If you’re looking to brighten your mood without lightening your wallet, join Little Saigon’s Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, or check out cultural performances from all over the world at the MassQ Ball. Or, if you’ve been meaning to brush up on the city’s many museums’ new (and longstanding) exhibits, two will help improve your art smarts, tuition free. Here are several no-cost activities and events for the week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5.
THE LEAVES ARE FALLING Celebrate the arrival of autumn by Boston Harbor at the second annual Rose Kennedy Greenway’s Fall Festival, full of fun events for the whole family. Play mini golf at a pop-up course or test your parkour skills at an inflatable obstacle course. Other activities, including pumpkin decorating and face-painting, will be available at tents around the plaza until 6:30 p.m. After, stick around for a free screening of “The Addams Family” to get in the Halloween headspace. Oct. 3, 4:30-8:30 p.m. Rowes Wharf Plaza, Atlantic Avenue and High Street. rosekennedygreenway.org
THIS MASS-QUERADE The MassQ Ball, presented at the Arnold Arboretum, will host a multicultural showcase featuring New England-based performers and troupes, from Haitian folk dance to Chinese lion dance to African drum circles and more. The celebration is named after local creator Daniel Callahan’s MassQ project, in which he painted his face and others’ with designs inspired by global indigenous practices; attendees can have their faces painted by volunteers for free during the event. Performers will be spread across the Arboretum alongside installations by local artists. Golf cart rides will be available for those with accessibility needs. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets as seating for the performances. Oct. 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, entrance at 243 Walter St. massqball.com
VIETNAMESE HOLIDAY Boston Little Saigon’s Trung Thu Together festival at Town Field Park will spotlight Vietnamese cultural performers and lantern displays. Attendees of all ages can enjoy songs, dances, and take part in the lantern-making traditions, alongside other crafts. When the sun goes down, a lantern show lights up the entire park. Additionally, local vendors will be selling crafts and foods during the event. Oct. 4, 3-8 p.m. Town Field Park, 1565 Dorchester Ave. tranvuarts.com
FISH ARE FRIENDS Local DJ and creator Andres Duarte will perform an ode to herring on the banks of Mystic River. The whimsical outdoor performance and light show will feature songs and dances to honor the river’s fish. Duarte was named the Mystic River Watershed Association’s creator-in-residence in January, a program that supports creatives in making accessible performances and art that connect people to the natural world. Oct. 4, 6-8 p.m. Torbert Macdonald Park, 4253 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford. mysticriver.org
THURSDAY ARTS The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Free First Thursdays program returns this week — and you don’t even have to be named Isabella to take advantage. For this month’s event, Boston-based Mariachi singer Veronica Robles and her band bring upbeat tunes to the museum’s courtyard at 6 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. and creator-in-residence Yu-Wen Wu will appear for a talk at 6:30 about her ongoing exhibition. Additionally, attendees can join a drop-in metal embossing-workshop to create their own foil crown between 5-8 p.m. Oct. 2, 3-9 p.m. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. gardnermuseum.org
SUNDAY SHOWCASE Each Sunday afternoon, Boston College’s McMullen Museum offers free guided tours. This week, the tour focuses on three of the museum’s exhibitions: “A Fresh Vision,” which includes 36 landscape works from Belgian painters; a display of Italian painting from the Middle Ages that explores the transition from late Medieval to early Renaissance art; and photographs from Martin Karplus, who captured life across Europe and the Americas from the 1950s through the ’70s. Sundays, 2-3 p.m. McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Commonwealth Ave. events.bc.edu
Check individual event websites for the most up-to-date information.
Send info on free events and special offers at least 10 days in advance to ryan.yau@globe.com.
Ryan Yau can be reached at ryan.yau@globe.com.
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