May 3rd-May 7th Hot Docs Festival @ Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, 506 Bloor St. W. North America’s largest documentary festival, featuring a selection of roughly 200 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe.

May 3rd-May 31st Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival @ various locations. An annual event with over 1,500 artists and photographers in 200 exhibitions and happenings throughout the month. Check out the CONTACT website for a full list of exhibitions and installations.

May 5th-7th Jane’s Walk @ various locations. An annual festival of free, community-led walking tours inspired by Jane Jacobs. Explore your city, share stories about your community, and connect with your neighbours on any of the hundreds of Jane’s Walks taking place across Toronto.

May 5th-7th Major/Minor: Bloordale Music and Arts Festival @ Bloordale (on Bloor between Dufferin and Lansdowne). An inclusive community festival showcasing many of Bloordale’s local businesses and talent. All concerts and workshops are all ages and PWYC.

WEDNESDAY

7 pm Music Bingo @ The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. A FREE weekly event combining the love of music with the traditional bingo format. Each player receives a Music Bingo card which consists of an assortment of songs. Instead of calling out numbers, they play the music! Singing along encouraged.

8 pm Drake Trivia @ The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen St. W. Teams of four or less put their random knowledge to the test as hosts Megan Griffith-Greene and Jeromy Lloyd fire off questions ranging from sporting records and celebrity scandals to geographic discoveries and culinary lingo. $2 to participate and the winning table gets an $80 Drake gift card (plus bragging rights)! Click here to reserve with OpenTable, or show up early to ensure a spot for your team.

THURSDAY

6:30 pm Q&A with Mule Design @ The Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar, 1214 Queen St. W. Ever wanted to meet with the people behind Mule Design? Now’s your chance! This Q&A is perfect for designers of all trades and experience levels, as you will get to meet the people who authored books such as Just Enough Research, Design is a Job, and You are my favourite client. Doors open at 6:30 pm, with the moderated Q&A session starting around 7.

7 pm Pop Culture Trivia @ The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave. A trivia night with the emphasis on entertainment (movies, TV, music). This is the payoff for all the television you’ve been watching. Prizes and cheap drinks all night!

9 pm May the Fourth Party @ The Drake Sky Yard, 1150 Queen St. W. May the fourth be with you for the Drake Hotel’s Star Wars-themed costume party with Indie88. Come with your lightsaber and favourite robot companion for an interstellar evening in a galaxy far far away. Sip space-inspired cocktails and moonwalk to DJ IAMMIIKEY’s smooth grooves. Digital installations will transform the Sky Yard into the set of your favourite movies.

10 pm Get Lo @ Clinton’s, 693 Bloor St. W. Bangs & Blush bring you the ULTIMATE ’90s til now dance party, GET LO! They’ll be playing all the shit you wanna hear from the ’90s to today.

10 pm Big Bird Boogie @ Swan Dive, 1631 Dundas St. W. Surf, glam, Motown, and rock ‘n’ roll with DJ Dan! $4 Four Roses and $6 pints of Duggans Phi.

10 pm Electricladyland @ The Beaver, 1192 Queen St. W. A queer synthy, sexy dance party, playing all and only electronic ladies! Expect lots of Le Tigre, Erykah Badu, Bjork, Kate Bush, Kelela, Broadcast, Robyn, Madonna, The Knife, Kylie Minogue, M.I.A., Lykke Li, FKA Twigs, Santogold, Grimes, and more.

FRIDAY

9 am PetSmart Charities’ National Adoption Weekend @ PetSmart. Held four times a year, PetSmart Charities’ NAW is committed to finding forever homes for adoptable pets. This month’s theme is cats and kittens! Runs all weekend long at PetSmart stores across the GTA.

7 pm #FNLROM: Splash @ Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. Get ready to launch this season with great entertainment, and complimentary access to the ROM’s newest exhibition, “Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story.” $17 tickets available online and at the door.

8 pm Baby Birds: Henhouse Reunion Party @ The Baby G, 1608 Dundas St. W. The Henhouse is back for one night only! Get ready to dance your faces off with tunes by old Henhouse pals Philip (Tapette), Andrew Awesome (Chriscotheque), and Sigourney Beaver (TRASH). Performances by Fay Slift, Igby Lizard, Allysin Chaynes, Nancy Bocock, and the spirit of Judy Virago. $5 before 11 pm, $10 after.

