FOOD AND DRINK | The Beer & Cocktail Show
This event doesn't really need a snappy write-up to sell it. Here's what you need to know: there's going to be beer, lots and lots of beer. Beer brewed by exotic labels like Beau's All Natural Brewing Co., Dead Elephant, Yanjing, and Hop City. Attending the Beer and Cocktail Show is a little more complicated than ordering a pint at your local bar, however. Tickets cost $25, and once you get inside you pay $1 each for sample tokens. Then you exchange the tokens for a sample of beer, which you are charged a small fee for. So by the time you actually lift a glass to your lips, you've paid three times. Still, the festival boasts a selection you can't find at any pub and if getting wrecked is this expensive, it must be classy. The festival is also giving away a $500 gift certificate to the Beer Store each day, which your liver is hoping you do not win. Runs til Sunday.
Downsview Park, 35 Carl Hall Road, $25 (discounts for groups), Friday and Saturday 6 pm - 1 am, Sunday 4 pm - 10 pm

SYMPOSIUM | Subtle Technologies Sustainability Festival
For the next three days scientists, artists and thinkers from around the world will congregate at Innis Town Hall to discuss the issue on everybody's mind these days: sustainability. A full schedule of speakers will address topics like how indigenous knowledge can be employed to face sustainability challenges, the relationship between a city and its water, DIY power generation and ecological literacy. If topics like that don't convince you that this isn't some stodgy academic forum, check out the Art and Science Cruise happening on Sunday, which will take you out onto the harbour to get a glimpse of the city and hear a recital on something called the Sauerkraut Synthesizer. Attending he two days of speakers requires buying a pass, but on Sunday the festival is staging a full day of free workshops.
Most events at Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue, Student Festival Pass $55, Full Festival Pass $145, Art Cruise $30, Sunday Workshops free with registration, Friday and Saturday 9:15 am - 7:30 pm, Sunday 9:45 am - 3:15 pm

THEATRE | The Corpse Bride
The famous Yiddish folktale of the Corpse Bride centres around a young man who, on the way to his wedding, accidently marries a dead person (it could happen to anyone). The ensuing drama holds an important moral about the relationship between the dead and the living, and the story is one of Europe's most enduring myths. Today theatre Panik, the same company that brought us My Name is Rachel Corrie, presents its production of the Corpse Bride starring former Royal Winnipeg Ballet prima ballerina Evelyn Hart. Directed by well-traveled veteran Paul Lampert, Panik's two-night only production is a movement piece reminiscent of silent films featuring live original music. Runs til Saturday.
Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, $20 - $25, Friday 8 pm, Saturday 2 pm and 8 pm

COMMUNITY | Diverse Bicycle City
The Partnership for Integration and Sustainable Transportation is a joint initiative of Culturelink Settlement Services and the Toronto Cyclists Union which aims to help newcomers to Canada settle in the city by promoting cycling. The idea is that selling the benefits of bicycles as a cheap, healthy, and convenient mode of transportation will not only help immigrants get around more easily, but will also connect them to the city's strong cycling community. Tonight the Partnership launches the Toronto Cyclists Handbook in 16 languages with an intercultural celebration featuring perfromances, exhibits, and a keynote address by the Toronto Star's Christopher Hume.
Parkdale Community Recreation Centre, 75 Landsdowne Avenue, Free, 6:30 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY | Femiforma
The Lens Factory photography gallery recently defected from Queen Street West in favour of Queen Street East, marking a victory for the East Enders in Toronto's apparently raging culture wars. The gallery opens a new exhibition by Matthew Trotter today that's inspired by the beauty and complexity of the female form. Artists have been depicting naked women since cavemen drew on walls of course, but what makes Trotter's black and white images unique is his use of diptychs to create compelling tangles of limbs and body parts that are beautiful and almost spider-like.
The Lens Factory, 2186 Queen Street East, Free, Reception 7 pm - 10 pm tonight, Gallery hours Tuesday to Sunday 11 am - 6:30 pm

PARTY | Girl & Boy 90s Dance Party
Relive the glory days of baggy jeans, flannel shirts, and one-strapped overalls with Clinton's Girl and Boy 90s Dance Party. We really don't hear enough britpop, boy bands, and Spice Girls in clubs these days, so here's to the DJs behind this party for having the cajones to bring it all back. They've also invented a new genre of party music called Schwimmercore, which I guess is like regular dance music, but with wetter hair and a permanent hangdog expression.
Clinton's Tavern, 693 Bloor Street West, Free before 11 pm, $5 afterwards, 10 pm

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Photo: "Danger - High Voltage" by Todd Michael M in the blogTO Flickr Pool.