By Marc Levy

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Last revised on: Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Annual Italian Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian all weekend long at Warren and Cambridge streets, in the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood. Free.

The weekend starts with a bang with this 90th annual family-friendly feast, which includes free performances by recording artists such as Tony Orlando, The Village People, The Platters and many more, along with rides, games, a food festival (with cooking demonstrations by local chefs), eating contests and parades. Information is here.

Boston Comedy Arts Festival all weekend long at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St., Central Square, and Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, in Mid-Cambridge. Most shows are between $18 and $25, but there are a few on the schedule that are free, $5, $10 or $14.

Now in its eighth year, this five-day festival (running since Wednesday) showcases improv, standup, sketch, music, variety acts and everything in between, even throwing in workshops and networking for the pros who’ve come to learn – or show off. Kevin McDonald from The Kids in the Hall returns, as do stand-ups Jenny Zigrino (“Bad Santa 2”) and Aparna Nancherla (“Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell”). Information is here.

Somerville Toy Camera Festival with an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at The Nave Gallery Annex, 53 Chester St., Davis Square, Somerville. Free.

Taking place at the Nave Annex, Brickbottom Gallery, and Washington Street Gallery, this is among the largest toy camera festivals in the world. Local, national and international photographers are highlighted for their skills using low-tech tools to create high art. The juried exhibition is up through Oct. 1, but the opening reception may be the best way to dive into this fourth year of lo-fi imagery. Information is here.

Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday at The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $15.

Local performance art rock favorites Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys appear behind their new album, “Come Black Magic” with openers Ruby Rose Fox and Mount Peru. Seeing Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys live should be on the to-do list of every resident of Greater Boston, a rite somewhere between a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening, circus sideshow and cult ceremony (but the music is better). Information is here.

The Poetry Brothel from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $30.

Set up as a decadent fin de siècle brothel like those of New Orleans, Paris and Buenos Aires that functioned as safe havens for fledgling, avant-garde artists, Oberon hosts poets performing as part of an immersive cabaret with live music, burlesque, vaudeville, aerialist, fortune tellers, painters and other acts. The production, by the visiting Poetry Society of New York, promises one-on-one poetry readings in back rooms as well; for a small fee, all of the poets are available for these sequestered readings at any time during the event, making words as subversive and sexy as those other acts hosted by brothels. This Boston premiere includes guest readers Robert Pinsky and Steph Burt, burlesque beauty Ginny Nightshade and house band Hounds On An Island, led by Sara Honeywell. Information is here.

The Boston Festival of Indie Games from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Building W34, also known as the Johnson Athletics Center, 120 Vassar St., in the MIT/Area II neighborhood. Tickets are $15.

Love games? Bored with the ones you have? Come look at the ones you might not be able to get yet – or ever. This fifth annual family-friendly event encourages attendees to share and interact with various kinds of games, including video and tabletop, as well as to attend talks, panels and workshops on indie-game development and the future of the game industry (and don’t miss the Boffer fighting and Quidditch exhibition games at 10 a.m.). “The games featured at the annual festival are innovative and refreshing, demonstrating both the budding and the established talent of game makers in the American Northeast,” organizers of the nonprofit event say. The annual Figgies Awards Show ends the day starting at 6:15 p.m. Information is here.

“db” from 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday (tickets are $10, or $11.34 with the online service fee) and Becky’s #HashTagTeam Slumber Party from 9 p.m. to midnight (tickets are $15 for this 21-plus show) at the Davis Square Theatre, 255 Elm St., Somerville.

See what all the fuss was about at the Providence Fringe Festival as the Strange News theater company brings its hourlong dive into the D.B. Cooper phenomenon to town. Who was D.B. Cooper? Exactly – the hijacker dove out of an airplane with $200,000 in 1971 and hasn’t been heard from since. That leaves him a mystery open to some examination in a series of surreal vignettes. Information is here.

The Federation of Belligerent Writers pits writers against each other in bracketed events where they have three to five minutes to write anything they want based on three randomly chosen words, then perform them to win audience approval, with the writer advancing. This time the writing is done in teams, and members of the winning team will face each other in the final round. Expect a lot of yelling and perhaps some throwing of things and people in costumes and/or speedos. Information is here.

Somerville Rock and Roll Yard Sale from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday on Union Square Plaza, 90 Union Square, Somerville. Free.

What Cheer? Records of Providence, R.I., has been putting on its Rock And Roll Yard Sales for more than a decade featuring local, independent sellers offering up a quirky and unique mix of primarily vinyl records and music-related stuff, as well as vintage goods and handmade items. Some of New England’s best record sellers will be on hand with piles and crates of vinyl to dig through, including LPs, 45s, 78s and CDs, cassettes, eight-tracks, music and audio gear and other music memorabilia, making for a perfect way to find one-of-a-kind items and support DIY and independent, small businesses. The event includes live music from Narc Virus, Mystery Red Inferno and Allysen Callery, and a DJ will spin vinyl. Information is here.

Cambridge Carnival from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday in Kendall Square. Free.

The 24th Annual Cambridge Carnival International Festival and Parade arrives in its usual spectacular fashion, now with an extra hour of celebration. It starts in Central Square with a parade along Massachusetts Avenue and up Main Street to Kendall Square, where the Caribbean/African-themed carnival is home to dazzling handmade costumes accompanied by the music of DJs and bands playing world music, Haitian roots, reggae and Soca. A variety of savory foods will be for sale, and there’s plenty for kids to do, most free. The carnival has drawn crowds of up to 100,000 people. Information is here.

Also this weekend: The free Riverfest from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Assembly Row, 300 Grand Union Blvd., Somerville, with music, art, free children’s activities, a sidewalk sale and a fireworks show over the Mystic River at sundown. Information is here. Overlapping with Riverfest is the Fairies in Boston adult dress-up day from 1 to 4 p.m., meeting at the 340 Canal St. Welcome Center at before moving to a green area for picture taking, and then wandering, shopping and revelry in Assembly Row and Riverfest. Information is here.