Matthew Miller

mrmiller@lsj.com

You could spend this weekend in Owosso, dancing to polka songs from a guy who's in the International Polka Association Hall of Fame.

You could spend it in East Lansing watching massive horses pull heavy objects. Your options in Lansing range from electronica jams to ghost stories to painting plaster skulls.

Here are this weekend's best bets:

Clydesdales, Belgians, Percherons and mules

The massive horse breeds that provided much of America’s horsepower into the 20th century will be on display this week at the Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show and Pull.

The event, which runs Thursday through Sunday at the Michigan State University Pavilion, includes plowing matches, horse pulls, as well as hitch and halter events. Organizers expect close to 1,200 draft horses.

How to go: Michigan Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show and Pull, Thursday through Sunday, MSU Pavilion, 4301 Farm Lane in East Lansing. Adult admission is $12 for a single day, $36 for all four days. Children 7 and under get in free. On Sunday, those 17 and under get in free with a paying adult. There are discounts for students and seniors. For information, go to www.mgli.org.

Polka and Tejano at Oktoberfest in Owosso

Lenny Gomulka wrote the official polka song of the state of Massachusetts. He was inducted into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame 28 years ago. He’s been nominated for Grammy Awards in the polka category a dozen times.

And, on Friday and Saturday, Gomulka and his band, Chicago Push, will be playing Oktoberfest in Owosso. They’ll be sharing the stage on Friday night with Lansing Tejano band La Corporacion and on Saturday night with Gerry Kaminski’s Polka Network. The Tejano band Conjunto Champz will play Saturday afternoon.

The festival also includes bed races and a beer stein endurance contest and various children’s activities.

How to go: Owosso’s Oktoberfest runs Friday and Saturday around the intersection of Exchange and Water streets in the city’s downtown. There is no charge for admission to the festival, but entry into the Biergarten is $10 per day or $15 for the entire weekend. Designated drivers get into the Biergarten free and get free non-alcoholic drinks, besides. For additional information, go to www.oktoberfestinowosso.org.

Skull painting and pumpkin carving

For just over two years, REACH Studio Art Center has been offering Friday night art classes for adults and encouraging participants to bring their own libations. The community arts organization calls them “adult social” classes.

“Our mission is to make art accessible to everyone, but 90% of the people we were seeing come to our studio were youth,” said program director Joy Baldwin, “so we got together to think of fun ways adults could get out and have painting nights or ceramics nights.”

Or, at the Sculpt and Skull class on Friday, a night of carving pumpkins and painting plaster skulls.

Photographs of the resulting artworks will be posted the REACH’s Facebook page for public voting. The best skull and best pumpkin winners will get a free adult social class.

How to go: Sculpt and Skull, 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday, REACH Studio Art Center, 1804 S Washington Ave. in Lansing. The cost is $28 for one person, $50 for two. Prices go up the day before the event. For information, go to http://bit.ly/2ecAgkd.

Ghost stories at the Turner-Dodge House

Is the Turner-Dodge House haunted?

The Southeast Michigan Ghost Hunters Society recently investigated the north Lansing landmark. On Friday night, they’ll present their findings, “which are open to interpretation,” said Barbara Loyer, the Turner-Dodge House event manager.

And theirs will be just one of the ghost stories told at the Turner-Dodge House that night. Loyer said she and a volunteer “are going to share some of our experiences that we couldn’t explain — yet anyway.”

Attendees also will be invited to share their own experiences with ghosts, whether they have to do with the Turner-Dodge House or not.

How to go: Ghost Stories at Turner Dodge, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Turner Dodge House, 10 E. North Street in Lansing. Admission is $10. Light refreshments will be served. To register, call 483-4311. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/444510189053088/

Broccoli Samurai

Broccoli Samurai’s name is a riff on a Saturday Night Live skit from 1986 (that would be Dana Carvey, choppin’ broccoli).

Their music is a riff on progressive electronica, influenced by drum and bass, structured around jams.

The Cleveland quartet will play The Loft on Saturday. The East Lansing Rasta-funk band Speak Easy and Ann Arbor prog rock-funk-and-fusion outfit Chirp will open.

How to go: Broccoli Samurai, Speak Easy and Chirp, 9 p.m. Saturday, The Loft, 414 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing, tickets start at $12 in advance via www.theloftlansing.com.

Walk like a zombie

Lurch around downtown in your brain-eating best at the Downtown Lansing Zombie Walk on Sunday.

The undead horde will meet at 11:30 a.m. inside the Lansing Center by Exhibit Hall C and unleash itself upon the city at noon.

“We’re going to lurch around Lansing for a bit,” said Steve Sneed. The plan is to terrorize the Pokemon Go players in Wentworth Park, shuffle over the Lansing City Market and return to the Lansing Center for photo op.

Sneed calls himself the co-mad scientist of How-To Halloween, a do-it-yourself holiday event that runs Saturday and Sunday at the Lansing Center, and the Zombie Walk is a sort of kick-off to the event’s second day.

Participants who bring a donation of non-perishable food items for the Greater Lansing Food Bank will receive free entry to How-To Halloween (which, with animatronic figures, classes on fake blood and LEDs and a “Toy Hack” table, sounds like plenty of fun in its own right).

How to go: Downtown Lansing Zombie Walk, participants will meet at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at the Lansing Center near Exhibit Hall C, walk departs at noon. The event is free. Participants who bring non-perishable food items to donate to the Greater Lansing Food Bank will get free entry to How-To Halloween, a do-it-yourself holiday event at the Lansing Center. For information, go to www.facebook.com/events/257756827957837/ and www.how-tohalloween.com.