Hey Brooklyn. These sweet summer days aren’t getting any longer and as we fearlessly dive into the last weekend of July, the fleetingness of this beautiful season is palpable. Let me help you stretch out these days, these weekends, these moments that we must embrace to get us through the painful, dreary winter months. It’s all waiting for you (but not for long) in your Weekend Guide. Get in there.
Things to do in Brooklyn on Thursday
Heatonist Presents: Backyard Badasses, the World’s Hottest Sausage Team Challenge at the Hoxton in Williamsburg
The hottest sausage party in town is happening this weekend. Our lovely friends at Heatonist are teaming up with the Meat Hook to create some of the spiciest (and most delicious) and inviting you and your masochistic pals to challenge their team to see who can finish 5 of these dangerous little sausages first. Challenger tickets are $30 and include 2 Brooklyn beers, ice cream from Van Leeuwen, and the chance to fully regenerate your taste buds. Spectators are welcome, and the first 50 to RSVP get a free beer! Do so here now and be there, at the Hoxton, from 6-8pm. 97 Wythe Ave.
Live at the Archway presents Caique Vidal and Batuque in DUMBO
Start off your weekend on the right foot (even if it’s not the right steps) at this explosion of Brazilian beats, music, and culture under the iconic archway of the Manhattan Bridge. Their weekly Live at the Archway series welcomes Caique Vidal and Batuque who will fill one of NYC’s only covered public outdoor spaces with infectious energy and riveting dance grooves, as part of Brasil Summerfest. Go. Dance. Feel alive. Act Brazilian. It’s free and starts at 5:30pm. Info here.
Sicilian Vegan Dinner at Archestratus in Greenpoint
Think Sicily isn’t normally a place where you find Vegan delicacies? (after all, stigghiola is a thing… and it’s damn delicious fyi) Well also maybe North Brooklyn isn’t where you’d expect to find a specialty cookbook store/cafe that specializes in community dinners, celebrity author/chef demonstrations, and free arancini with the purchase of a beer on weekends. So forget what you thought. Come to this Vegan Sicilian dinner tonight at Archestratus in Greenpoint. Tickets, $30 (available right here) include a 3-course meal, plus beer and wine available for purchase. Two seatings. 160 Huron St.
Things to do in Brooklyn on Friday
House of Love: Summer Seduction at House of Yes in Bushwick
Summertime means shedding ones clothes along with ones inhibitions, making hot, dangerous, and desperate decisions with new lovers, dancing in the moonlight until dawn and regretting nothing while sweating often. If you feel like your summer has been lacking in this seductive, mystical magic, (or even if you’ve had a relative abundance lately) head to the Summer of Love party this Friday night at House of Yes. Leo + the Munk Machine will be spinning all night to get you in the mood, along with plenty of aphrodisiac edibles, pleasure performances, bondage and blindfolds, installations and secret rooms and all of your old friends and new lovers ready to seduce you. Costumes required. Tickets and all info here. 10pm-4am, 2 Wyckoff Ave.
Jackson Pollock Paint Party at Beyond Studios in Bushwick
Wine and paint parties are a thing… and usually leave you unintentionally overly drunk and with some interpretation of an owl that you will never, ever put on your wall. Come to this much cooler iteration of a wine/paint night where you’ll get inside the head of profound genius Jackson Pollock and understand the reason and inspiration behind his famous abstract paintings, and then have a chance to create your own masterpiece, or at least a beautiful mess. Open bar of beer & wine provided, along with covers for your clothing and shoes. Bring an open mind and enthusiastic spirit and inevitably, a functioning liver. Tickets are $65 and available here. 272 Seigel St.
Coco in Transmitter Park in Greenpoint
If you haven’t seen this amazing Pixar film, see it tonight for free in Transmitter Park, overlooking the most iconic skyline in the city and feeling your heart warmed as the sun sets yet offers us really no relief from the heat (suck it up, summer is fleeting). And if you have seen it, then I know you’re already preparing your blanket and wine bota because this is one that you can see a hundred times and still laugh and cry and shamelessly sing along. Bring your family, bring a date, bring wine. Just be there. Film starts at 8pm, arrive earlier, get a drink at the Barge. Info here. 1 Greenpoint Ave.
