Midtown Stomp offers swing dancing every Friday and Wednesday night at Sacramento's Eastern Star Ballroom, a historic landmark built in 1928. Join the beginning swing dancing lesson from 8-9 p.m., and then keep dancing until midnight!

Lessons are social with rotating partners -- you don't need a partner to join. Dance the Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing, Charleston, Balboa, and many other fun, vintage dances.

Held every second Sunday of the month, the Sacramento Antique Faire is a meeting place for hundreds of antique dealers from throughout Northern California.

Come paw through furniture, textiles, architectural pieces, jewelry, cultural pieces, china, glassware, garden accessories, rugs, art, collectibles, and more.

While you're hunting for your one-of-a-kind treasure, fortify yourself with the variety of offerings from the numerous food vendors at the Faire.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership offers a variety of walking tours designed to introduce visitors to the people, places, and events that shaped California history. At least one walk is offered daily (except most Saturdays), and topics range from art and architecture to cultural, religious, and urban history.

Current scheduled walks include:

• Old Sacramento Speakeasy Tour, special 2-hour tour runs only the third Saturday of the month
• Rock and Roll History and Pub Crawl, special summer tour runs every Friday, May - August
• Kids Meet the City, a tour of California history especially for kids
• Tales of the Central City, an overview of early Sacramento history
• Structural Stories, local examples of historical architecture styles
• Art Is All Around Us, a tour of Sacramento's collection of art in public places
• Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, about K Street commerce, growth, and redevelopment
• The Art of Terra Cotta, an architecture tour featuring local clay artisan Gladding McBean

Tours are $10 and leave from within a short walk of the Sacramento Hostel.

Reservations are required; call (916) 442-8575 or email dsp@downtownsac.org.

The Torch Club is known as one of the best blues clubs in Sacramento, and features bands from all over the Bay Area as well as some national acts. They've recently been called "the center of the blues in Sacramento" by the Sacramento Bee.

Every Sunday during happy hour they have a blues jam with no cover charge.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Park hosts free noontime concerts every Wednesday. Musicians include pianists, cellists, violinists, guitarists, and more.

For a full schedule of concerts, visit the series website.

Take advantage of "Pay What You Wish Day" every third Sunday of the month at the Crocker Art Museum. 

Established in 1885 and expanded in 2010, the Crocker Art Museum is one of Northern California's largest and best museums of regional artists. The collection spans from the 10th century to contemporary periods and includes a stunning collection of European master drawings and a notable selection of contemporary California art. Museum programs include touring exhibitions, educational programs, public tours, and concerts.

Every Thursday, the Crocker Art Museum hosts "Thursdays 'til 9," when they're open after hours to feature film, music, conversation, cocktails, and more.

First Thursdays: Film Frame
Presented in collaboration with local film organizations and festivals, screenings include commentary by film makers, enthusiasts, scholars, and artists.

Second Thursdays: Art Mix
For those who like to mix culture with cocktails. Hear a local band or DJ, sip a specialty cocktail from the Crocker Cafe, and dive into live art demonstrations, short films, interactive installations, special in-gallery tours and more.

Third Thursdays: Playlist
Blues, reggae, indie, folk, country, bluegrass, rock, hip hop, world music and everything in between!

Fourth Thursdays: Open Art
The Crocker’s many arts and community partners are co-creators of these exchanges, programs, and happenings.

Movies on a Big Screen, an ongoing film festival/micro-cinema, is "your alternative to the multiplex."

Held Sundays at the Guild Theater, it features independent films that may not be able to secure week-long runs in commercial theaters, but are worth seeing nonetheless.

Some are old, some are new, most cost just $5 to see! Check out the website for a schedule of upcoming shows, a different film screens every Sunday.

The Guild Theater is 6 miles from the hostel -- if you don't have a car, it's very easily accessed by taking the Sacramento Regional Transit #51 bus. A bus stop is 3 blocks from the hostel on 7th Street -- get off at Broadway and 35th streets, less than 1 block from the theater.

