Arts and fun on tap at this weekend's Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade, Yellow Daisy Festival and Drive-Invasion

Manami Yagashiro Lingerfelt and her husband, Tommy, with a copy of the official poster for this year's Yellow Daisy Festival. As the featured artist at this year's 46th festival, Manami Lingerfelt's painting appears on the posetr. Tommy Lingerfelt mats and makes many of the frames for his wife's work and also helps create the prints made from her original acrylic or oil paintings on canvas. Manami Yagashiro Lingerfelt and her husband, Tommy, with a copy of the official poster for this year's Yellow Daisy Festival. As the featured artist at this year's 46th festival, Manami Lingerfelt's painting appears on the posetr. Tommy Lingerfelt mats and makes many of the frames for his wife's work and also helps create the prints made from her original acrylic or oil paintings on canvas. Photo by Jill Vejnoska

Credit: Yvonne Zusel

Credit: Yvonne Zusel

Manami Yagashiro Lingerfelt and her husband, Tommy, with a copy of the official poster for this year's Yellow Daisy Festival. As the featured artist at this year's 46th festival, Manami Lingerfelt's painting appears on the posetr. Tommy Lingerfelt mats and makes many of the frames for his wife's work and also helps create the prints made from her original acrylic or oil paintings on canvas. Manami Yagashiro Lingerfelt and her husband, Tommy, with a copy of the official poster for this year's Yellow Daisy Festival. As the featured artist at this year's 46th festival, Manami Lingerfelt's painting appears on the posetr. Tommy Lingerfelt mats and makes many of the frames for his wife's work and also helps create the prints made from her original acrylic or oil paintings on canvas. Photo by Jill Vejnoska

Yellow Daisy Festival

For much of her 20s, Manami Yagashiro Lingerfelt traveled the world, trying to sketch a true likeness of herself.

Lingerfelt was a recent college graduate feeling unfulfilled as a graphic designer in Tokyo when she embarked on a prolonged journey to China, India, Pakistan and parts of Scandinavia.  All along she sensed, “I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.”

Fast-forward to 2005. Now living in Georgia, Lingerfelt sold several of her colorful nature- and mystically-influenced paintings at an art festival in Duluth. In the process, a clear picture of who she was finally emerged.

She's an artist. And not just any one. The 48-year-old Dallas painter has emerged as the featured artist of the the 46th Yellow Daily Festival, which takes place Thursday through Sunday at Stone Mountain Park. The iconic festival this year boasts more than 400 "crafters" from 33 states, offering handmade work in categories ranging from pottery and photography to fabric and fine art. There's also also a children's corner; live musical entertainment (Atlanta's own Grammy-nominated Christian pop artist Jamie Grace performs at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 7); food trucks and other outdoor dining options, as well as a "Men's Den" for the less, uh, crafts-inclined.

The story on the festival and Lingerfelt's journey continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyAJC.com.

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Drive-Invasion

When Drive-Invasion, Atlanta’s annual outdoor B-movie/rock ’n’ roll hootenanny, appeared to be fading away like vintage film stock, James Bickert simply wasn’t having it.

Bickert, a local filmmaker who has attended each Drive-Invasion since its 1999 inception, was figuratively crying in his popcorn after hearing that the Starlight Drive-In Theatre no longer would play host to the event. Since the Starlight now uses studio-owned digital projection systems, it put the kibosh on Drive Invasion.

So Bickert did what any self-respecting cult film aficionado would do: He took the reins.

With Bickert at the helm, Drive-Invasion is moving to its new digs, the Green Lot at Turner Field. Like an atomically enhanced creature from a ’50s monster movie, Drive-Invasion also will take up four times the space of its previous home. And, in an attempt to step out of DragonCon’s looming pop culture shadow, it jumps from its typical Labor Day weekend spot to Sept. 6.

To read more about Drive-Invasion, click here .

Beltline Lantern Parade

10 tips for the parade, kicking off at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 6:

1. You’ll have more fun if you have a lantern.

2. The Seed & Feed Marching Abominables band leads the parade, starting at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 6. Lineup begins at 7:30 p.m.

3. The route is 2.7 miles long.

4. This is a kid-friendly event, and dogs are welcome, too, but know their tolerance for heat, distance and crowds.

5. If you bring your bike, you have to walk it in the parade. It’s too crowded to ride.

6. No flying lanterns allowed. They are a safety hazard.

7. The parade winds down at Monroe Drive in a field by Park Tavern, which hosts an after party.

8. Parking is limited. Plan to walk, ride your bike, carpool, use Uber or Lyft, take a taxi or ride MARTA. The MLK MARTA station is four blocks from lineup; the Midtown MARTA station is six blocks from the finish.

9. It’s free.

10. Do we even have to say this? Wear comfortable shoes, bring some water and carry out whatever you carry in.