family day toronto

Family Day weekend events in Toronto 2015

Family Day weekend events in Toronto could help you make up forgetting to make dinner reservations for your holiday-inclined sweetheart: music, theatre, and film fests, dance parties, sexy car shows, and art exhibits might save your forgivable, doe-eyed face. Or there's locally made cards, or Harold and Maude.

Here are my picks for the top events happening in Toronto this Family Day weekend.

Long Winter Fair (February 13, The Great Hall / Queen St. West / Theatre Centre / 99 Sudbury)
Long Winter's music, performance, and art fest is expanding. On Friday see the neighbourhood come alive with a street market complete with local crafts and warm treats. Sip on hot toddies and mulled wine as you sample sugary donuts and apple crisps. The whole all-ages event is PWYC. See our preview of must-sees here. SSZ

LIVE MUSIC

Wavelength 15 (February 13-15)
Get in the know with Toronto's weird scene at Wavelength. For the first time ever the local-focused indie music fest will stretch across multiple venues as it celebrates its 15th year with a theme of Past, Present and Future. The Huntclub pop-up programming is actually on already, while the fest proper runs over Valentine's Day weekend. Check out our preview here.

Winterfolk Music Festival (February 13-15, The Danforth)
Winterfolk's 13th will give Toronto's down home music fans the chance to see 150 urban, blues, rock, jazz, country, folk and roots music artists performing on multiple stages in the Danforth and Broadview area. Get a peek of the performers on their website or see our can't-miss picks for the festival here, including a special Valentine's show.

Century Palm (February 14, The Cavern)
The vibe at this PWYC show will likely be as romantic as a bunch of people who once loved Weezer and then experienced the true heartbreak and disillusionment only a Weezer fan can know and then moved on with their life thanks to loud guitars can be.

FOOD

Supperclub & Show (February 14, The Steady)
Bloorcourt's The Steady - originators of the donut bagel - will be throwing a five-course dinner on V-Day with each course themed around the stages of a relationship. The dinner will be paired with live sex talks. Read more here. NM

Jane Austen Fireside Tea (February 14, Toronto's First Post Office)
If you like your lit more classic than OkCupid, this Jane Austen tea party features a toasty fire and 19th century inspired snacks.

ART

basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat (February 7 - May 10, AGO)
Another AGO blockbuster, this is Canada's first large retrospective of the NYC graffiti/fine art artist. Basquiat's often massive paintings are fascinating to behold in person, as child-like sketches and sardonic scrawled wordplay tackle issues of racism, social justice, and politics that are unfortunately just as relevant today. Read our review here, and don't miss the special events.

PARTY & DANCE

Bump N' Hustle (February 14, the Rivoli)
The Valentine's Day edition of the monthly Bump N' Hustle jam is also the long-running party's 19th anniversary bash. Not many parties last that long, but once you've caught their resident DJs Paul E Lopes and Mike Tull smoothly cutting up classic soul, hip-hop, disco, Latin, house, reggae, and Afrobeat you'll understand why the crowds keep coming back year after year. 10 pm, $10. BB

Every Day is Halloween (February 14, The Central)
For Toronto's spooky set, every day is Halloween, so release the bats at this Valentine's Day party featuring live performances by SINS, Classioline, and DI Auger, plus DJ Darkness Visible and DJ BRADRESPAWN. The best costume wins you $50, so start planning your romantically gruesome ensemble.

FILM

The Toronto Black Film Festival (Carlton Cinema, February 10 - 15)
Entering its fourth year in Toronto, the TBFF is a chance to see many movies you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. More importantly, the festival provides a exciting and vital stage for the often unheard voices of black filmmakers, reflecting on what it means to be black in 2014 and all over the world. On the final night, don't miss the Blaxploitation Party at Revival. AH

TIFF Next Wave Film Festival (February 13 - 15, TIFF Bell Lightbox)
For the cultured urban teen daters, the annual teen friendly festival, programmed for (and partially by) 14-18 year-olds has offered a consistent mix of teen-friendly classics over the years. V-Day screenings of crowd faves include Heathers, Moonrise Kingdom, and Dazed and Confused. AH

Good Men, Good Women: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien (Jan 29 - March 1, TIFF)
TIFF presents a complete retrospective of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien all through February. This weekend see Women and CafÊ Lumière. Not to be missed for fans of new wave cinema.

SHOPPING & LIFESTYLE

Auto Show (February 13-22, Metro Toronto Convention Centre)
While many of Toronto's nicest sets of wheels are being hoarded away over the winter in garages nicer than the average city apartment, car lovers can drool over classics and new rides for the next two weeks in the heart of downtown. Check out our review of last year's car-mania here.

THEATRE & PERFORMANCE

Rhubarb Fest (Buddies in Bad Times, February 11 - 22)
The Rhubarb Festival is a carnival ride of unconventional performance pieces. In its 36th year Rhubarb is Canada's longest-running new works festival. Every nook and cranny of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre - and I mean every little corner, including the bathroom - will be transformed to a backdrop for various music, dance, theatre and performance pieces. Check out our preview here. SSZ

Progress (February 4-15)
Progress, Toronto's newest theatre festival, is the love-child of SummerWorks Performance Festival and The Theatre Centre, and promises to shake up the city's arts scene by bringing global talents to local audiences. While the outlook is international, the festival is very much rooted in this city's arts community, with each show curated by a Toronto company. See our preview here. SSZ

For more events this weekend click on over to our Events section. Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit it for free using this form.

Contributions by Liora Ipsum, Ben Boles, Derek Flack, Sima Sarah Zerehi

99 Sudbury photo by Alejandro Santiago, Basquiat photo by Andrew Williamson


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