Friday
Valley dwellers, start your weekend with a cold beer at the San Fernando Brewing Co. grand opening. The new San Fernando spot will be serving up five brews on tap, along with games and DJ sets.
Over on the other side of the hill, NerdMelt celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's whimsical classic with an Alice in Wonderland-themed art show. Scope out over 50 artists' takes on the land of talking animals and animated playing cards during Friday night's opening party. Oh, and there's free beer and wine.
Speaking of booze, the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival is back for four days of tastings, demos, dinners, seminars and more. Wine and dine your way along Grand Avenue at tonight's Night Market, where you'll find twists on Eastern fare from local favorites like Badmaash, the Church Key and Birch.
Make it a late night at UCB Franklin for the Nic Cage End of Summer BBQ. Neither an actual BBQ nor actually hosted by the Academy Award-winning actor (we'll save you the Google search: Leaving Las Vegas), this faux celebrity celebration from Kenny Stevenson and Joe Saunders should prove to be a hilarious night.
Saturday
Spend your afternoon south of the city, starting with the Long Beach BBQ Festival. The annual feast takes over Rainbow Lagoon with a bonanza of meats and sauces vying to be crowned the attendee-voted favorite.
Just to the east, Long Beach Marketplace is celebrating the dog days of summer with Woofstock. Expect a bunch of pet-friendly activities, from a best dog trick contest to a doggie photo booth, as well as on-site adoptions from Dog Tag: You’re It!
If you don't feel like crossing the 405, stick around in Carson at the StubHub Center for the Color Run Night. Show your true colors at a nighttime twist on this beloved, messy event, where you'll be rewarded with blasts of neon colors at every kilometer of a 5K.
Back in LA, Rockwell Table & Stage continues its musical parody series with a campy send-up of one of the best teen movie satires, Clueless. Expect '80s and '90s song parodies with a "sex, clothes, popularity, whatever" attitude at the Unauthorized Musical Parody of Clueless.
Spend the rest of the night among the arts at Muse 'til Midnight. LACMA's annual late-night party stages musical performances across the museum grounds and inside gallery spaces, basked in the glow of installations like Chris Burden's "Urban Light" and Robert Irwin’s "Miracle Mile".
Sunday
Feed your brunch craving this morning with DineLA's new Sunday Funday Brunch. You can order one entrée, one side plus a bottomless beverage for the wallet-friendly price of $25 at spots like A-Frame and Plan Check.
Indulge your love of magical woodland spirits and creatures with a screening of My Neighbor Totoro. Catch Hayao Miyazaki's whimsical masterpiece during a matinee at the Aero Theatre.
Unwind and wrap up your weekend with $1 cocktails for Silver Pockets Sunday (the last Sunday out of a month with five weekends) at 1933 Group bars. It's not a national holiday, but hey, who are we to pass up a Dark & Stormy at Bigfoot Lodge or an Old Fashioned at Harlowe for that price?
Find more things to do this weekend by clicking each day or by heading over to our weekend calendar.