Weekend events in Toronto is our guide to events happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here's what's happening in Toronto this August 15-17, 2014.

The Canadian National Exhibition
What rides? Along with offering outlandish dishes like donut cheeseburgers and bacon-covered hot dogs, the CNE has become something of a Mecca for deep-fried eats. These range from the old fashioned (deep fried pickles) to the ridiculous (deep fried coke) to the heart attacking-inducing (deep fried butter). Consume at your own peril. Check out our outrageous food preview here and our top entertainment picks here. There are rides, games, and male-dominated musical performances too. August 15 - September 1, Exhibition Place (200 Princes' Blvd).

COMMUNITY

Open Streets TO
A large portion of Yonge and Bloor streets will be car-free for two Sundays this August as part of an plan to create two temporary linear parks. The Open Streets concept has been adopted in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles and allows businesses on the route to temporarily open onto the street (no outside vendors are allowed.) Bloor will be closed to auto traffic from Spadina to Parliament and Yonge from Bloor to Queen from 8am-12pm. If you miss this Sunday, the next one is the 31st. (August 17). CB

See also

• Wheels On The Danforth (Saturday, Danforth Ave & Danforth Road)

PARTY

Mad Decent Block Party
This year's Toronto stop for the Mad Decent Block Party tour features label head Diplo playing one his genre-hopping DJ sets of global club bangers. Torontonians might feel a bit slighted that Outkast are only appearing at the Denver edition of the travelling party and Chance The Rapper has canceled, but hometown dubstep heroes Zeds Dead will be there. Friday, August 15, Fort York Garrison Common. BB

See also

• 99 Problems but a Venue Ain't One
• Yes Yes Y'all (Friday, RYZE)
• IRQ: partyline (Friday, Bassline)
• Goin' Steady / Chronologic & HPR presents Homework (Friday, Double Double Land)
• Corona Sunsets w/ Moby, Cajmere, Thievery Corperation (Saturday, Hanlan's Point Beach)
• Deep Endz (Saturday, The Steady)
• Summerdaze (Sunday, The Burroughes)

For more dance listings, check out our Top Dance Parties in Toronto in August post.

FOOD

Bacon Fest
Of course Toronto has an annual Baconfest. And of course there's vegetarian bacon. The smell of the meat-bacon will in no way be overwhelming. County Cocktail, Skin + Bones, Wafflebar, Eastside Social, the Junction's Indie Ale House, Be Good Gelato and many more will be on the field. Sunday, August 17, 9am-2pm, The Leslieville Farmers' Market (Jonathan Ashbridges Park).

See also

• Toronto Summer BBQ & Ribfest (Friday-Sunday, Downsview Park)
• Toronto Brunch Market (Sunday, MakeWorks)
• Yours Truly 3rd Annual BBQ (Sunday, Yours Truly)

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

MUSIC

Endless Summer Fest
Wavelength's new music fest will boast flea market and arcade: Endless Summer will swarm Dundas West at Vintage & Flea Outdoor Market at Dovercourt on Saturday so you can browse (and drink, and eat) to your thrifty hearts' content with live bands Comet Control, Mexican Slang, JFM, Alpha Strategy, Hiawatha, and more, plus a Blue Hawaii (Montreal) DJ set. Saturday, August 16, 3-11pm, Vintage & Flea Outdoor Market (1251 Dundas St. West).

See also

• PPOP & Reel Cod present A Weekend Thing (Friday-Sunday
• Hip-Hop Karaoke Semi-Finals (Friday, Revival Bar)
• Dianetics III (Friday, May)
• Live Band Karaoke w/ Good Enough (Saturday, Junction City Music Hall)
• Healing Power Records presents (Saturday, The Tranzac)
• By Divine Right free show (Saturday, 3030)
• Cam'ron (Saturday, The Danforth Music Hall)

For more music listings, check out our August Concerts, Summer Concerts, and Summer Music Festivals posts.

