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The last thing you want to do in September in Seattle is rush indoors to see a show.

September is most perfect of months here; it's summer as poets intended it to be. It was with some trepidation that I gave up two of my rare perfect weekends to see as much theater as my brain could digest. A body can only take so much theater, and experimental theater, well, there's a limit on how much of that a person can be expected to tolerate. But I'd committed, I was going to see Seattle Fringe Festival this year. Theater and plenty of it, that's how I was to pass last two fine weekends of September.

I was not least bit sorry. It was totally worth it. I had a great time.

Seattle has hosted a Fringe Theater for 12 years. . . In previous years, Festival has been in February, when there's no weather enticing you outside, but this year board decided to reschedule Festival for September so that it didn't conflict with Festival up road in Vancouver, B.C.

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Las Vegas always has a party going on, but not many are so big that they require multiple locations. CarnaVé 2003 is new kid on block, but event will fit perfectly here: it's a wild, festive celebration that rolls from one hot spot to another in our city that never sleeps. Don't you just hate this town? (Me neither.)

CarnaVé, brainchild of event marketer Gene Dibble, is an international celebration of Latin music and culture. The "Vé" stands for Las Vegas, chosen venue, and "Carna" recalls well-known Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro. Dibble professes ambitious goal of making this event as popular as Carnaval. Oh, and one more thing: "Each year we will come back and create one of biggest parties Las Vegas has ever seen." It's a tall order, but given what I know of Latin American culture, it's just possible.

What's a Las Vegas party without beautiful, poised women dressed to thrill?

Other events at CarnaVé 2003 included: Noches de CarnaVé, CarnaVé Reventón, Moda de CarnaVé, Oasis de CarnaVé and Miss Mesoamerica International Beauty Pageant where over twenty of most beautiful women from Latin America competed for coveted crown.

The Miss Mesoamerica pageant was founded by Francisco Cortez in 1992 as a celebration of Mayan (Central American) culture and beauty, but it quickly grew into a broader international pageant. Now presented in Las Vegas as part of CarnaVé, it includes contestants from all over Latin America. Judging by this year's competitors, I'd say there's a plenty of beauty to go around.

The party began Wednesday, September 10 with "Cine de CarnaVé" and a screening of award-winning bilingual film "Blue Diner" from Puerto Rico. The film event took place at Palms Hotel Casino and was followed by a reception (which, in Las Vegas, means "party") and Q&A with executives from film and industry. "Noches de CarnaVé" continued festivities Thursday and Friday with two dance parties at upscale nightclubs Curve (inside Aladdin Resort Casino) and Venus (in Venetian). Also on Friday was a special publicity event in Venetian: Actor Mario Lopez and musician Tito Puente, Jr. presented a check for $25,000 to Hispanic Scholarship Fund on behalf of CarnaVé, and pageant contestants dazzled crowd with their bright smiles and red evening gowns. The event wasn't given a name, but I would suggest "Ogle de CarnaVé."