Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

Canada’s biggest music festival is taking place in town this weekend. I’m not going this year. Today’s lineup actually looks pretty good. I don’t much care for the headliner, Tate McRae, but there’s plenty of other interesting stuff on the bill, such as Wolf Parade, my beloved Franz Ferdinand and the terrific Turnstile. I’d be interested in checking out Finn Wolfhard’s set as well.

I didn’t have a ticket anyway, but I opted out of this one for a few reasons. I’ve been to a few big events over the last week and there’s only so much I can handle of those these days. My social anxiety is probably the most intense it’s ever been. While I am trying to push myself to go outside and do more things (especially during summer!), I’m finding it harder to do that.

I do have a few events coming up, including a festival, another outdoor show and what could be a very fun Offspring gig in a few days. I don’t really want to miss any of them, so I need to make sure I manage my social battery appropriately over the coming weeks. I could do with some therapy sessions to help with that, so I’m getting those booked in.

I hope you’re taking care of yourself, friends.

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to join us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, August 1 are coming right up.

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

The level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

Be warned: we’re really starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

As soon as I got to BALE, I thought of "Christian," which helped me get the greens. The others are Michael B. JORDAN, Christoph WALTZ and Joaquin PHOENIX. Not sure we really needed the "since 2010" qualifier here.

I zipped through the rest of this game, getting the yellows and blues in no time at all. LOAFER and ROLLS-ROYCE made the purple category clear when everything was on the same line. That's my 517th win on the spin.

How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:

🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for hints and the solution for Sunday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I should probably get a little more EDM into the recommendations diet (and my own personal listening). I’m not the biggest fan in the world of EDM these days, but I do still enjoy house music. I really like this remix of “Symphony” by Clean Bandit ft. Zara Larsson. I enjoy the original song, but Beau Collins adds an extra layer to it with a killer beat:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

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