Welcome to the Big To-Do: Short Cuts, our guide highlighting the top things to do in and around Boston each weekend, as curated by Globe critics, editors, and writers.

On tap this weekend: the Smashing Pumpkins are in town, plus the Topsfield Fair is back. — Matt Juul

Things to do in and around Boston this weekend

SMASHING PUMPKINS The Grammy-winning alt rock legends are back in Boston as a part of “The Rats In A Cage Tour,” which headlines TD Garden this Friday. Frontman Billy Corgan revealed in the tour announcement that the first set of this weekend’s show will be dedicated to album “Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness,” which just celebrated its 30th anniversary, before diving into the rest of the band’s multi-decade catalogue. Oct. 2, 8 p.m. Tickets start at $119. 100 Legends Way. tdgarden.com/events/detail/the-smashing-pumpkins — Daisy Levine

HARPOON OCTOBERFEST Harpoon Brewery, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, has two days of Octoberfest festivities planned for this weekend. Friday features glow-in-the-dark fun with live music, beer and cocktails, plus a selection of food from Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, the Harpoon kitchen, and more. Visitors can also partake in activities like glow-in-the-dark stein hoisting, coozie decorating, and cornhole. Saturday’s event will include more traditional, Munich-inspired activities. Oct. 2-3, 6-11 p.m on Friday, 12-7 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets start at $15. Harpoon Brewery and Beer Hall, 306 Northern Ave. harpoonbrewery.com/event/harpoon-octoberfest-2026 — Janira Skrbkova

TOPSFIELD FAIR The annual county fair returns this fall for 11 days of family-friendly entertainment. Presented by the Essex Agricultural Society, the weekend festivities include a giant pumpkin weigh-off, a sheep obstacle course, a hot dog-eating contest, a canine aquatics show, plus a fireworks display on Saturday. Visitors can also enjoy live music and concessions. Oct. 2-12. Tickets are $20 at the gate or $23 online. 207 Boston St., Topsfield. topsfieldfair.org — JS

BOSTON FESTIVAL OF INDIE GAMES BostonFIG is back — a day of family-friendly entertainment from some of the gaming world’s rising stars. Play a variety of unique games, partake in discussions, see the awards and showcase, and introduce yourself to the indie gaming community. Oct. 3, 10-5 p.m. $35. Kids under 12 are free. The Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St. bostonfig.com — DL

SPICETOBER FEST Boston’s hottest fall celebration will celebrate bold local flavors and talent this weekend. Visitors can test their limits at a hot sauce tasting challenge, enjoy spice-forward concessions, watch stage demonstrations from Boston chefs, enjoy live music, and more. Oct. 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. Boston City Hall Plaza, Northern Terrace, 1 City Hall Square. spicetoberfest.com — JS

AMMA MARFO ‘FIDGET. SPINSTER.’ TAPING A rising voice in the Boston comedy scene and self-described “anxious Black nerd,” Marfo has been workshopping this one-woman multi-media show about dating and commitment for nearly a year and a half, and she is ready to commit it to video at Porter Square Books Boston location. Oct. 3, 7 p.m. $27.38. Porter Square Books: Boston Edition, 50 Liberty Dr. simpletix.com/e/new-normal-comedy-presents-amma-marfo-s-fi-tickets-290142 — Nick A. Zaino III

KATHY GRIFFIN: NEW FACE, NEW TOUR Even though she is now friends with people like Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, whom she lampooned on her “My Life On the D-List,” Griffin has not relented in taking on pop culture and politics onstage, targeting everyone from Trump to Taylor Swift, and most of all, herself (“New Face, New Tour” is a reference to her latest cosmetic surgery). Oct. 3, 7 p.m. $70-$94. The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St. thewilbur.com — NZ

LAURA SEVERSE A Boston native now living in Los Angeles, Severse remembers a painful moment around the family dinner table when her two kids thought their parents were getting a divorce and immediately said they were going with their dad. “That hurt a little bit,” she says, “because the audacity of these kids to [expletive] ever think that I would file for custody?” Oct. 3, 9 p.m. $39.90. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St. 617-725-2844, laughboston.com — NZ

FIESTA EN LA PLAZA Back for its fourth year, Fiesta En La Plaza returns with a special presentation of “One Night in Alosha,” an afternoon-long celebration of the Afro-Latin diaspora right in City Hall Plaza. This free, all-ages event features contemporary performance from Latin America and the Caribbean, including music, dance, and a live podcast taping. Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. City Hall Plaza, 1 City Hall Square. pietix.com/fiesta-en-la-plaza-alosha — DL

Critics’ picks for this weekend and beyond

Don Aucoin’s picks

COVENANT In this gripping production of York Walker’s eerie Southern gothic drama, one of the questions implicitly asked and chillingly answered is: How far would you go to get what — or whom — you want? Directed by Dawn M. Simmons with a sure grasp of atmosphere and pace, “Covenant’’ tells the story of a bluesman (Anthony T. Goss) who prompts rumors he sold his soul to the devil when he returns to his Georgia hometown in the mid-1930s, possessing musical gifts he didn’t have before and intent on marrying the young woman (Deannah DRIPP Blemur) he’s been smitten with for more than a decade. Through Oct. 17. SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St. 617-933-8600, speakeasystage.com

