Margaritas, macrame and OMD: 12 things to do this weekend

By Ethan Jakob Craft

Whether you enjoy long walks through cherry blossom groves, Caribbean food crawls, minor league baseball games or British electronic bands from the ’80s, Brooklyn is the place to be this weekend. So even if you haven’t secured your tickets to the People’s Ball or called around to make brunch reservations for Mother’s Day next Sunday—which you should do well in advance, by the way—you’ll be happy to know that there is, once again, no shortage of things to do.

Here is what’s on tap in Brooklyn this weekend:

Friday, April 29

Check out the cherry blossoms
All day long
Thanks to a stretch of gorgeous spring weather, some cherry blossoms in Brooklyn showed their first signs of budding over a month ago. But many of the flowering trees throughout the city, including the more than 200 specimens that line the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famous Cherry Esplanade, are now in “peak bloom.” That means they’ll soon disappear due to the pink flowers’ notoriously short blooming season, so if you have yet to spot the clusters of cherries around town, this weekend may be one of your last chances to act.

Plant a tree for Arbor Day
2 p.m.
Once just a Nebraska thing, Arbor Day’s roots have extended across the country to celebrate trees everywhere. And to mark the holiday, Sunset Park’s Green-Wood Cemetery—which is accredited as one of the world’s only Level III arboretums—is welcoming the public to help expand its sprawling collection of more than 8,000 trees. Running from 2 to 5 p.m., this event is free to attend with pre-registration; expert New York City composters will be on site to share their knowledge and tools, with attendees only asked to bring closed-toe shoes and clothes they don’t mind getting dirty.

Express yourself at the inaugural Long Play Festival
Times vary
After an approximately two-year delay due to Covid-19, the first-ever Long Play Festival is finally ready to kick off in Brooklyn. Promising “an explosion of mind-bending music of the moment,” this fête is designed to be decentralized with over 60 performances taking place through Sunday at eight different venues across the city including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Littlefield and the Plaza at 300 Ashland. Single-day tickets for the all-ages festival start at $95 and run up to $350 for a VIP weekend pass; complete details about ticketing, performances and venues are available on Long Play’s website.

Take in a Brooklyn Cyclones game
7 p.m.
While we’re all mourning the Nets’ first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, there is at least one team in the borough that’s still going strong: the Brooklyn Cyclones. Better known as the New York Mets’ High-A minor league affiliate, the Cyclones are in town this weekend at Coney Island’s Maimonides Park, and even the best seats in the house—right behind home plate—max out at just $15 per ticket. Take a look at the Cyclones’ schedule and see which game is right for you: the theme for Friday’s 7 p.m. matchup against the Bowling Green Hot Rods is “Fireworks”; Saturday’s 2 p.m. game is Brett Baty bobblehead day; and Sunday’s, also at 2 p.m., is “Ice Cream Sunday.”

Saturday, April 30

Taste the best food Bed-Stuy has to offer …
12 p.m.
Join Tastes of Brooklyn’s debut food and drink crawl in Bed-Stuy this Saturday, which will expose attendees to a world of culinary delights. Running from noon until 8 p.m., the inaugural Tastes of Bed-Stuy event includes participating restaurants such as Doc’s Cake Shop for classic Southern desserts, Savannah Cafe for Caribbean eats, and Greedi Kitchen for vegan comfort food. Come hungry, because tickets for this Saturday’s self-guided culinary tour per person are $35 for four “tastes,” or $100 for 12. More information is available on Tastes of Brooklyn’s website.

… Or sip the borough’s best margaritas
12 p.m.
If you want to pair the Tastes of Bed-Stuy food crawl with an alcoholic beverage or two then you’re in luck, because the annual NYC Margarita Rumble is going down all day at 64 Dobbin Street, just a short subway ride away in Greenpoint. With some of the city’s top restaurants and mixologists duking it out for the title of ultimate marg, the boozy 21-and-over event is broken into three timed sessions: noon to 2:45 p.m., 3 to 5:45 p.m., and 6 to 8:45 p.m. General admission is freshly sold out, but VIP tickets—which include earlier entry and additional margarita vouchers—are still available for all three time slots.

Watch a comedy show get animated in real time
7:30 p.m.
“Picture This!” is celebrating six years in Brooklyn with a special show on Saturday night that will see a lineup of comedians performing while they’re drawn live by some of the most talented animators, cartoonists and other artists in the country. The catch: The comics don’t know what will be drawn, and the illustrators don’t know how the person on stage will react. Happening at Union Hall in Park Slope, doors for Saturday’s event open at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 start; advance tickets are $10 each, or $15 if bought on the day of the show.

Jam out with Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark
8 p.m.
Legendary new wave band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark is playing Brooklyn Steel this Friday and Saturday as part of their ongoing American tour, so if you’re a fan of the pioneering English group—which has been continuously active, minus a brief hiatus, since the late 1970s—you won’t want to miss their stint in New York this weekend. The show is general admission only, with tickets on sites like StubHub still available for as little as $40 each at the time of publication.

Sunday, May 1

Introduce your children to the arts
10 a.m.
The Classical Kids Fair is back at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum this Sunday, where families can enjoy live musical performances, check out an “instrument petting zoo,” make arts and crafts, participate in dance workshops and more. Presented in partnership with classical music station WQXR, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Little Orchestra Society and dancers from the Metropolitan Opera, this all-ages event runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; tickets for just about everybody cost $13 each, though grandparents can enjoy a $1 discount while children under 12 months old get in for free.

Craft your own summer hammock chair
10:30 a.m.
Hosted by expert macrame artist Monika Lachner, Sunday’s summer hammock chair workshop will allow attendees of all experience levels to get a hands-on tutorial running through basic design concepts and common knots that will help them to walk away with their very own macrame hanging chair. This intensive course at Dumbo’s Loop of the Loom, which runs for up to seven hours total, is not cheap at $230 per person, but does include all instructions and materials needed to make your own fully functional hanging chair that’ll be capable of supporting up to 260 pounds of weight.

Learn the art of mixology
4:30 p.m.
Everything from technical bartending to complex flavor profiling will be covered at “Mix It Like You Mean It,” a 90-minute class hosted by veteran mixologists Trevor Langer and Michael Campbell. Happening at 2 Noble Street, right next to the water in Greenpoint, this hands-on course costs $45 per person and includes all of the ingredients and know-how for attendees to be able to replicate any number of classic cocktails in the comfort of their own home.

Buck tradition at the People’s Ball
7 p.m.
If for some inconceivable reason your invitation to Monday’s Met Gala never arrived, then you may want to check out the Brooklyn Public Library’s “People’s Ball” the night before. A free event for people of “all stripes to express their individuality and flaunt their unique style,” according to the library, the inclusive soirée will be held at its Central Library location at Grand Army Plaza. Unfortunately, the registration period has already closed, but don’t give up hope if you didn’t secure a spot, because unregistered guests “will be admitted as capacity allows,” the organizers say.