Weekend Guide: Hiatus Kaiyote, Nick Hakim, and The Brooklyn Rum Festival

By Shawn Setaro

It’s mid-August, so it must be festival season. A healthy minority of our picks in the latest edition of the Weekend Guide are festivals of one kind or another. Much like our beloved borough, they are staggering in their variety. Whether you love rap or rum, patron saints or popups, we’ve got you covered. And if festivals of any type aren’t your thing, as always, we’ve got plenty of other choices.

You can find them all below.

Courtesy of Friends and Lovers

Thursday, August 14

Feast of Santa Rosalia/18th Avenue Feast (Opening Night) @ 18th Avenue from 68th Street to 75th Street
6 p.m. – 11 p.m.
This neighborhood celebration of the patron saint of Palermo, Sicily has been going on for 40 years. It starts tonight and runs until August 24, so get there while you can.

Open Decks @ Friends and Lovers
7 p.m.
Working on your cuts, blends, and/or transitions? Fret not, fledgling DJ—Friends and Lovers has a spot and a pair of decks for you to sharpen those sequences and selections. All you need to do is bring a USB and cover a drink for yourself, and you can scratch and spin the night away (or until you get booted for whoever’s on deck).

Clipping., Cooling Prongs, Fatboi Sharif @ Elsewhere
7 p.m.
The first of two Hamilton-adjacent events tonight, this cannot-be-missed concert is headlined by Clipping., the rap group featuring Daveed Diggs, who of course originated the Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson dual role in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical. Opening the show are Clipping.’s sometimes-collaborator Cooling Prongs and one of this writer’s favorite up-and-coming artists, New Jersey’s own Fatboi Sharif.

Hamilton Sing-A-Long @ Old Stone House of Brooklyn
7:30 p.m.
If seeing Thomas Jefferson in person isn’t enough Hamilton for you, you can also see him onscreen. Old Stone House is screening Hamilton outdoors. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, and your loudest singing voice.

Courtesy of Brooklyn Paramount

Friday, August 15

Nature Walk with Ryan F. Mandelbaum: Wild NYC @ Books Are Magic
6 p.m.
Take a stroll from Books Are Magic down to Brooklyn Bridge Park with Mandelbaum, the co-author of Wild NYC: Experience the Amazing Nature in and around New York City. This combo book talk/nature walk promises to reveal all sorts of fascinating things about the city we all think we know.

Hiatus Kaiyote @ Brooklyn Paramount
7 p.m.
The incredible rock/funk/jazz/soul/whatever band is back in town, supporting 2024’s Love Heart Cheat Code. If you don’t know Hiatus Kaiyote yourself, you can bet that your in-the-know music fan friend does, and probably already has tickets to this. So bug them, or click the link above.

The Burkharts & Zack Keim @ Union Pool
7 p.m.
This double bill of expert power pop band (The Burkharts) and experienced singer-songwriter (Keim) has been co-headlining throughout the northeast this summer. You can see them at one of Williamsburg’s best venues, with one of Williamsburg’s best taco trucks parked out back.

Bootleg KTV Vol. 001 @ Mood Ring
10 p.m.
Promising “100% bootleg bangers from across ESEA [east and southeast Asia],” this party features, among many others, WILHEMINA, EMZ!, and Tikkoii behind the decks. RSVP now for free entry before 11 p.m.

Club Night: Special Request b2b DJ SWISHA @ Sangs
10 p.m.
Two wildly skilled all-night specialists are connecting for an unflinching and unrestricted night of jungle, footwork, techno, house, and god knows what else. Come late, stay later (or until the early morning), and have a beautiful, sweaty ball with two pillars of dance music.

Courtesy of Playground

Saturday, August 16

Museum on Wheels: East New York @ Success Community Garden
11 a.m.
Designed to bring art to the people in the most literal way possible, the Brooklyn Museum’s Museum on Wheels is a mobile arts initiative housed in a custom Airstream trailer. At this stop, you or your child can build a mini-boom box, make jewelry, work on a mural, explore sewing with Black Girls Sew, discover artworks from the museum’s collection, and more.

The 6th-Annual And Still We Ride Block Party and Ride Out @ Jefferson Avenue between Marcy Avenue and Tompkins Avenue
12 p.m.
If you’re local to this particular corner of Bed-Stuy (or fancy yourself a motorcycle enthusiast, diehard or casual), chances are you’ve heard rumblings of this gathering on or around the block. But the annual hang-and-ride is revving up to new levels this year, with music provided by Kola Champagne, Marcus Logan, Quana Parks, and the venerable Stretch Armstrong, as well as raffles, prizes, food, vendors, portraiture, and just impeccable vibes all around.

