WAKE THE DEAD Here’s a believable claim: Wake the Dead is the “World’s Only Celtic All-Star Grateful Dead Jam Band.” Has the world been thirsting for a Celtic Grateful Dead Jam Band? Well, Wake the Dead have been performing since 2000. Odds are that the Venn diagram of East Bay deadheads has a worthwhile intersection with Celtic music fans. You can find out if you’re alone on Saturday night at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse. The Freight says Wake the Dead has been on “a 16-year romp that has seen the band’s fan base spread as far as Canada and Colorado and their repertoire blossom beyond the Dead canon to encompass a whole, delightfully Celtic Summer of Love.” Saturday, Oct. 29, 8 p.m., Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St.
PUMPKIN PATCH DASH Berkeley’s Recreation Department is holding its Pumpkin Patch Dash Halloween carnival with youth track races on Saturday morning at the King Middle School track. Along with races for pre-K through 8th graders, there will be games, prizes and face painting. All participants in the races will be given certificates and top winners in each age group will get a special Berkeley Recreation medal. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Pre-register online to streamline your check-in process. On-site registration also accepted. Saturday, Oct. 29: Carnival from 9-11:45 a.m. Races start with the pre-K 1/4th-lap at 9:30 a.m. King Middle School, 1700 Hopkins St.
JAZZ DELL’ARTE The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra performs a free concert Sunday at St. John’s Presbyterian Church that ranges from Pergolesi’s baroque Concerto for String Orchestra to Stravinsky’s neoclassical Pulcinella Suite to the newly commissioned Concerto for Jazz Violin and Orchestra by Evan Price, who will perform the world premiere of his own work. A two-time Grammy winner, Price has performed around the world with such ensembles as the Turtle Island String Quartet, The Hot Club of San Francisco, and many others. Sunday, Oct. 30, 3 p.m., St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave.
GIFCOLLIDER AT BAMPFA Ever wonder what happened to all the gif animations that sparkled in the dawn of the internet? According to artists Greg Niemeyer and Olya Dubatova, they have become part of the digital subconscious, and BAMPFA is presenting what that might look like in an exhibit called gifCollider (get a taste in the video, above). For three days, from Wednesday Oct. 26 to Friday Oct. 28, and from dawn to dusk, BAMPFA invites you to ponder these questions as thousands of gif animations will emerge and collide on the public outdoor screen in a ballet of memory and erasure. Call it an “outstallation.” It’s free for the walking at the intersection of Addison and Oxford in Berkeley. There will be a special reception tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The gifs will be presented in several chapters, playing for 30 minutes on every hour. Niemeyer studied both archive.org’s collections of gif animations and film archives from the 1950s. He noticed how the film archives, which include ads, educational films and propaganda show a heavy gender and race bias. In comparison, the gif animations reflect less gender and race bias, but with more historical distance. More information. Visit BAMPFA.
BERKELEY VIDEO & FILM FESTIVAL Kicking off today, Friday, and running through the weekend is the 25th annual Berkeley Video & Film Festival, which takes place at the East Bay Media Center in downtown Berkeley. The festival screens what it describes as the “best, award-winning independent films in the East Bay” and features animations, documentaries, features, experimentals, shorts and student film marathons. Tickets are $5-$15. See the full screening schedule online at the website of the East Bay Media Center which is located at 1939 Addison St.
Don’t miss these other events featured on Berkeleyside:
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘The Handmaiden,’ ‘Company Town’
Sofia Rei brings new Latin American sound from New York
‘The Last Tiger in Haiti’: Powerful portrait of Haitian life
Ever wonder how Berkeleyside compiles its weekly It List? We rely on event organizers to tell us about their events (email editors@berkeleyside.com) and we also select events listed by organizers on the Berkeleyside Events Calendar — submissions are self-serve and free, so be sure to use it!