10 pm Yacht Rock @ The Boat, 158 Augusta Ave. A night of dancing to the smoothest music you’ve ever heard in your life. $5 to step aboard.

10 pm Essence Brown @ The Steady, 1051 Bloor St. W. Sexy, smooth, seductive hip-hop, R&B, and dancehall with your hosts Teej Mahal, Hoiking, and Sims. $5.

10 pm Wax Museum @ Dundas Video, 831 Dundas St. W. DJs Armak (of Kilmanjaro) and Twigg spin the best of hip-hop, soul, funk, and R&B + Kops Records giveaways and vintage video games.

10 pm Hold Tight @ Stone’s Place, 1255 Queen St. W. DJ Blush (Brittney Townson) and DJ Misty (Misty McKenzie-Hill) bring this hip-shakin’ dance party to Toronto’s legendary Rolling Stones-themed bar and lounge, Stone’s Place – and you NEED to be there! Featuring soul, funk, and rock music from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. $5 before 11 pm, more after.

10 pm Gladstone Goes Country Dance Party @ The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. Put on those cowboy boots y’all, cause the Gladstone is teaming up with Amsterdam Brewing to go country for one night only to celebrate the launch of their Pale Rider Dry Hops Lager! DJs Kaleb Robertson and Joe Blow spinning all the best foot-stompers ya ever did hear till the cows come home + $5.50 Amsterdam pints and tall cans all night long. $5.

10 pm SoulSkank @ Handlebar, 159 Augusta Ave. Soul, funk, soul, reggae, ska, dancehall, and Motown in its most raw form! A vinyl-only dance party with DJs Double K and G Spot on the wax + Dennis P on the sax. $5.

10 pm Wedding Night @ The Piston, 937 Bloor St. W. Wedding Night shamelessly plays favourites across the pop music spectrum, including new wave, hip-hop, freak funk, dad rock, and R&B. $10.

10 pm Lazy Susans @ The Ossington, 63 Ossington Ave. Spinning hip-hop, RnB, soul, rap, trap, and dirty south.

10 pm Girl & Boy 90s Dance Party @ Clinton’s, 693 Bloor St. W. A pulsating dance party rocking the retro sounds of the 1990s! All your favourite dance, pop, hip-hop, R&B, and so on and so on and so on. $5 with student ID, $10 without.

10:30 pm Big Primpin’: Come Through @ Miss Thing’s, 1279 Queen St. W. Hip-hop and hot times for LGBT people and their guests. With DJs Blackcat and Karim Olen Ash. For line bypass, email bigprimpin@gmail.com. $7.

11 pm Straight Shootin’ Proven Remedies @ Lucky Shrike, 850 Dundas St. W. 45 RPM action with DJs Johnny Trash and Nico! Proven remedies from the sounds of soul music, wild and raw R&B, ’60s mod, psych/garage, surf, rockabilly, indie/post-punk/Britpop, rocksteady/ska, popcorn/doo wop, and ’50s RNR.

11 pm Y2K: A Millennium Dance Party @ The Drake Underground, 1150 Queen St. W. A party devoted to the best jams of the early-to-mid 2000s, brought to you by Good Kids. Guilty pleasures, one hit wonders, chart toppers, and everything in between! $10.

SATURDAY

6 pm Simeon Posen’s “The Iran Collection” @ Liss Gallery, 112 Cumberland St. In 1976, after being awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian photographer Simeon Posen embarked on a tour to document the breathtaking landmarks of Iran. He photographed solely in black and white, using an 8×10 camera, developing the negatives in hotel washrooms and basements. His collection will be on display at Liss Gallery from May 6th to May 20th. Opening reception from 6-8 pm.

9 pm Shipwreck’d @ The Shore Leave, 1775 Danforth Ave. Cap’n “Swank” (DJ Swankenstein) trades the skins of ten giraffes for a beat up coconut phonograph! The rock ‘n’ roll, exotica, lounge, disco, funk, RnB, and sweet sounds of soul never stop, while Blue Suede Sue dances the Jungle Hop! Prizes for Best Dressed + late-night Intoxicated Limbo contests.

9 pm Feast in the East 6 Year Anniversary @ Jam Factory T.O., 2 Matilda St. The monthly east-end music, food, and installation series celebrates six years! This edition features free BBQ carrot and onion sliders by Tara Rose O’Shaughnessy Niewiadomski and Keithen Codner, with music provided by Phedre, Zones, Jaimie Branch Quartet, Tenderness, and Fake Humans. $10 advance tickets (includes a free dinner) available at Circus Books & Music, Cask Music, Rotate This, and Soundscapes. $12 at the door. All ages.

