Or, did you miss it? You're in luck. Check out the N&O's photo gallery - more than 100 shots from the music festival that rocked downtown Saturday.

And find yourself in galleries on the new Triangle.com.

CURING CRABTREE: City staff is expected to give council members a recommendation on Tuesday for how to best cure the traffic woes around congested Crabtree Valley. It quite possibly could be the long-awaited solution to the decades-old problem. Crabtree for years has been the Triangle’s busiest bottleneck. And several solutions for alleviating the traffic flow have been proposed throughout the past few decades. None, however, has materialized. City staff hosted workshops in the spring with neighbors and business owners who live or work near the mall, which sits at Glenwood Avenue’s intersection with the Beltline.

PIGSKIN FOR YOUNGSTERS: For those of you who have 5- and 6-year-old kids anxious to make their gridiron debut, the Lake Lynn Community Center will offer a youth touch football league this fall. It teaches the skills and fundamentals of America’s new favorite pastime, as well as sportsmanship. Games and practices will be at northwest Raleigh’s Williams Park, primarily on Saturdays starting in September and ending in November. Registration, which includes a shirt, is scheduled for Aug. 17 through 24 at the Lake Lynn Community Center. Cost is $36 for residents and $46 for nonresidents.

FOR PURPLE HEARTS: The Wake Forest Purple Heart Foundation is hosting a dinner Saturday at Tuxedo Junction in downtown Wake Forest for North Raleigh, Franklin County and Wake Forest Purple Heart recipients and their families. Reporter Chelsea Kellner tells a story in Wednesday’s paper about a mother of a slain Vietnam veteran attending this year for the first time. For more information on the dinner, contact Marty Coward at 919-556-3182.

WEB CHANGES: Raleigh’s new website is set to go live today. You’ll find a survey on the home page, and the city invites feedback by sending e-mails to public.affairs@raleighnc.gov. Among the changes: a more robust search engine, and a greater social media presence.

COUNCIL: The City Council is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers. The agenda.

WHERE'S MEEKER?: A light week for the mayor, at least in terms of his mayoral duties. The only events listed on Meeker's schedule are a radio show today and council meeting and public hearing tomorrow.

WIDE, WIDE OPEN: Thousands packed downtown Raleigh Saturday for the fifth annual Raleigh Wide Open concert and event series, which included three stages, more than 20 bands and a combined 20 hours of music (N&O).

ART GOES OVER, UNDER: An “exploration of human identity” is the theme of a new art exhibition on display Tuesday through Sept. 20 in the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex on Hargett Street. It’s sponsored by Raleigh’s Arts Commission and uses textures, layers and color to create canvasses that mirror the artist’s emotions. For more information, call the Arts Commission office at 919-996-3610.

This weekend brings the annual Raleigh Wide Open festivities to downtown, with the alternative-leaning Cherry Bounce stage -- which is expanding into some quirky multi-disciplinary areas this year. For more on what that's all about, see this story from Friday's paper. And maybe we'll see you out and about down there over the weekend.

Raleigh residents: shame on you.

You had a prime opportunity to hoist the trophy as the Capital City's "confectioner extraordinaire" and show up Durham and Cary at next week's Triangle take down. But you didn't even show up.

That's right. A scheduled ice-cream eating contest at Mayor Charles Meeker's press conference Wednesday to advance the upcoming Raleigh Wide Open concert series was cancelled because it had no contestants. Maybe it was a marketing malfunction. More likely, we can chalk it up to apathy.

All it took was three pints of ice cream - three pints! That's no Man v. Food challenge - it's a short-lived stomach ache.

Now, thousands of you Raleigh natives can watch Cary and Durham fight for the title on your soil.

I know you're used to watching other Triangle teams hoist basketball trophies, but this one was winnable.

Twenty-one bands and a combined 20 hours of rock music are scheduled for Raleigh Wide Open 5, which kicks off at 11 a.m. July 31. Three stages will be set up near Fayetteville Street from 12:30 to 10:30 p.m.

The day of music is set to begin with a parade on Fayetteville Street at 11 a.m., and conclude with a fireworks display at 11 p.m.

