There's a lot more happening at the Tribeca Film Festival (April 18th to 29th) than private parties and sold-out screenings. This year's 11th edition of the popular festival also includes lots of FREE events that are open to the public on a first-come-first-serve basis. You can find a complete schedule of all these events HERE, but meanwhile, here's a few that caught our eye:



Tribeca Drive-In
This popular series of outdoor screenings runs April 19th to 21st down at the World Financial Center Plaza with doors opening at 6 p.m., live music at 7 p.m. and screenings starting at dusk. This Thursday you can catch Steven Spielberg's classic Jaws and on Friday there's a screening of The Goonies that will be preceded by afro-jazz group NOMO. And, for sports enthusiasts among us, there's the world premiere of Knuckleball, a documentary about the controversial baseball pitching style, on Saturday, April 21st.

Tribeca Talks
A series of "talks" will be held in the SVA Theater 2 (333 West 23rd Street) with various industry "insiders" discussing everything from the arrival of the digital age to the business of entertainment. On Friday, April 20th, 2:30 p.m., the controversial producer and director Brett Ratner moderates a panel on the collaboration between brands and filmmakers. On Tuesday, April 24th, 2:30 p.m. there's a panel on short-form storytelling with Morgan Spurlock (Mansome), Annie Sundberg (Knuckleball) and Laura Lee (YouTube) and on Wednesday, April 25th at 2:30 p.m., Google Ideas' Jared Cohen takes a look at the grey economy of illicit distribution networks for narcotics, weapons and body parts.

Street Fair
The annual Family Festival Street Fair will be held on Saturday, April 28th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Greenwich Street between Chambers and Hubert Streets. Look for cast members from several Broadway shows, acrobats, puppets, a life-size chess board, a kite garden and lots of games, prizes and music. Go early, as last year's fair drew over 300,000 people.