A changing of the guard in the local music biz will be held March 5 at Pagu, with legendary jazz booking agent Fred Taylor on hand, as well as a sentimental farewell to the Western Front reggae club.

The 21st annual free Danehy Park Family Day, sponsored by the city, attracts more than 4,000 people to its children’s amusement rides, arts and crafts, music and roving performers.

Just in time for returning college students pining for weekdays they can treat like weekends, The Sinclair in Harvard Square is using August to introduce Hump – a dance party taking place the last Wednesday of every month.

The release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the play script that catches up with J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard 19 years later, will turn Harvard Square into Hogwarts Square on July 30, including special deals and events leading up to a midnight book release.

If Facebook is to be believed, 27,000 people jammed the streets in front of City Hall for the Cambridge Dance Party last year, likely one reason why the four-hour party has become a five-hour party this year, starting at 7 p.m. Friday and ending at midnight.

There’s plenty going on in events and even Halloween-style dining throughout Cambridge and Somerville from now through Oct. 31, ranging from free art and films to an $85 four-course holiday-themed tasting menu.

As though to distract from all the food, the annual Party Under the Harvest Moon has celebrities as well: Ray Magliozzi of “Car Talk”; Robin Young, host of WBUR’s “Here and Now”; and Rick Jenkins, comic and host of The Comedy Studio in Harvard Square.

The 10th annual Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands comes Oct. 9-11, but entered this weekend with a nail-biting countdown as well as a list of firsts for the constantly expanding event. A Kickstarter campaign has $3,000 to go before all 28 bands can participate.

Cambridge’s free annual dance party has taken place every year since 1996, yet every year its exuberance – if not its very existence – takes people by surprise.

The “river” part of the 36th annual Cambridge Arts River Festival is more conceptual than literal this year, but it still brings a steady stream of entertainment, cuisine and community along Massachusetts Avenue in the Central Square Cultural District.