7 pm: Festival

Giddyap to Santa Clarita for the 5th annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival set at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio among the period streets and western movie scenery that provided backdrops for such films as “High Noon,” “Gunsmoke” and “Wyatt Earp.” The festival includes performances by cowboy musicians and poets, chuck-wagon cooking, western street performers, a cowboy gear show, dances, tours and trail rides. The weekend kicks off Friday with two events: dinner and a night of silent films presented by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and an evening with cowboy Don Edwards at the W.S. Hart mansion.

* Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio, shuttle parking off 12th street in Santa Clarita. Friday’s silent film event begins at 7 p.m., $25; Friday’s Hart mansion event begins at 7:30 p.m., $75. Saturday festival hours, 9 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. $6, includes access to festival grounds, entertainment, and shuttle service. Limited tickets to poetry events, $7-$14. (800) 305-0755 for all tickets.

8 pm: Dance

Commissioned by the San Francisco Giants two years ago, Moses Pendleton’s whimsical full-evening suite “Baseball” enlists the high-energy athleticism of the Momix company to explore the myth and lore of the national pastime. When there’s not enough myth and lore to go around, Pendleton makes them up. He begins in true epic style with a Stone Age batter using a tree limb to wallop a rock and ends, some 16 scenes later, with a vision from the Sistine Chapel ceiling: God stretching forth his hand toward Adam--in order to pass the ball. For Momix, life is always something of a game and in “Baseball,” The Game definitely is life.

* “Baseball,” Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, $28-$38. (800) 422-9440. Also Saturday at 8 p.m. in the California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $27-$40. (800) 98-TICKETS.

all day: Movies

In 1978, John Travolta was the hot young star, coming off the zeitgeist hit “Saturday Night Fever.” Next up for Travolta was the crowd-pleasing film version of the Broadway musical “Grease,” in which he and Olivia Newton-John played the lovable high school seniors Danny and Sandy. Travolta suffered a major career slump in the ‘80s, but now, 20 years later, he’s box-office gold again and Paramount is eagerly re-releasing the 1950s-themed romp. Now, can the re-release help Newton-John’s career?

* “Grease” is in general release.

7 pm: Supper Club

The Atlas Supper Club is hosting “One Night in Buenos Aires,” an evening of Latin sights, sounds and tastes. There will be two dinner seatings featuring South American cuisine, followed by international Tango artists Jorge and Monica Visconti. The pair will perform for the first time “Milonga del Angel” from Yo-Yo Ma’s “Soul of the Tango.”

* “One Night in Buenos Aires,” Atlas Supper Club, 3760 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Dinner seatings at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Shows at 8 and 11 p.m. $10. (213) 380-8400 for reservations.

7:30 pm: Comedy

A group of kid comics, The Not Ready for Bedtime Players--led by 9-year-old Travis Tedford (Spanky in the 1994 movie “The Little Rascals”) and Rahi Azizi, 15 (Nickelodeon’s “Space Cases”)--are making them laugh every other Friday at the Kindness of Strangers Coffeehouse in Universal City. The other young comics are: Lindsey Siebert, 10; Michael Moreno, 13; Leila Dagher, 13; Alexander Cohen, 15; and Mark Stalback, 15.

* The Not Ready for Bedtime Players, the Kindness of Strangers Coffeehouse, 4373 Lankershim Blvd., Universal City. The second and fourth Friday of the month. Through May 22. 7:30 p.m. Free. (213) 878-0791.

8 pm: Music

Along with Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, Copland’s “El Salon Mexico” and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the L.A. Philharmonic, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, plays Jerry Goldsmith’s Music for Orchestra (1972) in its West Coast premiere.

* The L.A. Philharmonic, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. $8-$63. Also, Saturday at 8 p.m. (213) 850-2000.

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FREEBIES: “A Community of Writers” discussion, 7 p.m. Loyola Marymount University, Westchester. (310) 338-1958.