ALL MY SONS A powder keg of a production whose fuse is lit early on and slowly burns while we watch and wait. In Arthur Miller’s 1947 drama, the Keller family faces a harsh reckoning several years after the factory run by father Joe (a superb Bill Mootos) shipped defective airplane parts that resulted in the deaths of 21 pilots during World War II. Directed by Scott Edmiston, “All My Sons” serves as a reminder us that Miller had created a work of profoundly enduring resonance even before writing “Death of a Salesman.” Extended through Oct. 25. Lyric Stage Boston, 140 Clarendon St. 617-585-5678, lyricstage.com

BOUNCERS John Godber’s raucous comedy about a single night in a Yorkshire disco, as seen through the eyes of a quartet of bouncers – played by Joe Siriani, Liam McCarron, Michael Ferrari, and Bradley Belanger – as they try to cope with the club’s rowdy, drunken clientele. Directed by Bill Doncaster. Through Oct. 24. Production by Visual City LLC and the Modern Theatre at Suffolk University. At Modern Theatre at Suffolk University, 525 Washington St. ci.ovationtix.com/34432/production/1280397

PARADE Ken Crossman plays Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager wrongly convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan and lynched by a Georgia mob in 1915, in the Tony-winning musical by Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry (book). Eliza Barmakian plays Lucille Frank, Leo’s wife. The cast also includes Thain Bertin, Darren Paul, Barbara Pierre, Amanda Sargent, Tim Lawton, Matthew Zahnzinger, James Allen, Nick Corsi, Abby Jarcho, and Ellie Lauter. Directed by Brit Garner, with music direction by Alex Taylor. Through Oct. 10. Newton Theatre Company, Newton. eventbrite.com

A.Z. Madonna’s picks

HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY H+H steps into fall with Handel’s Milton-inspired oratorio “L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato,” a meditation on the human spirit featuring artistic director Jonathan Cohen, vocal soloists Joélle Harvey, Paul Appleby, and Michael Sumuel, and Massachusetts poet laureate Regie Gibson alongside the H+H Orchestra and Chorus. A reception welcoming new president Lecolion Washington, Jr. will follow both concerts. Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m., Oct. 4, 3 p.m. Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave. 617-262-1815, handelandhaydn.org

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA At this weekend’s all-Rachmaninoff program, pianist and BSO frequent flyer Seong-Jin Cho joins the orchestra and music director Andris Nelsons for “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” before the orchestra closes things out with the Symphony No. 2. Next week, Nelsons leads the United States premiere of Francisco Coll’s new piano concerto featuring pianist Kirill Gerstein; Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture and Symphony No. 7 round out that program. Oct. 8-10. Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave. 617-266-1200, bso.org

Murray Whyte’s picks

HOCKNEY REPRODUCTION(S) The British painter David Hockney, who died earlier this year at 88, was a titan of painting’s resurgence in the 1960s and 70s after years of bone-dry conceptualism. But was Hockney, a devoutly exuberant colorist, a closet conceptualist himself? This little show, organized by the artist’s Gloucester-based friend Bing McGilvray, explores the artist’s keen interest in serial production of his work by various means -- including, on one case, a fax machine. A game experimentalist, Hockney’s canonical painting oeuvre ran parallel tireless drive to break new ground wherever he could find it, as this show explores. Through Oct. 18. Open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1-5 p.m. Registration required. Manship Artists Residency, 1069 Washington St., Gloucester. manshipartists.org

COUNTER HISTORY: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE COLLECTION “How do we remember the past, and how does it inform the present?” is the central query posed by this exhibition of several dozen works acquired by the MFA in recent years, and it’s hard to imagine a more fraught or timely frame for the current moment. In a regressive time in American culture, the show feels like flashing beacon in the gathering dark, with artists including Andy Warhol, Mark Bradford, Jeffrey Gibson, Dana Chandler Jr., and Steve Locke here to “stand against official narratives” to “to set the record straight.” Hold that thought tight. We’re going to need it Ongoing. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, mfa.org

WHY LOOK AT HORSES? An exhibition with disturbingly on-point accidental timing – wild horses in the west have been recently victimized by a rapacious federal government determined to make meat of them – this exhibition asks an essential question about mankind’s most noble animal symbol of progress: “What happens when an animal that once shaped the course of human history becomes experienced primarily as an image?” A wild guess, if you’ll pardon the pun: We become disconnected from its physicality, its animal-ness, and distracted by its symbolic might. Recent events should be enough to shake off the distraction, but we’ll see. Through March 14. Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill Dr., Waterville, Maine. 207-859-5600, museum.colby.edu

Last chance

CINEFEST LATINO BOSTON Featuring screenings across the Hub, CineFest Latino Boston continues through Sunday. The closing night film at the Coolidge is Netflix’s “La bola negra,” which recently won the People’s Choice Award and will serve as Spain‘s entry for best international feature film for the upcoming Academy Awards. Through Oct. 4. Tickets start at $15. cinefestlatino.com — DL

Sign up here to get The Boston Globe’s latest food stories delivered to your inbox once a week.

Thanks for reading our Wednesday newsletter. Keep an eye out for Friday's regular Big To-Do email written by Marie Morris. Send comments to arts@globe.com.