THE HEAT IS ON

If you think last weekend was busy, just look at the pileup coming. If important people weren’t in the Hamptons in July then surely, like the French, they would take time off in August for les vacances. Event planners followed suit. A few, like the Southampton Hospital Foundation, started on August 1. Their gala, which many considet the peak of the social calendar, raised $1.8 million for the hospital.

Laura Lofaro Freeman, Cindy Willis, Jean Shafiroff, Hollis Forbes, Lynn A. Scotti, Nancy Stone, Fern Mallis, Melanie Wambold, Margo Nederlander, and Sheila Fuchs (Photo credit: Mark Sagliocco

AUGUST 7 The GUILD HALL GALA HONORING ANDREA GROVER

Andrea Grover, celebrating ten years at Guild Hall (Photo credit: Jessica Dalene)

For many people, there was no Guild Hall before Andrea Grover. That’s because she has so thoroughly remade the institution over tn years. Tonight’s Gala is a tribute to her, a triple serving of toasts, speeches, laughter and well wishes. Plus cocktails, dinner and dancing. Guild Hall knows how to do these things, and because their director is so beloved, this event should be more spectacular than most.

AUGUST 8 AUTHORS NIGHT

There is a much longer title for this event but after 22 years, everyone just uses the shorthand. It starts at 5:30 in Herrick Park (anyone with a ticket can go, but there will be a polite stampede) and ends with private dinners at some of the finest tables in East Hampton (pricey and sold out). We want to tout “Madoo: The Making of an American Garden” by Alejandro Saralegui and Kendall Cronstrom, such a beautiful book.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, author, educator, showman

Our friend Stewart Lane has a book there called “Let’s Put On a Show,” and Jay McInerney’s “See You on the Other Side” takes us back to those fun days of 2020. Our pick would be “Take Me to Your Leader” by the perennial Authors Night guest Neil deGrasse Tyson. Kirkus review called the book “Close encounters of the hilarious kind.” Tyson can be counted on to give good Authors Night. We think he should run for president. He has the stature, reputation, voice and celebrity. Someone’s got to do it.

AUGUST 8 PIANO CONCERT LONGHOUSE RESERVE

The acclaimed pianist Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner returns to LongHouse Reserve

It is the 99th anniversary of Jack Lenor Larsen’s birth. Every year the concert takes place in front of Buckminster Fuller’s dome. Not this year. It partially collapsed under the heavy snow last winter, and had to be dismantled and hauled away. Lara Sweeney, the Reserve’s new director, told us that the area where it stood is being allowed to return to its natural state. Meanwhile another location has been chosen for Pianist and Composer Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner to perform a breath-taking program of Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, and Rachmaninoff. There might be a few tickets left for the 5pm concert (631- 329 3568). The post-concert dinner and drinks are sold out.

If you don’t go for the concert, you still have plenty of time to walk through this sculpture garden in the Northwest Harbor neighborhood where the landscape is as much of an artwork as any of the pieces by Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning or Dale Chihuly. There is a delightful book lecture on the 13th. And the gift shop has clever croaking frogs, chirping crickets, scarves and beaded bags, and books about Jack Lenor Larden. The merchandise ranges from from $12.95 (frog) to $249 (bag). There is limited parking onsite. Information.

AUGUST 8 HAMPTONS GARDEN GALA

It’s another event on the same night in the Town of East Hampton. But only Guild Hall is in the Village of East Hampton. The Patricia and Robert Silverstein gala is at their home in Water Mill.

If last year’s event is any clue, there will be masks, slinky dresses, lots of drinks, and delicious food with an emphasis on Spain, Patricia’s home, followed by dancing well into the night. The dress code is Spanish Nights. Here men might have a quandry — Spanish men love to wear fine jackets,, white linen is a possibility in Marbella, but it’s August in the Hamptons so wear a vest underneath and drape the jacket on a chair. It will look better when you leave. You will wear a tie with your vest. Yes, a tie. Spanish Nights.

Last year at the Silverstein gala, at which guests (women) wore elaborate masks. (Honestly, it’s hard to get men to come to these things, much less put on a fancy mask; but girls, they just want to have fun.)

The cause for the Garden Gala is not just diabetes research but the search for a cure. This is through the Silverstein Dream Foundation.

AUGUST 15-20 HOLIDAY HOUSE HAMPTONS

We know we are skipping ahead, but the opening night tickets ($300 to $500, they are staggered) are for August 14 ($300 to $500). And believe us, that’s the way to go. This year it’s not room design, kiddos, it is tabletop. Tabletop, like what they do at the Hampton Classic.

It’s a spec house, so realtors will be there to kick the drywall. Landscape architects will be there to see if they managed to turn a building site into a yard. Florists and tableware purveyers will turn out. And of course the design twinks will be there, and ladies in big hats. Well, who would want to miss that? There is a list of designers, and a way to buy tickets right on the website,

Andrea Stark is doing the same design she did for Holiday House in Palm Beach, so you might recognize it .

The Stark design, a cheerful party setting, whether in Palm Beach or the Hamptons.

And be aware that there are lectures throughout the show, so keep on your toes. Our friend the flower historian Jill Brook will be talking about her new book, “The Genius of Flowers,” on August 15. In the book (the subtitle is “What Life’s Most Beautiful Creations Can Teach Us”) she talks about how flowers have shaped us as much as we have shaped them.

The book will be published in September. Tickets to her talk on August 15 are included in the price of admission, $40.

Linda Lee is a former writer and editor at “The New York Times.”