10 pm Kill Your Television: Alternative + Indie Video Dance Party @ Velvet Underground, 508 Queen St. W. A brand new video dance party combining the heyday of MTV 120 Minutes, MuchMusic’s The Wedge, City Limits, and CFNY/Edge102 video parties with current indie anthems. DJ Lazarus plays videos by The Pixies, White Lies, New Order, Franz Ferdinand, The Cure, Interpol, Sonic Youth, Muse, Metric, Sneaker Pimps, Phantogram, Blur, Jesus & Mary Chain, Crystal Castles, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lush, Gorillaz, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ladytron, Nirvana, The xx, Weezer, and lots more. $10.

10 pm Chronologic @ The Garrison, 1197 Dundas St. W. A dance party through the ages! Pop and antipop from since the end of history (i.e. music from 1890 to 2017, played in chronological order). $5 before 11 pm, $10 after.

10 pm Lucky Bitches @ The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave. West side’s longest running glam-positive dance party! Party jams and freedom.

10 pm Worst Behavior @ Clinton’s, 693 Bloor St. W. This Saturday, be on your worst behavior. Bangs & Blush play past and present bangers all night long from Drake, The Weeknd, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G., Nelly, TLC, Missy Elliott, and more! $5 with student ID, $10 without.

10 pm Ready, Steady, GO! @ Swan Dive, 1631 Dundas St. W. Motown, soul, rock ‘n’ roll, classic hip-hop, and guilty pleasures – it’s a hit parade of dance party madness with DJ Brother Wayne.

10 pm With It @ The Piston, 937 Bloor St. W. Floorshakers and heartbreakers with DJs Nico and Magnificent! ’60s mod, reggae, and soul. Presented in collaboration with Fred Perry Toronto and in part by Kops Records and CIUT 89.5 FM. $10.

10 pm Electrique @ Studio Bar, 824 Dundas St. W. An Electric Circus-themed monthly dance party that combines drag with the dance anthems of the ’90s and 2000s. Hosted by Gina Toniq and Minhi Wang, with DJ KeeN on the 1s and 2s + performances by Pepper Mache and Wilma Checklear. $5 before 11 pm, $10 after.

10 pm PPParty @ The Boat, 158 Augusta Ave. Why all the the P? ‘Cuz this party is golden! 24 Karat hits from all decades. $5.

10 pm Tiki Disco Saturdays @ Miss Thing’s, 1279 Queen St. W. Post-dinner Saturday night party in the Coconut Room, with special guest DJs to make you MOVE! No cover before midnight.

11 pm Never Forgive Action @ The Drake Underground, 1150 Queen St. W. A monthly dance party spinning quality hip-hop and R&B anthems from the ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and beyond. Music provided by resident DJs Numeric and Dalia! Hosted by More or Les. $10.

SUNDAY

10 am Flipside DJ & Collectors Record Sale @ The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St. W. Over 30,000 vinyl records in one room from collectors and DJs near and far! Jazz, funk, soul, Latin, Caribbean, rock, library hip-hop, disco, Brazil, reggae, house, breaks, D&B psych, rock, and much more. Until 4 pm.

2:30 pm Artlet: The Mother’s Day Edition @ Lululemon Athletica, 318 Queen St. W. This year, skip the drugstore cards and give mom the most precious gift of all: a card and canvas, made with love, by YOU! The event begins with a yoga session led by Cachelle, founder of Collective Being, to open up your body and mind before the art-making portion begins, where you’ll be led step by step by an art demonstrator. All art supplies are provided. Check-in from 2:30-3 pm. $20 advance tickets available online.

7 pm Brass Facts Trivia @ The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave. Test your knowledge and win prizes! Hosted by Famous Kirk Hero. Until 10 pm.

8 pm Nite Comfort @ Handlebar, 159 Augusta Ave. The ongoing search for genre-defying, boundary-pushing music, and other hidden gems in the heart of the city. This edition of the Nite features the release show for Markland, the new album from Toronto/Northumberland band Northumbria and a performance by ambient duo North Atlantic Drift. PWYC.

~ For event submissions, email Caitlyn Holroyd at caitlyn_holroyd@hotmail.com