Odd couplings this week include high- and low-brow bartending contests; uncommonly star-powered director screenings; and lions celebrating a Horse.
Tuesday, February 17 - Mardi Gras
The New Haven Free Public Library’s annual Mardi Gras fundraiser invites you to “kick back, indulge in the lively atmosphere, and let the good times roll” from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
At 6, the rooftop at Gioia “channel[s] summer energy” with The Art of Restraint, a “low-ABV cocktail competition” featuring Campari in the drinks and Connie Carmona on the decks.
At 8, Stella Blues turns up its weekly open mic night with a Fat Tuesday Party. “Come earn your beads [and] drink some N’Orleans-themed dranx.”
Also at 8, a bill at Space Ballroom in Hamden features headliner Twen, whose perfect description comes from the band itself: “1965, 1995 and 2025 all at the same time.”
Wednesday, February 18
At 12:30 p.m. at the Yale University Art Gallery, curator Mark D. Mitchell springboards from Valentine’s Day into a talk “exploring the theme of love” in the gallery’s modern American art collection.
Greg Mottola, a film/TV director/writer/producer whose work includes Adventureland (2009), Arrested Development (2003-04), Superbad (2007) and Peacemaker (2025), comes to Yale’s 53 Wall Street movie theater for a 7 p.m. screening and Q&A. The film is The Daytrippers (1996), Mottola’s feature-length directorial debut, in which “a misplaced love letter sends a wife and her whole family to Manhattan in search of her husband and the mysterious ‘Sandy.’”
Thursday, February 19
At 7 p.m., Michelina’s hosts a Nowhere to Wear It Party, encouraging guests to put on “that outfit sitting in your closet… that’s too much, too different”—the one you’ve been looking for, but failing to find, a reason to wear.
Friday, February 20
At 7 p.m., Yale scores another Hollywood coup in the same theater, as the famously meta filmmaker Charlie Kaufman attends a screening/Q&A featuring Synecdoche, New York (2008). The movie, which Kaufman wrote and directed, “follows a theater director whose ambition to reproduce life onstage grows to monumental proportions.” Kaufman will be joined by poet/screenwriter/collaborator Eva H.D.
Saturday, February 21
At 10 a.m. on Whitney Avenue between Audubon and Grove Streets, Lunarfest 2026 ushers in the Year of the Horse with Yale-China’s annual lion dance parade. A very full itinerary then keeps the festivities going at the New Haven Museum, the Peabody Museum, Ives Main Library, Creative Arts Workshop, Yale’s Office of International Students & Scholars, Neighborhood Music School and, via special offers at more than a dozen shops, the surrounding Whitney-Audubon district.
From noon to 4, Two Roads Brewing in Stratford throws its annual Fire & Ice Festival, an outdoor family-friendly affair featuring “fire performances, live ice sculpting, thrilling competitions and more! Hang by the bonfire and warm up with a complimentary cup of hot chocolate or enjoy one of the specialty cocktails we’ve made just for this event.”
At Ives Main Library, a 1 p.m. kickoff party for the Know Your Neighbors Fund, a “micro-grants program empower[ing] New Haven residents to create simple, meaningful opportunities for neighbors to meet, connect, and build lasting relationships,” invites you to “come get inspired to bring a great idea to life in your neighborhood.”
If the week’s finer fare doesn’t scratch your moviegoing itch, maybe a pulpy, gory “Vamps of the West” double feature at Seymour’s old-timey Strand Theater will get the job done. Organizer Connecticut Cult Classics also promises “amazing raffle prizes, cult film trailers and awesome giveaways!”
Sunday, February 22
Under the auspices of the Friends of Edgewood Park, “local maple enthusiast” Naomi Senzer leads a 12:30 p.m. sugar maple-tapping demo in, you guessed it, Edgewood Park.
At 3 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra offers a “richly lyrical program [that] pairs Beethoven’s radiant Pastoral Symphony and Mendelssohn’s beloved Violin Concerto—performed by Grammy-winner Augustin Hadelich—with Raven Chacon’s Inscription, a modern meditation on land, memory, and identity.”
Last and intentionally least, Cafe Nine hosts a Bottom of the Barrel Bartending Competition. “Come win the crown of New Haven’s Worst Bartender,” organizers say, across tests of “strength,” cigarette-smoking, surliness “and much, much more.”
Written by Dan Mims. Image, featuring dancing lions during a past Lunarfest, photographed by Daniel Havlat and sourced from yalechina.org. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
