Duxbury’s arts experiences arrive in surges, and one of the richest starts (in a way) this week. On Thursday, June 14 – tomorrow, as you read this Clipper – at 9 a.m. at the Ellison Center for the Arts on St. George Street, you can learn about volunteer opportunities for the 7 annual Duxbury Music Festival, which runs from July 15 to 27. The Festival is a massive event, and calls on 150 volunteers to make it work. The students and guest faculty stay for nearly two weeks, enriching Duxbury’s cultural milieu. At the same time, the students benefit from Duxbury’s seaside recreational scene, relax, and take in a sizable number of meals. Older students bunk in at St. Margaret’s Convent on Washington Street, and the whole affair requires many willing hands to carry the load. The 9 a.m. meeting time highlights an important point. Many of the Festival’s day-to-day events are, well, during the day. You’ll need to be available. Festival co-chairs Mary Steinke and Marcy Bravo will join DMF Director Stephen Deitz, who will give an overview of the Festival program. From their press release, the Festival itself begins July 15 with the Opening Concert at 6 p.m. under a tent at a seaside home featuring DMF faculty and students, South Shore Conservatory faculty and Deanna Badizadegan, viola, winner of last year’s DMF Solo Competition. Sponsored by Diane and Sherm Hoyt, the concert will include Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto in D Minor for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra, Françaix’s Divertissement for Woodwind Trio, Turina’s Piano Sextet, Op. 7 and Reich’s Six Marimbas. There will be much more, so watch your Clipper as the date approaches.

Bay Players, Duxbury’s community theater troupe, has announced their 3rd annual Summer Teen Musical, “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” Directed by Theresa Chiasson and Janet Fortier, the program is open to all students age 9-19 and will run from June 25 to August 5. They will meet three evenings per week 5 - 7 p.m. Tuition is $200. The registration and medical forms are downloadable from the Bay Players Web site, bayplayers.org, and must be received with a check for the tuition by June 20. Space is limited to 30 students, so don’t dawdle. Performances will run August 3, 4 and 5 at the First Parish Church in Duxbury.

Meanwhile, Bay Players will perform Tom Smith’s “Drinking Habits” at First Parish on June 22, 23, 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. The show is a “laugh-out-loud farce” directed by Theresa Chiasson. I’ll do my usual review after the first weekend, but I’m already chuckling. The Bay Players have a gift for farce, and when “wine and secrets are inevitably spilled,” I expect hilarity.

You still have time to organize and plan for this year’s July Fourth Parade, with the theme “Around Town for 375 Years, 1637 – 2012.” Registration forms and other helpful information are available on the Parade Committee’s Web site, duxbury4thofjuly.com. There’s no entry fee, but you do have to register. You can enter a float, a walking group, bicycle group or horses, and the theme must be reflected in your work – but then, 375 years is a long time, so you should be able to think of something fun and interesting.

The Parade Committee reserves the right to reject any group or float that is inappropriate or dangerous, but they also offer a nifty help page. From the Parade Committee’s home page, click on “Forms” and then “Float Help.” I’ve written before about building memories for your children at the Marshfield Fair – coming up in August – but this would be right down through the center of town. And your “group” can be as small as your own family. Go bananas with a float, and your group could win $650 for a Maxi-float, or $250 for a Mini-float, with smaller prizes down to fourth place. The walking groups win a different kind of prize – the pride and pleasure of being involved.

Here’s a tip: Duxbury’s parade is nearly three miles, from Hall’s Corner or beyond all the way down Washington Street and then up to the school complex. Bring cold water, bring more cold water and bring cold water.