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Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Aggregation No. 1“Glitterotica 2: Revenge of The Glitter” burlesque, dance and drag with live music at 8 p.m. Friday at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square. Tickets range from $15 to stand or $20 for a stool to $25 for a table seat or $30 for a VIP table seat.

You’re encouraged to wear as much glitter as you can (there’s a Sparkliest Outfit Contest for tickets to the Old School Game Show) even if the dancers are removing theirs along with their clothes. The burlesque, dance and drag talent includes Honey Pie, Maggie Maraschino, Allix Mortis, Jane Doe, Lotta Sassafrass, Brandy Wine, Femme Brulee, Butch Sassidy, Lilith Beest, Dinah Deville, Porcelain Dalya and Fem Bones.

But wait! That’s not all. The dancing takes place to the live tunes of local favorites Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, and there’s also spoken word by Jade Sylvan and Kristen Schaer and live drawings by Zombie Romance. The whole thing is hosted by saucy chanteuse Niki Luparelli. Information is here.

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Aggregation No. 2Cambridge Arts River Festival and Peoples Sculpture Racing is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, rain or shine, on Massachusetts Avenue between Prospect and Sidney streets and down Sydney Street to Pilgrim Street in Central Square and the contiguous University Park. The sculpture race begins at 11 a.m. at Sidney and Pilgrims streets (a map of the racecourse is here); the festival begins at noon. Free.

Some 200,000 people are expected to throng this 36th annual festival, finding six stages of jazz, folk, roots and world music, theater and dance; community tables; poetry and storytelling tents; interactive areas that include a chalk art tribute to the artist known as Sidewalk Sam; roving performances; and a World of Food; Arts Bazaar; and two Brew Gardens, with more than 150 specialty food purveyors, crafters and artisans showing and selling their wares. Leading off is the inaugural race of a revived People’s Sculpture Racing program (called World Sculpture Racing in the 1980s), with 17 contenders pushing, pulling or pedaling sculptures along a three-quarter-mile course on streets south of the festival grounds. Information is here.

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Aggregation No. 3New School of Music concerts from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Saturday on Brattle Plaza, Harvard Square (for free), and at 3 p.m. Saturday at the New School of Music, 25 Lowell St., West Cambridge (for $10 admission, or $11.34 with an online service fee; a family of four or more get in with a $35 group rate, or $37.22 with an online service fee).

Are you ready for some free cute overload between your Saturday errands? You can get it from the New School of Music Sing What You Love: Musical Theater Ensemble, a nine-member chorus of children ages 6 to 11, who are going to perform musical theater pieces with a bit of choreography, including “The Lonely Goatherd” from “The Sound of Music”; “Not While I’m Around” from “Sweeney Todd”; “Naughty” from “Matilda”; and “Alone in the Universe” from “Seussical: The Musical.” Information is here. Then there’s a Sunday indoor picnic and introduction to classical music for little ones (who are invited to bring a special teddy bear or stuffed animal friend) in the form of a “Hums of Winnie-the-Pooh” concert with soprano Lauren Cook and pianist Kai-Ching Chang. Information is here.

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Aggregation No. 4U.S. Air Guitar qualifier round at 5 p.m. Saturday at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St., Central Square. Entry is $10 (plus a $1.24 online service fee when buying in advance).

This is the last Air Guitar round at this legendary but soon-to-close club, which makes it twice as important not to miss it as Boston’s best air guitarists battle it out in two rounds of rock ’n’ roll fury for a chance at air guitar glory. The top three air guitarists of the night will win spots in the Eastern Conference Finals in New York City as well as cash prizes – and might just wind up at the Aug. 28 world championship event in Rotuaari Square in Oulu, Finland.

Captain Airhab hosts, and the competition will be judged by burlesque star Allix Mortis, comedian Jake McDowell; and Mike D’Angelo, host of Old School Game Show. A halftime performance by acoustic comedy dudes The Daley Grimes is scheduled. Information is here; enter the competition here.

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Aggregation No. 5The Very Best at 9 p.m. Sunday at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St., Central Square. Tickets are $15 for this 18-plus show with doors at 8 p.m.

It may not have been the top priority on your Sunday to-do list to go hear this Malawian-Swedish pop band, but just listen to some of The Very Best and those priorities might change. The band – the duo of Johan Hugo and Esau Mwamwaya – toned down the electronics in their latest round of recording, setting up a makeshift studio in a village called M’dala Chikowa and hosting drop-ins from local choirs and musicians. With the locals’ additions of vocals and acoustic instruments, the music of The Very Best has become richer, more beautiful and more accessible than ever. And it’s not often that you can tell folks at the office on Monday that you spent the previous night dancing to Malawian-Swedish pop.