Weekend events in Toronto is our guide to events happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here's what's happening in Toronto this January 31 to February 2, 2014.

Brrrrr! Winter Music Festival
Brrrrr! Winter Music Festival will be back for a second year, heating up outdoor venue Echo Beach on February 1st, 2014. Brrrrr! promises "a diverse lineup, stunning visual displays and an incendiary vibe" for about $50-$60. Wolfgang Gartner, Sharam, Bass Jackers, Lee Foss and Felix Cartal and more are on the line up. VIP tickets are pricey at $97 but get you access to heated areas and bottle service. Saturday, Feb 1, Echo Beach, $47 - $94.

MUSIC

Shad
Another one to watch from our Top Toronto albums post! This rules. Shad's 2013 album Flying Colours has pleased a lot of old fans, and made him some new ones. Will this be Shad's year? Check our review of his October Opera House Show. This (mostly) homegrown (but also multinational) rapper is all love and charms. You want to be there. January 31, Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth), 7pm, $18.50 - 23.50.

Zev Farber - Closing Reception and Sound Performance
On now at Red Head Gallery is Zev Farber's Errata, a combination of Farber's work with sound, video, and visual art. One compelling piece from the show is assemblage of 16 years worth of concert tickets and movie tickets layered with related personal narratives. This sound performance will close the exhibit. Saturday Feb 1, 2pm, Red Head Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West (Ground Floor, Suite 115).

For more music listings, check out our This Week in Music and February Concerts posts.

FOOD

La Poutine Week
Fans of Quebec's favourite dish have something to be excited about this weekend as La Poutine Week starts tomorrow, Saturday, February 1st. Almost two dozen Toronto restaurants will take part and offer special edition poutines priced $8 to $10, which participants (read: ravenous eaters) can then vote on to determine a a winner. If the Hogtown Smoke version is any indication, the restaurants are pulling out all the stops. Their version includes fries, pulled pork, deep fried pork belly cubes, candied bacon, a pork back rib, Quebec cheese curds, and bone marrow gravy. Various venues.

Toronto Tea Festival
Tea lovers rejoice -- this weekend is for you. This annual festival is the biggest tea-focused event of the year and will feature hundreds of tea samples, plenty of expert talk, and more tea paraphernalia than you can imagine. This year's event takes place February 1st and 2nd at the Toronto Reference Library. Admission is $15 each day or $25 to attend both.

Winterlicious
Winterlicious reaches the half way point this weekend. Reservations at some of the festivals hot spots are all booked up, but with over 200 participating restaurants, there's plenty of prix fixe left to go around. Check out our 20 restaurants to eat at during Winterlicious 2014 post for ideas.

Chinese New Year
Tonight is Chinese New Year, and plenty of restaurants around the GTA have special menus to mark the occasion. For a guide to this year's festivities, check out our post on how to celebrate Chinese New Year in Toronto.

For more food events, check out our Toronto Food Events post.

SPORTS

Super Bowl Sunday
It's Super Bowl weekend, and while the event might not be quite as huge as it is south of border, plenty of bars and restaurants are hosting special events and offering tailored menus on Sunday. For a roundup of what's on offer, check out our preview post.

Coldest Day of the Year Ride
Will this actually be the coldest day of the year? Who cares! Get on your bike - or a FREE BIXI (I know you love free - but you have to reserve it) and ride from from Queen's Park to Dufferin Grove Park. There will be a campfire and hot chocolate. The ride starts at Queen's Park & Hoskin Ave, Saturday Feb 1, 12:15pm.

Polar Bear Dip
Yup, it's another one. Please don't get hypothermia, crazy winter swimmer people. Sunday Feb 2, Colonel Sam Smith Park (3145 Lake Shore Blvd W), 10:30am.

ART

Mike Nelson
Did you love Labyrinth as a kid? If you loved it for more than Bowie's leggings (and you did, come on) you'll need to wander through Power Plant this winter/spring to see Mike Nelson's first Toronto solo exhibit. "Nelson is best-known for his labyrinthine architectural installations that unfold as narrative structures, where the viewer moves through rooms like a reader turns pages in a novel." The show will include "Quiver of Arrows", a conjunction of four old travel trailers. January 31 - May 19, The Power Plant (231 Queens Quay W).

Tessar Lo
Whether working with minimalist, loose sketches or in full blown colour (or anywhere in between), Lo gives his imagery a heavy dose of the strange. Anyone attracted to zines and lo-fi DIY aesthetics will love Lo's work, yet it's got something else going on too. Lo participated in Micah Lexier's More Than Two (Let It Make Itself) at the Powerplant last fall, and this will be his second solo show at Cooper Cole. Jan 31 - Feb 22, Cooper Cole (1161 Dundas St W).

