Crafts fair
Today through Sun., Plaza Mayor, Rohrmoser, 2546-1809.

Parent/teachers workshops
Play-Doh, today and Sept. 11, 18 and 25, 6-8 p.m.; face-painting, Sat. and Sept. 13, 20 and 27, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center, Barrio Dent, register at 2207-7519.

Play ‘Rut'
Drama, tonight through Sat., 8 p.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center, Barrio Dent. Info: 2207-7555. 

Hip-hop night
M Poveda, Jita, Boy Claxon, 10 p.m., Latino Rock Café, Barrio La California, www.latinorockcafe.com.

Mentados in concert
Acoustic ska, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Malpaís in concert
Costa Rican alternative, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Eighties pop legend Boy George and Latin sensation Juanes are scheduled to make stops in the Central Valley.

Boy George (real name is George Alan O'Dowd) will perform in San José on Sept. 20 as part of a Latin American tour of more than five countries, according to promotion company ESP Producciones.

The concert will take place at Club the City in the eastern neighborhood of Curridabat at 8:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $65 to $93 and can be purchased at mundoticket.com. Boy George is scheduled to perform hits by his band Culture Club in Lima, Peru, the day before his appearance in San José.

Earlier this year he was refused a visa to enter the United States due to an ongoing court case in England.

Award-winning Colombian pop rock star Juanes is set to swoon a Costa Rican audience Oct. 2 at Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium in Alajuela, northwest of San José, pushing tracks from his fourth album “La vida es un ratico” (Life's Just a Sec), Universal Music Central America announced yesterday.

Juanes' La Vida World Tour started March 6 in New York and he has since played 35 dates in the United States, 21 in Spain and 18 in other European countries, plus one in Africa. The Latin American leg kicks off Sept. 19 in Venezuela, hitting seven locales in his neighboring South American nation.

The singer, dubbed one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, has penned such hits as “A Dios le pido,” “ La camisa negra ” and “Me enamora.”

On Aug. 27, Juanes debuted as an actor on the Mexican television show Terminales, according to newswire EFE.

The La Vida show will mark the first Juanes concert in Costa Rica since his October 2005 Mi sangre tour.

Though no date was set, tickets will go on sale soon, according to concert promoter Evenpro's spokesman José Cañas.

Electricity outages continue to affect parts of Carrillo, a canton in Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste province. The towns of Nuevo Colón, Playa Hermosa, Playas del Coco, and Ocotal lost power between 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesday and yesterday as technicians from Coopeguanacaste, the province's electrical cooperative, replaced electrical lines.

Groups began cutting electricity in July for four-hour periods, sometimes twice a week. The maintenance is being done in conjunction with the new electrical substation being built in Nuevo Colón, which is scheduled to begin operating in the middle of next year and will service Carrillo's growing beachfront communities.

The new lines will provide higher electric power transmission. Residents can expect more outages in the near future, although Coopeguanacaste has not yet announced an updated outage schedule.

BRUSSELS – Costa Rican President Oscar Arias urged European countries yesterday to swiftly sign a pending trade partnership agreement with Central America and to pick up “leadership” in cooperation with his region.

Speaking before the European Parliament, Arias said the agreement is crucial to Central America's future and that it will allow Europe “to benefit from economies that have grown twice” as fast as EU economies in recent years.

The president has said he's confident the blocs will reach an agreement by early next year.

However, he lamented Europe's “neglect” of his region.

“We never imagined that by entering a world a peace we'd also be entering in (a world) of neglect,” Arias said. “Yesterday we were peace allies, today we can be partners in development.”