The Sacramento Hostel shows free movies every Wednesday night in the TV lounge, located in the basement of this historic Gold Rush-era mansion. The TV room is complete with several comfy couches and a 52-inch flat-screen TV.

We'll cook up some free popcorn and start playing the week's film at 7:30 p.m. All our guests are invited to come down and hang out!

If you're not visiting on a Wednesday, you can still get your film fix at the hostel -- guests can borrow DVDs from our free film library to use in the TV room or on their laptops.

Any Tuesday night, gather up a few hostel friends, pick out an awesome quiz team name, and head down to the Fox and Goose Pub to test your brain power!

The trivia quiz includes four rounds of eight questions -- with plenty of time in between to order a round or two.

Know every European capitol city? Lyrics to a few obscure Paula Abdul hits? You'll be a quiz all-star.

Tuesdays, head to MiX Downtown for their weekly jazz night! At 6 p.m., the music kicks off in the rooftop lounge with the club's own "Singing Saxtress," Ava Lamert, followed by a different jazz musican each week.

Happy hour specials run til 7 p.m., and the week's featured band plays until 9 p.m. It's also Taco Tuesday, so help yourself to $2 chicken tacos from 4-10 p.m.!

Hiding beneath Sacramento’s sidewalks is a network of underground walkways and spaces created when the city raised its streets to prevent flooding in the 1860s.

This hour-long seasonal tour, offered by the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, takes you into the underground, revealing the once-first-floor doorways and windows that now lead into basements, brick retaining walls protecting buildings from the elevated roadways, and secret spaces once used for tiny underground shops.

Tours are offered Saturdays and Sundays, every half hour from 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m., and on Thursdays and Fridays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m

Tickets can be purchased online, in person at the Sacramento History Museum, or over the phone by calling (916) 808-7059.

Several other tours also depart from the history museum, including an architecture tour and one focused on the Gold Rush. These tours cost $7.

Sacramento's 3rd annual Beer Week features more than 300 cheap or free brew-focused events, including happy hours, beer release celebrations, patio parties, and more.

In addition to the smaller events held at local breweries, bars, and restaurants, there will also be two, bigger events. Check their website for more information. (At the time of this writing, the Sacramento Beer Week website had not yet updated the 2012 schedule).  

Since its first show in 2005, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) has become established as the world's number one handmade bicycles exhibit. Held in Sacramento for its 8th show, this year's exhibit will include showrooms with beautiful bikes from all over the world, master frame building classes and seminars, and the annual awards presentation. Tickets are free for volunteers who donate four hours of their time or more. Check the website for more information.

In addition to many US frame builders, exhibitors from all over the world have helped to make NAHBS what it is today. The NAHBS is dedicated to showcasing the talents of individuals whose art form is the bicycle. It continues to aim to be a meeting point for frame builders and cycling enthusiasts, for the sharing of ideas, and the promotion of a special industry with a rich history dating back to 1819.

The Sacramento International Folk Dance and Arts Council presents the Camellia International Folk Dance Festival, their annual dance performance program.

Come watch Sacramento-area cultural dance groups perform traditional dances from countries throughout the world, including Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Scotland, and others.

Friday-Saturday, check out the opening party, short performances, or various dance workshops. Sunday, stay after the concert and performance for an easy dance lesson to try out the dance steps for yourself!

The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in historic Old Sacramento is an all-ages celebration of Irish culture that's been going 16 years strong.

The parade starts at 1 p.m. and features 500 costumed marchers, Gold Rush historic re-enactors, school bands, floats, military regiments, police and fire representatives, and other cultural organizations.

Before and after the parade, the streets come alive with Irish-themed music, Celtic dancers, and the Ophir Prison Marching and Kazoo Band. During the evening, many Old Sacramento restaurants feature Irish specialities.

Now in its 15th year, the Sacramento Jewish Film Festival takes place at the historic Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento, just 3 blocks away from the hostel.

Among the festival's goals are to seek out and present unique, humorous, powerful, touching, and personal films from around the world which focus on the Jewish experience.

This year's film lineup can be found here.