Weekend events in Toronto is our guide to events happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here's what's happening in Toronto this August 23-25, 2013.

CONVENTION

Fan Expo 2013
For four full days, fans will get a chance to line up, shop around and experience the sights, sounds, and smells of Toronto's top convention for gaming, comics, sci-fi, anime, horror, and, uh, sports? Yup. Looks like this year will be particularly special because Hobbystar, the creators of Fan Expo Canada, are now expanding their target market and including the wild world of professional sports. For a full preview, check out the link above.
August 22nd to August 25th. Visit the event's web site for more details.

FESTIVALS & CULTURE

Buskerfest 2013
This festival, in support of Epilepsy Toronto has been a fixture in the city's Summer outdoor events for thirteen years, and will find Yonge Street between Queen and College, plus Yonge Dundas Square (and the surrounding area) full of entertainment: musicians, acrobats, jugglers, and even acts you cannot presently imagine. Admission is by donation to Epilepsy Toronto - a very worthy cause. Scotiabank Buskerfest runs until Sunday at 8pm. Tag your photos of the fest with #blogtobuskerfest on Instagram for a chance to have them featured on the homepage.
Yonge and Dundas Square (1 Dundas Street East) 12-10pm

TaiwanFest
TaiwanFest, presented by Telus, takes place at Harbourfront throughout the weekend. The theme for this year's festival is "Children Of The Ocean", and according to the TaiwanFest curators, this is a symbolic phrase referring to Taiwanese culture and its future evolution. An important aspect of this festival is the presence of an Amis component: the indigenous people of Taiwan, who have their own language. A Music Memoir of Legendary Amis is a musical performance scheduled for Saturday at 3pm. Over the weekend, there will be cooking demonstrations, additional musical performances, a marketplace, and more.
Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West)

Toronto Chinatown Festival
The Toronto Chinatown Festival happens Saturday and Sunday on Spadina Avenue and Huron Street. There will be two stages hosting musical performances: the Chevrolet Stage (on Spadina, North of Dundas), and the OLG Slots Woodbine Entertainment Stage on Huron Street. A central part of the festival is the dragon and lion dancing, which is a Chinese cultural tradition. Almost a dozen booths will be set up during this year's festival to share some culture, games, the history of TO's Chinatown, street performances, Chinese crafts, fortune-telling, and more. In addition, a variety of street food vendors will be open for business to make sure your palette also gets a dose of Chinese culture.
Spadina Avenue from Dundas Street West to College Street Sat 12pm to 11pm, Sun 11am to 8pm

The Bridging Festival
The Bridging Festival, a celebration of "art, community, culture and environment" has returned for a fourth year, and concludes today and tomorrow (Saturday), with a taste of culture (and cuisine) for all who attend. Today at 5pm, there will be a spoken word lineup of almost a dozen performers, and a cooking demonstration by Shaw Kat Hossain. Saturday's event begins at noon, beneath the Lawrence Avenue East Bridge, for the peak of the festival, where music, food, dance and poetry will take place. Performers and events include Kaleidoscope, the Indian Classical Music and Arts Society, the Eagleheart Singers, interactive information booths, and more. A unique event in a unique location.
East Scarborough Storefront (4040 Lawrence Avenue East) Friday 5PM, and underneath Lawrence Avenue East Bridge (4000 Lawrence Avenue East) Sat 12PM

DESIGN

The Junction Design Crawl
The annual Junction Design Crawl takes place this weekend, showcasing the neighbourhoods eclectic shops. With over 15 participating stores marked by white lights and various exhibits and sales, it's a must-attend event for design-lovers city-wide.
Friday, August 23rd, 7-11pm

MARKETPLACE

Muddy York Collective Pop-Up
The Muddy York Collective is a savvy group of small business owners whose focus is vintage clothing and homemade "wares", and their mission is to set up at various pop up shops around Southern Ontario, and give you unfettered access to their hand picked selection of goods. This is in fact the case on Saturday and Sunday, when the collective will be setting up shop at 688 Richmond Street with clothing and accessories from the '50s through to the '90s, plus various items for the home. Participating in this sale are Tomorrow Never Knows (a great name for a vintage biz), jewelry from Little Green Designs, Wild Thing, Coco and Bear, and Ma Petite Chouette.
the industREALarts Room (688 Richmond Street West) Sat + Sun 10AM - 5PM

The Roncey Flea
The Roncey Flea returns to Emmanuel Howard Park United Church this Saturday with a juried outdoor flea market. On offer will be various collectibles, antiques, kitsch, vintage clothing, and vintage jewellery. Not just a junk-fest, the jury tends to ensure that the items on offer are unique and interesting. Proceeds go to the church.
Saturday, August 24th 10am-6pm.

MUSIC

Riot Fest Toronto @ Fort York
Music festival season isn't quite over yet, and this weekend's Riot Fest on the grounds of Fort York will be a good one! Both Saturday and (especially) Sunday boast awesome lineups that will definitely bring people out. Saturday's offerings include: A Day To Remember, Pierce The Evil, Grade, The Ghost Inside, and others. Sunday is going to be crammed, with a killer lineup, including The Replacements, Iggy & The Stooges, The Weakerthans, Dinosaur Jr., Rocket From The Crypt, Best Coast, The Flatliners, and Single Mothers. There's a ticket package for everyone's taste, so check out the event link for full pricing details.
Fort York (250 Fort York Boulevard) 2PM $35.98 - $189.98

Old Crow Medecine Show + Daniel Romano
On tour, and up from Nashville, Tennessee, Old Crow Medicine Show hits town tonight (Friday) for a show at The Danforth Music Hall. This group has been at it for 15 years, and are early proponents of the "Americana" genre that has been gone mainstream in the last decade or so, but can be traced back to the folk movement of the early '60s, as well as groups like The Band, and other late '60s and early '70s groups who went back to acoustic instruments and the roots of American music. Old Crow Medecine Show have released four studio albums, and were also featured in the film Big Easy Express. Daniel Romano opens the show.
Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth Avenue) 8PM $29.50

Music For The Masses
Music For The Masses, a one-night, multi-venue music fest, goes down in TO tonight (Friday). Three venues, carefully chosen to be in close proximity (and therefore encouraging show hopping) will be serving up some rock goodness from 9 o'clock until last call. The Velvet Underground has sets from The Married Singlemen, Hockey Teeth, The Matadors, and The Mahones for you. Cherry Cola's will be serving up Secret Broadcast, Famous Underground, and Robin Black. Our third venue is The Bovine, who will have The True Romantics, Saigon Hookers, The Dirty Water, Sons Of Otis, and Indian Handicrafts.
Velvet Underground (510 Queen Street West) + two other venues 9PM $15

For more music listings, check out our August concerts roundup.

FOOD

Wild Blueberry Festival at Evergreen Brick Works
This Sunday, Evergreen Brick Works hosts the Wild Blueberry Festival. This favourite fruit has been much hyped over the last decade, but antioxidant content or not, they are delicious, and definitely worth finding out more about. Sunday's event will begin with a workshop on growing your own, presented by the people at the Evergreen Garden Market. Then the Wild Blueberry Pie Bake-Off goes down, and several of TO's top bakers will compete for the GE CafĂŠ Excellence Baking Award. The results will be tasty, and with the purchase of a five dollar "tasting ballot" you can sample and vote. There will also be music in the Chimmney Court via the The Honeyrunners, and Ryan Butler.
Evergreen Brick Works (550 Bayview Avenue) 11AM - 2PM.

For more upcoming food events, check out our weekly roundup post.

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

Photo of Fan Expo by Christian Bobak