Things to do in Brooklyn on Saturday
Tour de Gastro of NYC by Gastro Obscura, Citywide
Smorgasburg, or NYC’s favorite fusion of influencer imitation stations and local food favorites sweating in tents, is still happening every Saturday in Williamsburg and Sundays in Prospect Park. And it’s still great. But if you want more of an adventurous, hidden, and truly emblematic to the real NYC food experience, embark on this gastronomical adventure from Atlas Obscura. Some of New York City’s most extraordinary dishes can be found lurking inside billiards halls, beside laundromats, and behind unassuming exteriors, and Gastro Obscura has set up this 12-stop food scavenger hunt for you to find and experience some of the city’s true culinary gems. Tag your findings with #TourdeGastro and you could win a prize. Regardless, you’ll be winning an experience you can’t find under a sea of tents in Williamsburg. All info here.
PS1 Summer Warm-Up, Long Island City
This LIC summertime party institution also has a permanent residency on my weekend guide, from now through labor day. So I recommend checking the schedule and either choosing based on the tunes or your own availability (this is not a “oh I have a few hours, I’ll check it out” kind of affair. it will take all of your saturday and at least 3/4 of the mental space of your Sunday. And it will all be worth it.) tickets here. I’m already heatin’ up.
Backyard BBQ at Nowadays in Ridgewood
Because all of those friends you have with backyards and grills and promises of cookouts “every day this summer!” suddenly become scarce once summer hits, Nowadays says fuck those friends. You deserve to have your hotdogs and beers and music and open-air without them. Come to their backyard BBQ this Saturday for bocce ball and ping pong, cold drinks, groovy tunes, Italian hot dogs (??) and rotating BBQ fare (???) and Republic of Booza ice cream (!!!!). It starts at noon and goes, if you want, until Mister Sunday greets you the next day. Info here. 56-06 Cooper Ave.
The 9th Annual NYC Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island
Spend your Sunday on a (nearly) untouched island, biking and exploring and drinking Threes Brewing beers and soaking in the beauty of spoken (and written!) word this Saturday and Sunday. It’s the NYC Poetry Fest, featuring over 250 poets with 5 stages over 2 days and countless performances, activities, and readings that will leave you breathless, speechless, hopeful. It’s in its 9th year and bigger than ever, and guaranteed to be the most profound thing you fill your time with this weekend. All info is here. Be there.
Music for the Masses New Wave Night at St. Vitus in Greenpoint
This is the best dance party in Brooklyn right now. Why? Because it’s not the same techno-disco-mashup that mashes you against way too many post-college bodies in a sweaty “underground” scene that you had to pay $30 to get into after being screened by some snooty ex-model with an earpiece and an attitude (are you reading this, Hotel Chantelle?) It’s a grungey, synthy dance party in a heavy metal music venue and as much as it’s “for the masses”, it’s not for the weak at heart. It’s for you, you edgy Brooklynite looking for mischief and mayhem and somewhere you can actually dance all night to Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Joy Division, and your other favorites. It’s free until midnight, but get in line early(ish). Info here. 1120 Manhattan Ave.
Things to do in Brooklyn on Sunday
24-Hour Party with Mister Sunday at Nowadays in Bushwick
Come party with some zombies this Sunday at Nowadays and come to the last part of their 24-hour rager. Yeah. 24hours. It starts on Saturday and ends Sunday and I say, buy your ticket to the last 6-hour session where you’re guaranteed to be the best looking and the best dancer there. Put some bacon in your pocket and you’ll also be the most popular. Tickets, $20 available here.
Sunday Soul Scream at Our Wicked Lady in Bushwick
Forget about Monday and make the most of your Sunday on the roof of Our Wicked Lady. Let your soul scream and your body dance and your spirit soak in the magic of summer on this, the last day of the last weekend of July. It’s their weekly rooftop dance party and it’s where you want to be so you don’t wake up in December and say, “wait, did Summer even happen?” This is how it happens. Be there. Info here. 8pm-4am, 153 Morgan Ave.
Brooklyn Ice Cream Takedown at Lot45 in Bushwick
Or (ice)scream your heart out at the Icecream Takedown, the borough’s most important ice cream competition where your local favorites will fight to win your affection and to be the catalyst of your brain freezes and to keep you cool this Sunday, and all summer long. Head to Lot 45 to be a part of the action and make your weekend, and summer, a little cooler and a lot sweeter. Tickets, $25 available here. 2-4pm at 411 Troutman St.
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