These New Orleans weekend plans are best bets.

The first cool snap of the season should snap everyone to attention: October is packed with weekend plans, and when the calendar gets full, it’s time to get with the program and get going. Onward and outward.

A quartet of Halloween-themed events are the centerpiece of the weekend, anchored by the KREWE OF BOO parade at 6:30 p.m. (around sundown) Saturday, starting in the Marigny, through the French Quarter, looping onto Canal Street and heading into the CBD on Tchoupitoulas Street to end at Generations Hall on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Check it out here. For the youngsters during the day, Audubon Zoo gets family-freaky with BOO AT THE ZOO, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday for a chance to see the animals, trick-or-treat throughout the zoo, take photos at some special spots and get the right “fright” at a spooky haunted house. Tickets start at $12. Treats only here. Down in the French Quarter, BOO CARRÉ HALLOWEEN HAUNT Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. is a day of trick-or-treating, arts and crafts, music, food and a second line through the French Market area. Get the “vieux” here. For the older tricksters, SCREAMFEST NOLA is a weekend-long horror fest of classic films at the Broad Theater starting Friday to Sunday, including a Q&A with Allen Danziger of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on the film’s 50th anniversary. Scream all about it here.

Along with more than 150 films showcased, the NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL offers panels, workshops, parties and more than 250 filmmakers from around the globe at locations including the Prytania Theatres at Canal Place, Broad Theater, Orpheum Theater, Contemporary Arts Center, Actor’s Apothecary and The Times-Picayune Avenue Gallery. Through Oct. 27. Tickets vary per event and day. Get the lowdown on the flick fest here.

The New Orleans Jazz Museum gets all funky with it this weekend for NOLA FUNK FEST, a three-day gathering of funk acts, symposia, oral histories, exhibits at the museum and more Friday through Sunday. Get down with the sounds of Tank & the Bangas, Big Freedia, Marcia Ball, Jon Cleary, Bobby Rush, Dumpstaphunk and Geo Leo featuring the Meters’ George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli. Three performance areas provide plenty of places to hear the music at the 400 Esplanade Ave. museum in the Old U.S. Mint. Tickets start at $20. Feel the funk here.

Be there for a good time! And St. John the Baptist Parish has it at the ANDOUILLE FESTIVAL three-day celebration of the tasty delight of a Cajun sausage. The event will have more than 30 food and sweets vendors, arts and crafts, carnival rides, a kids tent, a gospel tent, a run/walk, pageant and entertainment including The Topcats, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas and The Phunky Monkeys. The fest is from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at 2900 U.S. 51 in LaPlace. Admission is $5. Bite into culinary culture and Cajun delights here.

The Old Arabi Neighborhood Association puts on a sweet treat for SUGAR FEST 11 a.m. Saturday at the Aycock Barn, 409 Aycock St., Arabi. The free fest includes tours of the historic district, a dessert baking competition, a doughnut eating contest for adults and kids, and vendors selling food, arts and crafts, a sugar giveawy and more. Musical performances by Christian Serpas and Ghost Town, Adam Pearce and Irene Sage. Take a taste of this sweet treat here.

More than 30 wheeled purveyors of culinary creativity will gather in Laketown Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the KENNER FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL, a free day of fun that includes music, drinks, craft vendors and more. Expect to hear from the Crescent Kings, Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition, Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters plus Rock Show NOLA, a Journey tribute group. Free parking is available at the Pontchartrain Convention and Civic Center, with a shuttle to site, both located at the end of Williams Boulevard and Lake Pontchartrain. Roll over here for the truck fest tricks. 

With a goal of promoting local talent, business and cultural institutions, HOMEFEST will take over the 2400-2500 blocks of Bayou Road. Hosted by the Bayou Road Business Association, Black Bayou Cultural Heritage & Economic Development Association and Broad Community Connection, the event includes food, a vendor and community resource marketplace, panel discussions and performances by Cherchez La Femme, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph and Tweet. Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Come “home” here.

In a quandary as to wear for All Hallows Eve? Fear not (well, maybe just a little) and head over to the AllWays Lounge at 2240 St. Claude Ave. Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. for the annual HALLOWEEN COSTUME BOO-TIQUE, billed as the “go-to spot for creative Halloweenery.” Boasting an array of unique creations from Crescent City costumers, mask makers, milliners (hat makers) and purveyors of vintage apparel perfect for that classic look. Get the looks that get the looks here.

Irish eyes will be smiling in Westwego Sunday at 2 p.m. for an IRISH QUARTET CONCERT featuring the vocal talents of troubadour Danny O’Flaherty, with Brendan Mulvihill, Angelina Carberry and Dan Brouder at the JPAS’s Westwego Performing Arts Theatre, 177 Sala Ave. The master musicians from the Emerald Isle will be performing music and recounting tales for an afternoon of Celtic collaboration. Tickets are $35. Tune up for a Gaelic good time here.

“AMERICAN PIANO MINIATURES” doesn’t refer to a tiny domestic instrument but rather five-minutes-or-less compositions  that will be played by awarding-winning keyboardist Gabriel Merrill-Steskal Sunday at 3 p.m. at Roussel Hall on Loyola’s Uptown campus, 6363 St. Charles Ave. The soon-to-be-Dr. Merrill-Steskal of the University of Michigan will play more than a dozen pieces from the past 100 years by Chick Corea, Amy Beach, Loyola’s own William Horne, Michael Kropf, Samuel Barber and William Bolcom. Check out more on the free program here.