The Cherry Bounce Stage on Hargett Street will offer six hours of Indie Rock from seven different banks. Six other bands will play reggae, soul, blues, country, bluegrass, funk and hip hop on the World Stage on Martin Street. And eight local bands will play on the Raleigh Rocks Stage on Martin Street.

For more information and a list of the bands, go here.

Just a reminder that you can audition for "Wheel of Fortune" today at Raleigh Wide Open 4.

You'll get a chance to fill out an application, be entered into a random drawing to play a simulated version of the game on stage, and win prizes. Applicants will be randomly selected for a chance to participate in a final round of auditions.

According to the show, the majority of contestants who appear on "Wheel of Fortune" come out to Wheelmobile events in their hometowns. 

Wheel of Fortune's Wheelmobile will be parked at the steps of the Wake County Court House today from 2pm to 6pm to evaluate contestants for the show.

Good luck! And if you make the show, let us know!

You know it's a slow news month when the Raleigh Public Affairs Department issues a four-page news release about the city's Sir Walter Raleigh statue being moved--three months ago--to the front of the convention center. Apparently, Sir Walter is "starting some buzz" among conventioneers and has become a good luck charm for all those tourists wondering around downtown Raleigh. (Maybe the newspaper industry needs to start rubbing Sir Walter's boot.)

The statue, of course, has been around for decades. Yes, Sir Walter did take a sabbatical to the Midwest, but the city unveiled his refurbished physique in 2006 at Raleigh Wide Open 1 (not do be confused with the AWESOME Raleigh Wide Open 2 featuring headliner Eddie Money). Sir Walter's popularity was evident that night when he proved to be a bigger draw than Mayor Charles Meeker.

Still, I think it's fair to say some people find the 11-foot bronze statue a bit strange looking, possibly even creepy. Clearly, the Sir Walter standing outside the Convention Center won't ever be confused with Clive Owen. The city's news release notes that sculptor responsible for the statue viewed Sir Walter as being an elegant man, not a sloppy man. I think the city should consider commissioning a companion statue that would stand along side Sir Walter. Somebody who like Sir Walter is elegant, but not sloppy. Somebody who could bridge Raleigh's past with its future.

I'd suggest a bronze 11-foot Eddie Money. Got a better idea?  

Click through for an amusing account of Mr. Berry sweeping into downtown Raleigh on Friday, leaving a trail of pork ribs in his wake.

Despite the nasty weather, the outdoor-music portion of Friday night's Raleigh Wide Open festivities went off pretty well. Saturday's forecast calls for continued storm-related ugliness in the morning, with things clearing off by afternoon. So the plan is to press on and have bands start playing at noon, as planned, or as soon after that as possible. Depending on how that goes, some acts might have to play shortened sets to get everyone in.

Check here for the complete schedule.

NOON UPDATE: Everything has been pushed back to later in the afternoon, due to lingering wind and rain. Events will commence as follows:

Plaza Stage -- Starts at 2:15 p.m.
Cherry Bounce Stage -- Starts at 2:45 p.m.
Main Stage -- 3:30 p.m.

The parade is still on for 6 p.m.

Some acts will be canceled, while others will shorten their sets. One cancellation is Tres Chicas, who were scheduled for 2 p.m. But Caitlin Cary is still scheduled to play this evening's Coalition to Unchain Dogs benefit in Durham.

Thanks to all the umbrellas in the crowd, you had to do some contortions and crane your head at just the right angle to see him; but Chuck Berry put on a pretty dynamite performance on a soggy Friday night at Raleigh Wide Open. If I ever get within shouting distance of 82 years old, I hope I'm in half as good shape as Berry. Same as always, he busted out his signature duck-walk move on "Johnny B. Goode," and the crowd went nuts.

"It makes my heart flutter -- well, all it does anymore is flutter -- to see you standin' in the rain out there to see a li'l ol' boy like me!," Berry crowed afterward.

Of course, the set only lasted about a half-hour and Berry's relationship to details like pitch and tuning was casual at best (more than once, his backup band looked bewildered at what he was trying to do). But that didn't matter. It was cool just to hear him fire up those guitar riffs you've heard a zillion times, and want to hear a zillion more.

ADDENDUM (9/10/08): Lots of pictures from the show here.