FILM

Mrs. Doubtfire: Toronto Distress Centre Fundraiser
While Camera only holds about 50 people, hopefully this fundraiser is one of many more events both honouring Robin Williams and addressing mental health issues brought to the public eye by his suicide. It's first come first serve, so arrive early if you want to laugh and cry along with what was possibly your first experience with drag (unless your parents watched a lot of Monty Python). Sunday, August 17, 6pm, Stephen Bulger Gallery (1026 Queen St. West), $10 (all proceeds go to Toronto Distress Centre).

See also

• It Was You Charlie Premiere (Friday, TIFF)
• Films with Bite: Double Dog Bill (Saturday, Bloor Hot Docs)
• Woodstock's 45th Anniversary (Friday, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema)

THEATRE

SummerWorks Performance Festival
This year the SummerWorks Performance Festival moves into the new digs at the Theatre Centre, firmly establishing itself as the west-end theatre jam of the year. On offer at the festival's hub are a collection of arts conversations and parties that carry the energy from artists and audiences throughout the week. Those performances, on stage and at site-specific venues, include six shows in the Music Series, three Musical Works in Concert, thirteen Live Art interactions, and an immense collection of theatre as part of the National and Juried series. Check out our picks for what to see here. Until August 17. KB

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

ART

V+1 #2 : Sona Safaei-Sooreh
If you haven't stepped into Toronto's most extraterrestiral new gallery, neither have I (though so far the back patio is a divine spot for music). The storefront space is finally open with Sona Safaei-Sooreh's V+1 afternoon show, where every time a piece is purchased, the value of the remaining items rises. Good thing 7-11 doesn't work this way. Toronto rarely sees a new gallery raise its head, so show your support and get weird. Saturday, August 16, 3-7pm, 8-11 (233 Spadina).

See also

• Roundtable Residency Opening and Closing Receptions (Friday, The Dragon Academy)
• Get your Swirve On - LUST by SPUD1 closing Party (Studio Bar)
• SUNDAY SCENE: Brendan George Ko (Sunday, Powerplant)
• Hustlehard (Sunday, Drake Hotel)

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

STILL NOT OVER ZOMBIES

Bloods-n-Suds Car Wash
Letting zombies clean your car is a dumb idea. What good is money to zombies? They still can't buy human brains unless they have sketchy internet credit cards. Plus, zombies are gross. I don't know how this got the green-light, maybe society is truly doomed. Proceeds apparently go to the 2014 Toronto Zombie Walk - yeah right. This money will be spent cleaning up zombies' PR problem. Bonus: if everyone you know is in PR, is everyone you know a zombie? Sunday, August 17, 12-6pm, Classic Coin Car Wash (1247 College Street), $10-15.

FASHION

Chosen Vintage Presents: ALLEY CATS, a group sale
When I was 17 a girl I went vintage shopping with wrote a Fringe play about Tom Waits and a prostitute called Alleycat that was eerily mature for a highschool-aged production. It's still the best play I've ever seen next to Meryl Streep in Mother Courage. This sale won't be as memorable, but you can snack and shop Penny Arcade, Philistine, Minnow Bathers and more and in theory you may find an item as long lasting as the memory of profoundly earnest theatre written by a gifted teenager. It's fill-a-bag-for-fifteen in the alley. Saturday, August 16, 11am-6pm, Chosen Vintage (960 Queen St. West).

See also

• Kromer Radio sign auction (ends Friday)
• Kicks&TixTO (Saturday, Air Canada Centre)
• The Leslieville Flea (Sunday, Ashbridge Estate)

GEEK

Bike Share & Cycling Hackathon/Design Jam and Free Community Events
Anyone interested in coding and design should check this out to help create "apps, maps, stories and visualizations" with Bike Share Toronto's data and more. Who knows, maybe your random thing will be on blogTO by next week. August 15-17, Bitmaker Labs (220 King Street West).

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

Top photo by Peter Grevstad.

With contributions by Benjamin Boles, Keith Bennie, Chris Batemen.