🤑 The best things in April are free (literally)

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

💕 Sick of swiping? We’re co-hosting a Single Mingle event at GrandTen Distilling on April 19 with bites, sips, great vibes, and most importantly, lots of eligible singles. Grab tickets here!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• April showers are no joke

• Pizza fest countdown

• MegaCambridge 

Up first…

APRIL FREEBIES

April showers bring April freebies

Good news: It looks like there’s a positive correlation between the amount of rain we’re getting this week and the amount of freebies happening this month. 

Here’s what’s coming down the pike:

🍦 SPRINT to your closest Ben & Jerry’s on April 16. That’s Free Cone Day, baby! As their annual way of saying thanks to their customers, a host of Ben & Jerry’s shops will be offering folks a free scoop of ice cream from 12 to 8 p.m. Speaking from past experience, they do not skimp on the portions. You can find the closest scoop shop to you here. 

⛵ Enjoy spring weather on land and sea. You can hit the Middlesex Fells Reservation for one of their many free guided group hikes, including a leisurely spring nature hike (or you could hit the Fells’ Skyline Trail solo for spectacular Boston views). And if you’ve ever thought about giving sailing a go, Courageous Sailing is offering free 20-minute sails from Charlestown Navy Yard on April 20 and 21 where you can skim along the Boston Harbor with one of their experienced skippers (reservations are strongly encouraged). 

🎨 Put your student ID to work! And you can start today: Central Perk, the new “Friends”-themed café on Newbury Street, is giving students a free small drip coffee in store on Tuesdays. And the MFA is hosting a college night on April 11 to celebrate the launch of their “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibit (think: lots of K-pop) where students can enjoy a night of dance performances, art making, free food, and more. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Note: You’ll need a valid student ID for both freebies!

​​🛍️ Hit the spring markets like they’re going out of style. Boston Landing’s Happy Hour market on April 10 lives up to its name with free pretzels and booze (while supplies last); the Small Mart (think: opposite of WalMart) market returns to Medford April 13 to highlight local businesses with small batch goods; and over 100 local businesses will be popping up at the Brighton Bazaar’s monthly night market on April 24.

🦸🏾 Celebrate your favorite comics of color. The Boston Comics in Color Festival is back this year at Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on April 20 where folks can find comic books made by and about people of color. Aside from checking out all the comics, there will be guest speakers, panels with working artists and writers, live art demos, and more.

BSIDE MADNESS

Boston’s best nightlife

🕺 Welcome to the Elite Eight rounds of Nightlife Madness! We crowdsourced some of Boston’s best nightlife venues to create our own March Madness bracket, where B-Siders can vote which spot is the city’s best. Round four’s winners were Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club and Big Night Live. Make sure to keep on voting! 

TOGETHER WITH THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE TREASURY

Freshen up your finances this spring 

🌸 Ever experience the joy of finding money in the sofa cushions while doing some spring cleaning around the house? Discovering unclaimed property with the Massachusetts State Treasury is just like that — only easier. In less than 30 seconds, you can search your name online and uncover lost savings accounts, uncashed checks, and more that rightfully belong to you. With one in every 10 Massachusetts residents finding unclaimed property in the past, your chances of stumbling upon lost funds are pretty high.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🌧️ April showers are no joke this week. There better be a lot of May flowers on the way, because a Nor’easter is rolling into town tonight. You can expect rainy weather starting later tonight until Friday morning here in Boston, with the worst of it hitting Wednesday and Thursday. Meteorologists are expecting one to three inches of rain, up to 50 mph winds, and high potential for flooding and power outages. And if you’re further north at higher elevations, you could potentially see some heavy, wet snow. Keep up with the latest weather here. 

🚸 A senseless tragedy is sparking change in Fort Point. Officials and advocates have demanded the city address the neighborhood’s traffic issues after a four-year-old girl was fatally hit by a pickup truck last week at the intersection of Congress and Sleeper Street. The city is already planning a $9 million renovation of Congress Street, which will include accessible sidewalks and safer crosswalks, but in response to the tragedy, officials pledged smaller short-term changes, like poles, signage, and speed humps. 

🏒 Two Boston hockey teams are heading to the Frozen Four. Both Boston University and Boston College have secured their spots in the semi-finals of the men’s D1 NCAA ice hockey tournament, a.k.a., the Frozen Four. BC, which earned its spot with a nail-biter OT comeback against Quinnipiac, is making its first appearance in the Frozen Four since 2016, while BU’s decisive victory over Minnesota earned them their second appearance in two years. Make sure to tune in on April 11 and 13! 

🍕The countdown to Boston’s Pizza Festival starts NOW. Tickets for this year’s  pizza extravaganza on June 22 to 23 are on sale now, ranging from $12 for three slices to $40 for the VIP Experience. The 2024 lineup hasn’t dropped yet, but if you want to get your tastebuds warmed up, the Globe just conducted a thorough survey of the local pizza scene, including this list of seven essential pizza places to try now, like Si Cara in Central Square, Tonino in JP, and Jinny’s Pizzeria in Newton.

ONE LAST THING

MegaCambridge

Cambridge may have Boston beat on April Fools’ jokes this year. 

If you walked around the city yesterday, you might have noticed a rather provocative ad calling for something called “MegaCambridge.” In short, MegaCambridge is a new movement for Cambridge to annex Boston, take over its government, and reclaim its old title as state capital.

Turns out, the whole thing was an April Fools’ stunt. But we’d forgive you for thinking that the ad, the brainchild of Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem, was a serious proposal: It played across 77 digital billboards in the city on April 1 (including in MBTA stations), and looked pretty legit!

Apparently, the whole thing is actually meant to raise awareness about regional collaboration, but to us, it reads more like a declaration of war. 

You can see the full “MegaCambridge” ad here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

👍️ Thanks for reading! Did this Globe article about the prank fully convince both Gia and Emily that this was a legitimate movement in Cambridge for about 30 seconds on Monday morning? Maybe. 

💜 Special Shoutout to today's sponsor, the Massachusetts State Treasury, for helping residents reclaim what’s rightfully theirs.

😂 The results are in: Boston’s queen of comedy (according to B-Siders) is Amy Poehler, who took 19% of the vote. On the other hand, the least voted comic out of our options was Lenny Clarke. Sorry Lenny! 

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].