The Playground Block Party @ Playground Coffee 
12 p.m.
On top of the aforementioned biker-forward affair, there’s also Playground’s consistently crucial streetside party a few streets over. Pull up for the coffee, wine, or assorted edible treats, stay for performances from Caleb Giles, Ayanna Heaven, Cosmo, Colored Craig, and more. And who knows, maybe they’ll even bring back the bounce house if we’re lucky.

BOMB’s Small Press Flea 2025 @ Amant
1 p.m.
This summer market features material from a who’s-who of magazines and small presses, including n+1, The Baffler, Jewish Currents, Seven Stories, Verso, and many more. There will also be workshops on creating books and zines, a panel discussion, live music, and a night market with food and cocktails.

Brooklyn Rum Festival @ 153 26th Street
1 p.m.
Yes, we know, we’ve featured this event before. But that doesn’t mean that this year’s edition is any less worthy of inclusion. You can try rums from all over the world (we are, due to a decades-long friendship with a Crucian, partial to those from the USVI, but do you), eat amazing food so you don’t get too wasted, and dance off your buzz in a special rooftop area.

Lost Together Festival @ Industry City
5 p.m.
NYC’s newest single-day music festival makes its debut this weekend. Lost Together combines hip-hop and house acts into a celebration that promises to go until the wee hours (or at least until 1 a.m.) Acts include Trippie Redd, Bobby Shmurda, Slxm Jimmi of Rae Sremmurd, Madds, Poptropicaslutz!, and more.

Nick Hakim and Karriem Riggins @ Lena Horne Bandshell
7 p.m.
BRIC’s season-long Celebrate Brooklyn series is closing up shop for the summer this weekend with a rare sighting from former borough resident, current embodiment of psychedelic soul, Nick Hakim, who cut his teeth performing and recording his debut project, Where Do We Go? right here in Kings County. Expect a few deep catalog hits, a radiant crowd, and a proper warm-up from Karriem Riggins, who will be spinning ahead of the show.

Record City Night with Slim, Miss Hap, and Other Isaac @ Anything
9 p.m.
The Prospect Lefferts-based emporium of reggae, dance hall, and lovers rock wax is taking over the sound system at Anything, where the DJ line-up will toast with classic, rare, and obscure Caribbean cuts all night long.

Courtesy of Signal

Sunday, August 17

One Crown Heights Festival @ Brooklyn Children’s Museum
12 p.m.
You can play street games, create art, dance, and eat here. But best of all, there will be free admission to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum all day. It simply can’t get any better than celebrating Crown Heights while entertaining the child in your life for no money down, word to Chuck Berry.

African Popup Festival 2025 – Summer Edition @ Hillel Plaza
1 p.m.
Put together by the people who bring you African Restaurant Week, this festival will allow you to check out a marketplace with dozens of vendors, DJs, and live music. Oh, and, of course, there will be food—including a competition where you can vote for the best jollof rice.

Summer Thunder: The Hard Quartet and DJ Fantasy Man @ Union Pool
2 p.m.
Union Pool’s spectacular summer event series rumbles on this weekend, with sets from DJ Fantasy Man, Rat Henry, and The Hard Quartet, a post-Pavement Stephen Malkmus-led group that promises blistering solos and ample decibels in the open-air yard.

Soul Summit, Jacky Sommer, JPatt, and Jay Vic @ Signal
3 p.m.
It’s the summer of Soul Summit in Brooklyn. The latest stop for the DJ collective, who’ve been hitting stages and festivals all over the borough all season long, is along an especially industrial stretch of Bushwick that happens to house one of the city’s best system and dance floor combos. Best of all, this daytime set bakes in some consideration for your workweek, offering a rare opportunity to get one last hit in before winding down Sunday night.

WE MADE IT: Artist Showcase @ Brooklyn Art Cave
5 p.m.
An open bar, live music, great art: what else do you want out of life? This showcase features work from nine NYC art makers, including photographer Francheska Bello and interdisciplinary artist Nia Del Pino, and music from the likes of Juli Oh!

Beres Hammond @ Coney Island Amphitheater
7 p.m.
The reggae legend will be bringing his lovers rock to the boardwalk. Joining him is Marcia Griffiths, so you’d better get ready to Electric Slide like you’ve never Electric Slide-d before.