Fun things to do in Edmonton this weekend: Downtown Defrost, BeerFest, and 420 with Cheech & Chong

The Downtown Defrost: Celebrating its impressive 10th anniversary with DJ sets from California rapper Channel Tres and Brooklyn singer Yeaji, this bouncy, multi-stage dance party is notably family-friendly on Churchill Square (ages 12 and under get in free).

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The main event happens inside a giant (non-heated, so layer up) tent and up on the overlook on the urban square’s southwest side — the grounds include the 2-8 p.m. Melt Market, where you can augment your dazzling wardrobe.

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The afterparties at Double Dragon — The Librarian and Joluca spinning Friday, Villager, Max Ulis and Awood Saturday — are separately ticketed.

Hit downtowndefrost.com for the full lineups and tickets.

Details: Churchill Square, Double Dragon (10524 Jasper Ave.), $123.76/weekend pass, $28.89/afterparty

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Edmonton BeerFest: One hundred twenty breweries, merchants, and food vendors will be awhirl this weekend with some 300 beers — just don’t try them all at once, eh.

Local musical acts L.A.M.S., Love Empire and You, Me & Zach will entertain this huge room of passionate suds samplers, not to mention shows from contortionist Matt Alaeddine and Burlesque Hall of Famer Melody Mangler.

This here’s an 18-plus event, of course!

Details: 4-10 p.m. Friday, 3-10 p.m. Saturday at Edmonton Convention Centre, $22.01/day, $38.85/weekend pass at internationalbeerfest.com

A Promise of Coming Warmth: Experimenting with a new palette including translucent magenta, purple and blue, ever-bold Ontario-born impressionistic landscape painter Steve Driscoll’s new show is particularly head-turning and a chance to check out Peter Robertson Gallery’s new space, its fourth location.

Details: up through May 10 at Peter Robertson Gallery (10332 124 St.), no charge

Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie: While this documentary, looking back at five decades of stoner ridiculousness from Cheech Marin and Edmonton-born Tommy Chong, opens next Friday, there’s a special double 420 screening Sunday.

With new footage, unseen archives and animation, this one looks to be a hoot, and if you want to keep the buzz going, Metro Cinema (8712 109 St.) is showing 1978’s Up in Smoke at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

But please, buds: no smoking inside the buildings.

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Details: 4:20 p.m. Sunday at Landmark Edmonton City Centre (10020 102 Ave.), $15 at landmarkcinemas.com

The Last of Us: While HBO’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece has moved on from using Edmonton as a filming location, the first episode of the new season, Future Days, had an amazing local Easter egg on the wall of Ellie’s garage suite — local artist and Cutoffs singer Bob Prodor’s 1990 gig poster from Nirvana’s Bronx (now Starlite Room) concert, mysteriously taped to the wall in a Wyoming survival enclave set in 2029.

The great Catherine O’Hara, Edmonton-filmed SCTV alumnus, also featured large in the new episode as an appropriately dark psychoanalyst widow, so these mushroom-zombie municipal links keep piling so high you could almost do a ghost tour.

Details: now streaming on Crave, new episodes 9 p.m. Sundays

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto.bsky.social

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