Song Bird Cafe

The 10th annual Song Bird Cafe, a benefit for Sistercare, will be held at 7 p.m. at Leaside. The scheduled performers: Jesse Lee, a country singer; Tyler Mechem, the frontman of the Americana rock band Crowfield; and Radney Foster, a well-respected Nashville-based performer. Song Bird Cafe allows the performers to share stories about their songs. Leaside is at 100 East Exchange Place. $100; www.sistercare.com or (803) 926-0505

Leo Twiggs

Leo Twiggs will lecture at 5:30 p.m. at the Columbia Museum of Art. Last year the visual artist Twiggs published “Messages from Home: The Art of Leo Twiggs.” The book brushes through Twiggs’ 40-year career and has more than 150 reproductions of his paintings. Twiggs, named professor emeritus at South Carolina State University in 2000, was a longtime art professor at the university. He helped develop the university’s I.P. Stanback Museum. The museum is at Main and Hampton streets; www.columbiamuseum.org

First Thursdays

As part of First Thursdays on Main, Nickelodeon Theatre will have a parade on Main Street. The parade will start at 7 p.m. at Main and Lady streets. (Main Street between Lady and Blanding streets will be closed between 6:30-8 p.m.) Nimbaya, a Guinean drum and dance company temporarily based in Columbia, is marching. Also scheduled to participate: Eau Claire High School marching band, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia City Ballet, Double Dutch Forces, Trustus Theatre, Next Door Drummers, Tapp’s Arts Center, Hoop Hounds, Kudzu Queens and Krewe de Columbi-Ya-Ya.

A documentary on the Jam Room will premiere at the new Nick, 1607 Main St., at 8 p.m. Also at First Thursday: FOM Series Presents: PIENSA: Blanco/Negro; and Life=Art: Imperfect Perfection at S & S Art Supply. Don’t forget about Meet Me @ the Plaza On Main. From 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., tables will be set up on Boyd Plaza in front of the Columbia Museum of Art for people to eat lunch as Dick Goodwin and his band perform music.

Blues festival

The 16th annual Carolina Downhome Blues Festival will be held tonight through Sunday in Camden. Blues musicians from New York, Sweden, Texas, Detroit and, of course, South Carolina will perform. Tonight, Beverly Guitar Watkins & Shrimp City Slim, Robert Lighthouse and others kick off the festival, which will be held in various venues in downtown Camden. The home base is at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County, 810 Lyttleton St., Camden. Why not make a weekend of it in Camden and visit antique shops, historic homes and Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site? $10-$35; camden.bluesbash.com, www.fineartscenter.org or (803) 425-7676