What to do in Denver this week: A tiny Mardi Gras parade, getting high at Banff, kid’s jazz and theater

Mardi Gras’ tiniest parade

Saturday. Now that we’ve made it past the January-mid-February void, there’s plenty to look forward to in the cultural realm. That includes drinking holidays like Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day — the first of which is taking over a few Denver venues this weekend.

Among the cheekiest is Call to Arms Brewing’s 7th Annual Mardi Gras Party featuring “the world’s tiniest Mardi Gras parade,” as organizers wrote. The craft brewer is again celebrating in style with a crawfish boil, barbeque, full brass band, king cake, and, yes, The World’s Tiniest Mardi Gras Parade “featuring local breweries that have constructed their own miniature floats to parade down the Tennyson Street alleyway.”

It takes place starting at noon on Saturday, Feb. 18, with the brass band playing at 3 p.m. and the parade starting at 4 p.m. Free admission. 4526 Tennyson St. in the Berkeley neighborhood of Denver. 720-328-8258 or calltoarmsbrewing.com

Jazz and theater — you know, for kids

Jazz music and theater fall in with opera, classical music, ballet and other performing arts that may seem a bit esoteric for kids. That’s never the case, actually, and Denver cultural players are doing plenty to combat that stigma with affordable, kid-friendly shows.

That includes Dazzle Jazz, the city’s finest purveyor of thereof, and its monthly Kids Saturday Matinee shows. The next one arrives Feb. 25 with “Animal Farm,” an interactive comedy-and-music experience (it’s not based on the book of the same name) that starts at 2 p.m. and costs $5 at dazzledenver.com.

Before that, however, is the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center’s reopened Denver Children’s Theatre, and its performances of “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.” Based on a book written by Kate DiCamillo, the play is a kid-friendly exploration of emotional vulnerability as seen through the eyes of a toy rabbit.

The 45-minute play’s public performances run at 10 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 20, and Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 10 a.m., and at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, and Feb. 26. Tickets: $10 each at the Elaine Wolf Theatre, 350 S. Dahlia St. in Denver. 303-316-6360 or jccdenver.org/denver-childrens-theatre-2023

Get high with Banff

Tuesday-Thursday. Canada’s Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival returns to the Boulder Theater Tuesday, Feb. 21, through Thursday, Feb. 23, with another bevy of “outdoor storytelling and filmmaking” that finds an especially friendly crowd in outdoorsy Colorado.