Soup For You!
Eating soup… for a cause? That’s the idea behind Soupstock (Oct. 21, Woodbine Park), an event that brings 200 chefs together to prepare their best soup recipes to protest Melancthon’s proposed mega-quarry. The daylong soup-fest features chefs such as Jamie Kennedy and Anthony Walsh offering up their fare ($10 for three servings), with all proceeds going towards building a community to stop the controversial mega-quarry. Guests are asked to bring their own bowls, spoons and napkins.
Things Get Freaky After Dark
The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema will serve as host to chills, thrills and plenty of screams for nine consecutive nights beginning tonight, as the Toronto After Dark Fim Festival gets underway. Films scheduled for the fest range from the gory (such as British slasher flick Inbred) to the funny (Simon Pegg’s A Fantastic Fear of Everything) to the just plain ridiculous (Dead Sushi, a movie about murderous raw fish).
Night of the Living Dead
Makeup-wearing hordes walking in a transfixed state are set to take over downtown Toronto on Saturday. No, this isn’t a major sale taking place at the Eaton Centre — this is the 10th annual Toronto Zombie Walk (Oct. 20, begins and ends at Nathan Phillips Square). The 5km walk (more like a lurch) will begin at 3 p.m., but other festivities, including a costume competition and live musical performances, will start getting underway at noon. Organizers are expecting this year to mark the biggest event ever, surpassing last year’s 6,000-corpse attendance. The event is free, but is exclusive to the city’s undead.
Bookworms, Unite!
It’s tough to imagine a more dramatic change of pace than to switch from the Zombie Walk to the International Festival of Authors (Oct. 18-28, Harbourfront Centre). The festival, in its 33rd year, welcomes great literary minds from nearly 50 countries to Toronto to read from their recent works, take part in interviews, give lectures, participate in roundtable discussions and attend book signings. Notable auteurs taking part in this year’s event include Michael Chabon, Rohinton Mistry, Irvine Welsh and Junot Díaz.
A Girls’ Weekend
It’s ladies’ only at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this weekend, as The National Women's Show (Oct. 19-21) gets underway. The three-day event will host over 450 exhibitors showcasing current trends in beauty and fashion, offering travel deals, providing career advice and serving up some health and fitness tips. On top of that, there are plenty of goodies and prizes to be distributed, including gift bags with samples and promotions for those who arrive early.