Thursday, Aug. 18

* Festival Mode & Design conferences and parties
* X-Ray’s Lost Paradise vernissage
* Riot Thursdays hip hop event & benefit
* Nick Schofield and Alexia Avina’s Best Fern launches an EP
* Animaze Festival begins
* Doomsquad, C/NTRY and Petra Glynt live
* Dômesicle party with the Qualité de Luxe crew

Petra Glynt (640x424)

Petra Glynt

The Festival Mode & Design offers a stacked line-up of conferences today, including Cult MTL cover star, Brooklyn-based Canadian Olympian-turned-artist and Gucci collaborator Trouble Andrew (who will also host an afterparty tonight at l’Astral), plus Belgian fashion guru Didier Vervaeren and “the Sartorialist,” Scott Schuman. Conferences from 5 p.m. at the MAC (185 Ste-Catherine W.), $20–$30. Trouble Andrew afterparty with GrandBuda at l’Astral (305 Ste-Catherine W.), 9 p.m., $5–$9.75

Head to Station 16 for the vernissage of Lost Paradise, an exhibition by Montreal-based pop artist and muralist Xray, featuring acrylic paintings plus wood cutouts inspired by vintage toys and other cultural ephemera. 3523 St-Laurent, 6–9 p.m., free

The fourth edition of hip hop weekly Riot Thursdays at Katacombes doubles as a benefit for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. The event will begin at 7 p.m. with a benefit BBQ and panel discussion, followed by a show at 9 p.m. with talent from Hamilton, Quebec City and right here in Montreal, with acts  including the Shadow Hunters, Lee Reed and Webster LS. 1635 St-Laurent, 7 p.m., $5/$10/PWYC

Best Fern, the new ambient pop collaboration between Alexia Avina and Saxsyndrum’s Nick Schofield, launches their EP tonight at la Tour Prisme with openers YlangYlang, Ashley Obscura, Klondike and johnny_ripper. Secret location, 9 p.m., $5

Catch three complementary but contrasting experimental dance music acts at Casa del Popolo tonight, featuring Toronto’s Doomsquad (acid disco) and Petra Glynt (psych pop), with local darkwavers C/NTRY playing the middle slot. 4873 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $10

The international Animaze Festival of animated film begins today and runs through Sunday, with an industry and technology conference component as well as public events such as screenings in Parc des Amériques. Tonight’s opening event is folded into the SAT’s recurring Dômesicle party — DJing at tonight’s edition is the crew from Qualité de Luxe (Poirier, Mr. Touré and Kyou). 1201 St-Laurent, 10 p.m., $11/$13

See our Event Listings for more concert, nightlife, theatre, comedy and community event options. See our Art Listings here.