Fun things to do in Edmonton this weekend: Downtown Defrost, BeerFest, and 420 with Cheech & Chong

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The Downtown Defrost: Celebrating its impressive 10th anniversary with DJ sets from California rapper Channel Tres and Brooklyn singer Yeaji, this bouncy, multi-stage dance party is notably family-friendly on Churchill Square (ages 12 and under get in free).

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The main event happens inside a giant (non-heated, so layer up) tent and up on the overlook on the urban square’s southwest side — the grounds include the 2-8 p.m. Melt Market, where you can augment your dazzling wardrobe.

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The afterparties at Double Dragon — The Librarian and Joluca spinning Friday, Villager, Max Ulis and Awood Saturday — are separately ticketed.

Hit downtowndefrost.com for the full lineups and tickets.

Downtown Defrost
The Downtown Defrost celebrates its 10th anniversary Friday and Saturday on Churchill Square. Photo by supplied photo

Details: Churchill Square, Double Dragon (10524 Jasper Ave.), $123.76/weekend pass, $28.89/afterparty

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Edmonton BeerFest: One hundred twenty breweries, merchants, and food vendors will be awhirl this weekend with some 300 beers — just don’t try them all at once, eh.

Local musical acts L.A.M.S., Love Empire and You, Me & Zach will entertain this huge room of passionate suds samplers, not to mention shows from contortionist Matt Alaeddine and Burlesque Hall of Famer Melody Mangler.

This here’s an 18-plus event, of course!

Edmonton BeerFest
Edmonton International BeerFest is at the Edmonton Convention Centre on Friday and Saturday. Photo by supplied photo

Details: 4-10 p.m. Friday, 3-10 p.m. Saturday at Edmonton Convention Centre, $22.01/day, $38.85/weekend pass at internationalbeerfest.com


A Promise of Coming Warmth: Experimenting with a new palette including translucent magenta, purple and blue, ever-bold Ontario-born impressionistic landscape painter Steve Driscoll’s new show is particularly head-turning and a chance to check out Peter Robertson Gallery’s new space, its fourth location.

Steve Driscoll
Steve Driscoll’s urethane painting, Artist House, up at Peter Robertson Gallery through May. 10. Photo by supplied image /Steve Driscoll

Details: up through May 10 at Peter Robertson Gallery (10332 124 St.), no charge


Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie: While this documentary, looking back at five decades of stoner ridiculousness from Cheech Marin and Edmonton-born Tommy Chong, opens next Friday, there’s a special double 420 screening Sunday.

With new footage, unseen archives and animation, this one looks to be a hoot, and if you want to keep the buzz going, Metro Cinema (8712 109 St.) is showing 1978’s Up in Smoke at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

But please, buds: no smoking inside the buildings.

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Details: 4:20 p.m. Sunday at Landmark Edmonton City Centre (10020 102 Ave.), $15 at landmarkcinemas.com


The Last of Us: While HBO’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece has moved on from using Edmonton as a filming location, the first episode of the new season, Future Days, had an amazing local Easter egg on the wall of Ellie’s garage suite — local artist and Cutoffs singer Bob Prodor’s 1990 gig poster from Nirvana’s Bronx (now Starlite Room) concert, mysteriously taped to the wall in a Wyoming survival enclave set in 2029.

The great Catherine O’Hara, Edmonton-filmed SCTV alumnus, also featured large in the new episode as an appropriately dark psychoanalyst widow, so these mushroom-zombie municipal links keep piling so high you could almost do a ghost tour.

The Last of Us Edmonton
Edmonton’s 1990 Nirvana gig poster by Bob Prodor, lower left, showed up in the new The Last of Us episode. Photo by Fish Griwkowsky /Postmedia

Details: now streaming on Crave, new episodes 9 p.m. Sundays

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto.bsky.social

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