HOT TICKETS

The annual Frostbite Foodtaste Footrace starts at 7 tonight. Participants will hit nine downtown Sharon, Pa., restaurant-bars for free food and discounted drinks. Entry fee is $12 and benefits the Help Heat Homes program. Those who haven’t registered yet can do so between 4 and 6 p.m. at Quaker Steak & Lube. Stops this year include: The A.C.T. Inc., the Russian Club, Billy’s Black & Gold, Our Gang’s Lounge, Side Pocket Caf , The Wave, The Marigold, Quaker Steak & Lube, Tailgate Party with Basilone’s and Tully’s. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place in the race for male and female categories.

Vintage Estate Wine and Beer, 7317 South Ave., Boardman, isn’t the kind of place where you say, “I’ll have a beer.” With hundreds of unusual imported and domestic beers, you have to be specific. PolishYoungstown appropriately has selected VE for its next Polish Happy Hour, which begins at 5:30 tonight. Vintage Estate is in the small shopping plaza just south of the former Park Diner, near the intersection of South Avenue and Route 224. Information will be provided for upcoming bus trips to Hamtramck, Mich., for Paczki Day; Buffalo, N.Y., for Dyngus Day; as well as for the group’s upcoming journey to Poland. Go to polishyoungstown.com for more info.

Toronto-based Celtic rock outfit Enter the Haggis has been using the Internet to stay in touch with fans from their tour van. Using a wireless laptop and a USB camera, the members chat with fans while on the road.

“We try to give fans as much advance notice as possible when we’ll be streaming by posting messages on all of our social networking pages,” said vocalist and guitarist Trevor Lewington (go to enterthehaggis.com). The idea of live streaming got so successful that ETH now streams almost all of its concerts, and the grass-roots effort has pushed Haggis to the brink of success. Check them out live Friday at Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland ($12, all ages, 8:30 p.m.) and Wednesday at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh ($12, 21 and over, 8 p.m.).

Jay-Z, the undisputed king of hip-hop — at least for 2009 — has announced dates for an extended leg of his concert tour, including a March 16 show at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, with opening act Trey Songz. Tickets go on sale Friday at LiveNation.com.

“Block 5,” the powerful story set inside a Nazi concentration camp, begins a four-weekend run Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Victorian Players Theater, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown. Additional shows will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Call (330) 746-5455.

The Shakespeare comedy “Twelfth Night” continues at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Trumbull New Theatre, 5883 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles. Call (330) 652-1103.

Catch the Frank Fordeley Band and the Illusions of Rock Stars tribute show at 8 p.m. Saturday at Packard Music Hall in Warren. Proceeds will be donated to the Epstein Barr Virus Foundation. Heavyweight boxer Nicolia Firha, about whom Fordeley has written a song, will be present to sign autographs. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at Fordeley’s Music, 4922 Mahoning Ave. N.W., or by calling (330) 717-1469.

Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland will have a Polka Brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday to warm up a chilly January weekend. The Chardon Polka Band will perform live, and the $12 price of admission includes brunch and a polka lesson by world dance champion Valerie Salstrom. The Chardon Polka Band — founded in 2003 by then 16-year-old Jake Kouwe— plays traditional polkas but sometimes morphs into punk-rock renditions of the same song. For tickets, contact Beachland at (216) 383-1124 or beachlandballroom.com.