Weekend picks in and around Washington, DC

Friday

7:00pm: Inside Out Movie at President Lincoln’s Cottage
Join for a free film screening on the lawn of Lincoln’s summer residence. Among other things, the Lincoln family came to the Cottage to relax and enjoy each other’s company, and you are invited to do the same. Bring a picnic (or popcorn) and sit back!

7:30pm: Día de los Muertos at The Kennedy Center:
Celebrate the Mexican holiday, el día de los muertos, the day of the dead, with a concert dedicated to music by Mexican composers, conducted by NOW’s Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Saturday

9:00am-1:00pm: Open Streets: Tenleytown
The final Open Streets of the year will take place on Ward 3’s Wisconsin Avenue, where one mile will be closed to cars and open to people to bike, walk, scoot, and play in a reimagining of public space. Explore all the amenities that Friendship Heights and Tenleytown have to offer and be sure to participate in a fitness or yoga class in one of our activation zones at no cost! Popular programming will return this fall, including arts and crafts, live music, safety demonstrations, and more. The event is free and suitable for people of ALL ages and abilities.

10:00am-5:00pm: Pumpkin Chunkin’ at Great Country Farms
Bring your leftover jack-o-lantern to our smashin’ stations and let it fly! The Silo Drop and the Zip Wire Sploosh let you do the smashin’ yourself or bring your pumpkin to the Pumpkin Drop Zone and add it to our upside down “fireworks display” as the pumpkins are dropped from a 40ft lift. You will be sure to love giving your pumpkin one final ride. What happens to all those smashed pumpkins?… the pigs and cows love to eat them and we compost the rest.

10:00am-4:00pm: 16th Annual Parade of Trabants at The Spy Museum
Join us for the ONLY Trabant Rally in the United States! Celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at this festive gathering of the quintessential Cold War car—the Trabant. Despite their questionable performance and smoky two-stroke engines, these little cars are now affectionately regarded as a symbol of East Germany and the fall of Communism.

10:00am-1:00pm: Maker Morning at Hirshhorn
Think inside and outside the box with us in this Maker Morning exploring installation! Have you ever seen an artwork that covers an entire room (sometimes including the floors!)? Large artworks, often with many different parts that are set up in a place, are called installations. Join us for Maker Morning: Installation Creation to check out the many installations on view at the museum, collaborate and create our own larger than life artwork!

11:00am-4:00pm: The Big Build at the National Building Museum
All ages are invited to The Big Build, a FREE hands-on festival exploring a wide variety of unique, interactive activities with roofers, plumbers, home remodelers, construction workers, carpenters, designers, and artisans.

5:30pm-8:30pm: Side Yards at The Yards
Guests are invited to enjoy contortionists, magicians, escape artists, sword swallowers, aerialists, lollipop lyra performers and other spook-tacular performances. Attendees are also able to take part in interactive activities including tarot card and palm reading, balloon artistry, and glitter tattoos, and warm up with hot cocoa and bites from Agua 301 and Due South Dockside. You can find photos from last year’s event linked here.

Sunday

Performances
Air Play – November 4-6
Umbrellas fly, fabrics soar over the audience, balloons swallow people, and snow swirls, filling the stage. Air Play transforms ordinary objects into uncommon beauty through a wordless, magical adventure as two siblings journey through a surreal land of air. Created by circus performers Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone in collaboration with kinetic sculptor Daniel Wurtzel, this enchanting spectacle combines comedy, live sculpture, circus, and theater to fill both the young and young at heart with wonder.

S.P.I.E.S. 2 – Through November 20
Join S.P.I.E.S. in person, where it is more interactive than ever! This follow-up to the online hit S.P.I.E.S. & the Lost Treasure of Atlantis combines live theatre and taped adventure scenes to create a collaborative and exciting experience where each audience gets to be the hero and solve the puzzles–and no two performances are alike.