events
Weekend Planner: August 18–19, 2012
This weekend, plot your return to the Ex, get a taste of East Asia with the Filipino Arts Festival, watch a film on the water with Sail-In Cinema, get a zombie to wash your car, and catch the Summerworks Festival before it closes.
This weekend, enjoy a unique film screening with the return of Sail-In Cinema. Photo by Norm Betts.
THE EX: It’s baaaaaaaack. Can’t you just feel that curl of cotton candy struggling to free itself from the back of your throat, or the bacon grease coating your tongue? This year’s edition of the Canadian National Exhibition features classics like the air show, the SuperDogs show, a comedic hypnotist, concerts galore (Don McLean!), and much, much more. Exhibition Place (100 Princes’ Boulevard), Friday to September 3, $16.
FESTIVAL: Throughout the summer, you’ve had the opportunity to explore all the great cultures that Toronto has to offer. Now, you’ve got the chance to take your exploration to Southeast Asia with the 7th Annual Kultura Filipino Arts Festival. This multi-day event features play readings, workshops, a film screening of Markova: Comfort Gay, an Adobo Masters cook-off, and lots more. Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture (167 Augusta Avenue),Friday to Saturday, times vary, FREE. Cook-off, Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street), 12 p.m.–6 p.m., FREE.
FILM: Set your sails for one of the coolest/most unique events of the summer. For those who can’t get enough of places like the Polson Pier drive-in theatre, make sure you don’t miss the second annual Sail-In Cinema. Here, you’ll get to watch water-themed movies as they’re projected from a barge in Lake Ontario. You can watch the films from either land or water (side note: 10 points to anyone who can watch Jaws while free-floating in a life jacket). Sugar Beach (25 Dockside Drive), Friday to Saturday, after dusk (approximately 8:45 p.m.), FREE.
DANCE: Many people aren’t familiar with improvisation outside of comedy, and off-the-cuff performances are certainly less frequent in other art forms. If the thrill of seeing what an artist can come up with at a moment’s notice intrigues you, you’ll be happy to know that the coexisDance duet series is back for another instalment. It features the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto and some of Toronto’s most talented dancers in a two-set performance. Majlis Art Garden (163 Walnut Avenue), Saturday, 8 p.m., $10.
ZOMBIES: You know what has to happen? Driving of the Dead: a horror flick about zombies who run people over in their undead cars. Until then, there’s always the Zombie Car Wash to fulfill your gore-tastic vehicular needs. This suds-friendly event, which even the carless can attend, is in support of the annual Toronto Zombie Walk (which is partnering this year with the Heart and Stroke Foundation). Classic Coin Car Wash (1247 College Street), Sunday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m., $10 vehicle wash, $15 blood treatment wash.
SUMMERWORKS: The 2012 SummerWorks Festival, featuring a dizzying abundance of theatre, performance art, music, and more, wraps up this weekend. To help you zero in on the shows you should catch before they close, we’ve reviewed the best in the theatre series, and have guides to the Live Art and Music Series, too.
Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.