Zoe Jaremus: Displaced Menagerie
Zoe Jaremus' newest body of work explores her interest in taxidermied animals - or in the case of her current series, animal pelts and skins in particular. Jaremus portrays these backwoods objects through photography as 'Rorschach-like' compositions in a kind of strange dimension meld between cottage life, contemporary art and design, and the humanities - all at a considerable distance from the actual animals the pelts were taken from. February 1 - 15, Bau-XI Photo (324 Dundus Street West)

For more art listings, check out our Top 10 Must-See Art Shows This Winter post.

FILM

Oscar Micheaux: American Independent
Among TIFF's best filmmaker retrospectives each year are their spotlights on African and African American directors every February in honour of Black History Month. This year, they've outdone themselves, offering a healthy offering of eight of Oscar Michaeux's best films. Micheaux was the first prominent African American filmmaker in cinema history, working from the silent era and well into the 40s, collaborating with screen giants and coming out against D.W. Griffith's mammoth blockbuster The Birth of a Nation with his own response, Within Our Gates. From social realism to intense crime thrillers, there seemed to be nothing Micheaux couldn't do, which this retrospective does well in proving. February 1-23 at the the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

For more film events, check out our This week in film post.

THEATRE

World Stage 2014
World Stage 2014, as is the case each year, showcases a group of innovative artists and their latest obsessions in contemporary performance modes at Harbourfront Centre. It's a breeding ground for bold, new approaches, across a number of different disciplines that take performance further. This year's festival will launch with the #artlive Vogue Ball, an inclusive jam that hearkens back to the golden days of queer balls, which took place in a transgressive 1980s New York. Read our preview here. February 1 - May 18. Visit the World Stage website for information on tickets and scheduling.

For more events on stage, check out our The top theatre shows in Toronto February 2014 post.

MARKET

Makers Market
Another installment of the Makers Market goes down Saturday at Crawford. Here you a collection of artists, crafters and design-types hawking their homemade wares. Come for the DIY products, stay for the food and booze. 11am-6pm, 718 College St.

The Parkdale Flea
The Parkdale Flea heads indoors for its first session of 2014. Held at Goodfellas Gallery, here you'll find an array of antiques, vintage goods, crafts, jewellery, art and other goods made by local producers. Sunday, February 2nd, 10am-5pm.

FASHION

The Drake Hotel and Toronto Fashion Incubator are teaming up once again to host the 10th annual Guilty Pleasures brunch this Saturday (February 1st). Along with a mouth-watering three-course meal of Drake Hotel favourites at 11 am, guests can also delight in eco-friendly fashion from 2pm until 4:30pm through two floors of local vendors, informal fashion shows, and a silent auction. Brunch tickets are $49 before tax and tip - so call 416-531-5042 (ext. 1) or email specialevents@thedrakehotel.ca for reservations.

For more fashion listings, check out our This Week in Fashion post.

PARTY

Scuba at Coda
Musician Paul Rose comes in many forms. Widely known as the driving force behind Hotflush Recordings - a label that's been pushing the boundaries of electronic music since its founding in 2003 - Rose also reigned over Berlin club Berghain with his residency set SUB:STANCE, and has a release in the famous DJ-Kicks compilation series. Yet it is for his alias, Scuba, that Rose is most recognized. He will be attacking Coda (formerly Footwork) under this name as part of the official Brrrrr Festival pre-party. Tickets are $20. Doors at 9pm.

Toronto Jungle Party
Toronto Jungle, a website dedicated to maintaining the roots of electronic music, is celebrating their 15 year anniversary. Along with Sonorous and Groundspace, they're throwing a huge bash at Guvernment, importing big names like Calyx & Teebee and Dillinja from the UK. Locals will recognize Rene Lavice, one of the biggest names to ever come out of TO's DnB crowd. Read our interview with Toronto's guru of everything DnB, Marcus Sills a.k.a. DJ Marcus Visionary, here. Friday, February 7th, The Guvernment.

Adam Marshall
Toronto's Producer Adam Marshall runs the New Kanada label and is currently based in Berlin. Check out his new duo with XI called Graze in our bands to watch in 2014 post. He'll be hitting Wrong Bar with Jason Ulrich, Jason Myles, and Hermans (Deep North). January 31, Wrongbar (1279 Queen W), 10pm / $10 before midnight.

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

Lead photo from the Brrrrr! Festival's Facebook page