The Weekend Playbook: Cheddar brat Shake Shack burgers, and hot air balloons

Event of the Week Like Jell-O, there’s always room for more Oktoberfest: a not-to-be-missed secret surprise musical performance (a famous duo) kicks off Sunday’s Harvard Square Oktoberfest, the annual tour-de-force (35yrs and counting, yo) featuring 150+ stalls, 50+ food vendors, six music stages (and… like… a quajillion bands), four beer gardens, and one hot air balloon. Yep. A hot air balloon.
Thursday, October 10th M.J. O’Connor’s Waterfront commemorates its fifth anniversary party tonight, morphing the new heated patio into a 'Toberfest beer garden complete with a tap takeover and rare brew flights from Sam Adams, as well as a stein-hoisting competition for both gents and East German ladies

Dance inside a life-sized Lite-Brite as Tunnel, Boston’s newest 200-capacity nightclub, opens its subterranean doors beneath the W Hotel. The artsy 20ft x 90ft ceiling dazzles with 3600 LEDs and 65,000 pre-set lighting effects choreographed by an engineer who mind-melded with the DJ to create a trippy ambiance while you sip specialty cocktails named after local construction projects (Tunnel, The Channel, The Sumner)

Friday, October 11th Quirky is as quirky does, and the seventh annual HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands flies its freak flag through Davis Square this weekend with performances (24 bands from 12 states and three countries), parades, front porch hootenannies, crazy costumes, and a lot of New Orleans-Klezmer-Balkan-Romani-Brazilian-Afro-Bloc-Frevo-inspired noise music. Don't be shy!
Shake Shack goes berserk for Bavaria at Shacktoberfest with a special menu (cheddar brat burgers and apfelstrudel shakes) and a $10 Shake Shack 25oz bier stein (yours for keeps) filled with Brooklyn Oktoberfest or their own ShackMeister Ale ($7 refills until October 13th)

Saturday, October 12th Since you totally dominate caribou, predatory felines, and your buddies at Big Buck Hunter HD, you could have a shot (pun intended) at qualifying this weekend for the Big Buck World Championship V (top prize? $63k.) to be held in NYC in November. Here’s how and where, if you think you stand a chance against Dick Cheney

Wednesday, October 16th It’s Hump Day, and you need to stuff your face with Wahlburgers' Burger of the Month, the Fall Brew Burger -- a 5oz patty crowned with Swiss cheese, Wahlbrewski-steeped pastrami, Dijon mustard, pickles, and crispy o-rings, all for $9.25. Funky Bunch and NKOTB not included.