Five Reasons to Leave the House This Weekend

Check out five fun events happening in Boston this weekend, including the world’s largest sneaker event, Elton John’s Tony Award-winning musical, and more.

boston sneaker jam

Sneaker Jam is an expo for folks with an affinity for pumped-up kicks. / Photo by Joseph Quicho on Flickr

Theater
Boston University’s Fall Fringe Festival

BU’s Opera Institute and School of Theatre programs are coming together again for the 18th annual Fall Fringe Festival. Its mission is to produce new or rarely performed theater and opera works in order to bring performers and audiences together in “unique theatrical settings.” This year’s featured event is the College of Fine Arts’ Keyword: Intersect initiative. “The Fringe is bringing light to shows that perhaps have not been seen in Boston, or have not been seen in a long time,” says Brian Dudley, senior staff assistant at BU’s School of Theatre. “So this may be the only time someone is seeing a production like Later the Same Evening being staged locally. It’s a great opportunity to grab before it’s gone.”

$7 general admission, Saturday, October 18, and Sunday, October 19, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Boston University Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., bu.edu.

Show
Elton John and Tim Rice’s
AIDA: A Timeless Love Story

AIDA: A Timeless Love Story opens in Dorchester for the first time on Friday. Elton John and Tim Rice’s Tony Award-winning musical will be performed at the Fiddlehead Theatre Company, illustrating a tale of forbidden love between an enslaved Nubian princess and an Egyptian soldier. Sir Elton John, who’s written a powerful score for the play, has been involved in the fight against AIDS for decades, and Fiddlehead Theatre will donate 5 percent of every ticket to the Aids Action Committee.

$37 mezzanine tickets, Friday, October 17, through Sunday, October 26, 8 p.m., Fiddlehead Theatre Company, 543 Columbia Road, Dorchester, fiddleheadtheatre.com.

Pumped-Up Kicks
Boston Sneaker Jam

If a “sneaker exchange and trading floor” sounds like a dream come true, then good news, sneakerheads, your dream has come true. Boston Sneaker Jam is the world’s largest sneaker event, with rare sneakers from The Sneaker Museum, memorabilia, a street art and sneaker culture gallery from the Boston Arts Academy, DJs, speakers, apparel, and more. Massmouth.org is also teaming up with the Sneaker Jam to record people’s best two- to five-minute sneaker stories before the event.

$20 single-day admission, Saturday, October 18, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday, October 19, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Seaport World Trade Center, 200 Seaport Blvd., bostonsneakerjam.com.

Go Green
Indoor Garden Expo

To help you prep for winter, check out the 16th Maximum Yield Grow Like a Pro Indoor Gardening Expo Tour, coming to Boston for the first time this weekend. The event will have more than 150 booths and interactive displays to give you the very best info on bringing the outdoors indoors. All levels of growers are invited to the learning experience that is the Indoor Garden Expo, which will feature scientists and experts at a Grow University panel event. “The biggest thing we’ve always stressed is education,” says Jed Walker, a Maximum Yield account executive. “By attending one of our shows, indoor growers, whether novices or experts, will learn something no matter what.”

Free if ticket is printed online, $10 general admission at the door, Sunday, October 19, 12-5 p.m., Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston St., indoorgardenexpo.com.

Fall
Harvest Fest

Somerville Local First’s sixth annual Harvest Fest is back with local brews, food, and music. The organization’s major annual fundraiser is a premier tasting event, meaning you can have Harpoon, Taza, and Dave’s Fresh Pasta all in one place. With entertainment from 3D and the Greaseballs, Gareth Middlebrook, and more, you might have a Somerville love overload. “It’s a really great crash course about the region…it’s a very community-oriented event,” says Kat Rutkin, executive director of Somerville Local First. “And it’s a great way to discover new restaurants. We’ll be previewing Bibim, which is a new Korean place about to open in Davis. It’s also how we debuted Daddy Jones a couple of years ago.”

$35 general admission, Saturday, October 18, 2-5 p.m. and 6-9 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville, somervillelocalfirst.org.