What To Do Labor Day Weekend 2008 in Brooklyn -- UPDATE

UPDATED

Here we are in Brooklyn for the Labor Day weekend -- what should we do?

Check out these relaxing Labor Day weekend events; we'll list more as they come in.

Saturday

- Rooftop Films in Gowanus: Romance Shorts Looking for Love -- With live music and beautiful visuals, the Rooftop Films experience starts at dusk. Bring your bug spray and your appetite for a unusual cinematic experience. More here.

- Take a self-guided tour of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's water features or a special tour led by a Garden Guide on and Saturdays and Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m. BBG Reflections

- Then walk right next door to see the Brooklyn Museum's 5,000 square-foot Visible Storage Study Center, an inside look at the museum's extensive American collections, now open to the public. Brooklyn Museum

- McCarren Park Pool: Come hear Sonic Youth. (A Starbucks band) More here.

- This is the last weekend to take advantage of Marco Polo's 25th Anniversary special anniversary prix-fixe three-course menu, priced at $19.83 for lunch (they opened in 1983) and $25.00 for dinner (in celebration of their 25th year). More here.


Sunday

- The Brooklyn Green Team is hosting a Labor Day picnic Sunday at Prospect Park on the lawn near the Picnic House. Bring your own food. Brooklyn Green Team, a grassroots environmental group in Brooklyn, will raise money for Barack by selling overpriced baked-goods. More here.

- The Cyclones are playing the Renegades Sunday at 5 p.m. As the playoffs approach, it just gets better. Make sure to bring the kids - the first 1,250 get a Mini Pee Wee Bobblehead doll. After the game, kids get to run the bases. More here.

- Sunday Best at the Yard -- booze-music-and-BBQ parties say goodbye for the summer Sunday in Gowanus with one last blowout, featuring local duo Metro Area as well as resident DJs Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin and Doug Singer. Plenty of homemade, organic BBQ and sunshine. 3 p.m.

- Make sure to make Fort Greene brunch plans this weekend. Afterwards, you can hit Brownstoner's gigantic Brooklyn Flea at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School.

- Hello Brooklyn (Red Hook's only nightclub) welcomes itself to the neighborhood with an all-day BBQ and DJ party in their courtyard. More here.

- Dimanche Gras - At the Brooklyn Museum: 7 pm: Tickets in advance $30: At the Door: $35. David Rudder, Scrunter, Crazy, Barron, Hunter and others in a dazzling competition for King & Queen of the Bands. The Sunshine Band & Calypso veterans perform, Kings & Queens compete and Dancers entertain to conclude the weekend concert events leading to the big Labor Day.

- Labor Day Music Festival Celebrating Bargemusic’s 30th Anniversary - Sunday, 4 pm. Behzad Ranjbaran “Fountains of Fin” for Flute, Violin and Cello (2008); Daniel Ott “Blue Water” for Violin, Piano and String Quartet (2008) Tickets: $40 (students $15) Floating music barge under the Brooklyn Bridge.

- Polytechnic Institute of NYU is hosting the 1st Polytechnic Open Table Tennis Championships from Sunday, August 31 to Monday, September 1. Open to the general public on Sunday with participants able to compete in as many events as they wish. 6 MetroTech Center, Downtown Brooklyn

- Visit the Dumbo Farmers Market and pick up some fresh fruit, vegetables and baked items. DumboNYC

Monday

- West Indian American Day Carnival -- 2008 Brooklyn Labor Day Carnival Parade: The West Indian American Day Carnival is the biggest parade in New York with over 3 million participants each year. Marchers wear fabulous costumes and follow huge sound trucks with live performers.

The festivities actually begin at 2:00 a.m. with the traditional J’Ouvert Morning, a predawn, precarnival procession featuring steel drums and inexpensive costumes. Do not dress up: powder, paint and dye throwing are common. Begins at Grand Army Plaza by the Library, travels through Flatbush to Empire Blvd, and ends on Nostrand Avenue and Linden Blvd.

The Parade of Bands begins around 11:00 am, as trucks blasting Caribbean music and groups of beautifully dressed dancers march down Eastern Parkway to Grand Army Plaza. (Live performers in front of the Brooklyn Library.) The parade rout begins at the corner of Rochester & Eastern Parkway and ends near Grand Army Plaza where non-masqueraders can jump up with the bands. Find a viewing spot early -- the closer to Crown Heights you are, the more packed it gets.

All of Eastern Parkway will be serving up dishes from every Caribbean island: jerk chicken, chicken stew, fried chicken, beef stew, oxtail, rice and peas, salad, macaroni pie, fried flying fish, curry goat, roti, callaloo, souse, salt fish, fried bake, coconut bread, and much more.

More at WIADCA .

- Back to School Bash at Habana Outpost -- An afternoon full of back-to-school events for young children: craft;, a mini worm-bin workshop; story time, a dance party and more. See Habana Outpost

- At Cha Cha's on the Boardwalk (call ahead for hours): The 2008 Miss Pin Up Coney Island Contest; The Tarantinos, Catspaw, Los Pocos Locos, The Designer Drugs plus photography by Cigar Man Mike. It's part of the 2008 Coney Island Rockabilly Fest. (1229 Boardwalk West; call ahead for tickets and admission fee; Must be 21+) More here.

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