Happy Tuesday, Beacon readers! Lauren Frick here, and love is in the air. I mean, seriously, it feels like every other day someone here at Beacon HQ is either preparing to go to a wedding, just spent their weekend at a wedding, or is requesting PTO for the nuptial ritual. I recently read a quick quip online that said once you turn 25, prepare to have a wedding the last weekend of September for the rest of your life. As a freshly 26-year-old with a plane ticket to Ohio for the wedding of one of my childhood best friends this weekend — I find this sentiment, so far, pretty accurate. 

While I’m immensely excited to see my family and have a reunion with all my hometown besties this weekend, I do feel a small tinge of sadness to not be hitting your inbox on my typical Friday time slot (we were doing so well not playing Roundup musical chairs). But fear not, I still have some weekend plans on deck for ya.

For those of you looking to take in some youth soccer — or maybe you just enjoy the subtle art of sitting in a lawn chair for hours atop some freshly manicured grass — Glacier Surf Soccer Club’s fifth annual Premier Cup will take place Oct. 2–4. With 120 teams competing, it will be the tournament’s largest year yet.

Premier Cup gives local players and families another competitive playing opportunity close to home. Top teams from Washington, Idaho, and Montana will take part, bringing opponents to the Flathead Valley that local players might otherwise have to travel to face.

The annual local tournament is the second put on by the soccer club this year, following the first-ever “Rumble in the Rockies” tournament in April. The inaugural tournament featured roughly 100 soccer games for ages ranging from 8 to 19, bringing together top youth soccer talent from Montana, Idaho, Eastern Washington, and Canada to compete for the title of “The Best of the Best in the Northwest.”

“This fall tournament combines great competition, great facilities, great weather — all in beautiful Northwest Montana,” Director of Operations Nate Evans said.

This weekend’s matches are slated to start Friday evening, and action throughout the weekend will take place across the valley at Whitefish’s Smith Fields Soccer Complex, Columbia Falls Junior High School and Glacier High School. Click here for more information. 

“We’re excited to bring 120 teams together for a great weekend of soccer,” said Torrey Stricklin, Glacier Surf Technical Director. “Premier Cup gives our players the chance to challenge themselves against strong teams from across the Northwest, right here at home.”

Keeping with this newsletters’ wedding-centric introduction, those looking for plans this weekend (ones that may involve less whistles blowing and kids running around), can head to the O’Shaughnessy Center to get a glimpse at an operatic love affair. 

Whitefish Theatre Co., in collaboration with the Whitefish Performing Arts Center, will present “Così Fan Tutte” as the first opera in the 2026-2027 live streaming season of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comedy will be shown at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. The approximate run time is four hours, including one intermission. 

Sung in Italian with subtitles, “Così Fan Tutte” follows two young officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who are engaged to two sisters, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. Confident in their lovers’ faithfulness, they accept a bet from the cynical old philosopher Don Alfonso, who insists that all women are fickle. To test this, the men pretend to leave for war, only to return in disguise and attempt to woo each other’s fiancée. As Don Alfonso ups the ante and throws increasingly extreme situations at all four lovers, they can’t help but discover – and reveal – who they really are. Who will end up with who in this tale about the ties of love?

The opera was originally set in Naples, however the Met’s current production updates the action to an amusement park inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s, where the two pairs of lovers find themselves on one emotional, and literal, thrill ride after another.

The Live in HD experience offers exclusive behind-the-scenes content and cast interviews. Food and beverage will be available for purchase during the performance. Go to www.whitefishtheatreco.org to read about the entire Met Opera Live in HD season or call 406-862-5371 for more information.

Tickets are sold only at the door, which will open at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students, paid by cash or check only. Subsidized student tickets are available.

Of course, who could forget that this is the first of two weekends of Whitefish’s Great Northwest Oktoberfest — but read more on that from me a little later in the week. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for ya. Time to go dig up all the embarrassing middle school photos of my friends and me for my obligatory “my childhood bestie just got married” social media post. While I do that, you just sit back and relax, and enjoy the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.