake Tahoe Community College, 1 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

For more information, call (530) 543.5537.