It's time for the Mermaid Parade! And 19 other weekend ideas

Rejected Disney spinoff: The Mermaid Queen. Photo by Laure Leber

1. It’s the first day of summer, Make Music New York! (Friday)

2. Or celebrate with a solstice party hosted by the North Brooklyn Boat Club (Friday)

3. The Fulton Area Business District wants you to enjoy some music for free, who are you to refuse? (Friday)

4. You guys like the Hunger Games? Then you’ll love Battle Royale, which is twice as violent and Japanese (Friday)

5. Hillstock is your weekend-long, local alternative to giant music festivals like Governors Island and Coachella, and it will be awesome (Friday – Sunday)

6. It’s officially summer, so what better time for a Popsickle? Which is actually a small-scale literary festival in Bushwick. Our buddy Jacob Perkins from Mellow Pages will be there to do a reading (Saturday)

7. Our other Mellow Pages bro, Matt Nelson, will be MC’ing this issue release party for The Literarian magazine. We think it’s about people who eat literature, maybe? (Saturday)

8. Owl Farm, a bar we love, is turning one! See what kind of magical beer surprises they’ve got to share with you. Here’s one: an hour of free draft beer! (Saturday)

9. We’ve been talking about it and it’s finally time: hang with Liev Schreiber at Tropfest, the world’s biggest short film festival (Saturday)

10. You crowdsourced it, so now it’s time to enjoy it: The Mermaid Parade is here! (Saturday)

11. And once you’re done there, hit up the Gowanus Ballroom’s Drunken Mermaid Gala afterparty, with bands and food and merriment (Saturday)

12. WTF went down with the bus driver strike? This documentary screening at Coco 66 will break it all down for you (Saturday)

13. Tiger Tail in Blue, presented by Rooftop Films, is a story about a waiter who flirts with his co-worker. It’s like they put your life on a screen! (Saturday)

14. Atom Tan! rolls into Videology to show Stunt Rock and Prayer of the Rollerboys, two movies that sound godawful, and one of which stars Corey Haim and Patricia Arquette (Saturday)

15. A rooftop music festival in Greenpoint? Yes, thank you (Saturday)

16. The Knights of Bruklyn don’t protect damsels from dragons, but they do protect your tastebuds from bad homebrew, and they’ve collected their champions for competition at the Bell House (Sunday)

17. Bed-Stuy’s stoops will be turned into outdoor art exhibits with the STooPS project (Sunday)

18. More terrible movies! This time they’re presented by the Obsolete Cinema Club at Freddy’s and involve both Kiss meeting a phantom and the hallucinatory bad Sgt. Pepper’s movie (Sunday)

19. Jo Firestone knows what will make you happy: checking out Get Happy! at the Cameo Gallery (Sunday)

20. Goonies never say die, but they do say “Let’s meet at Canal Bar to watch The Goonies in the backyard.” (Sunday