Yeah, it’s really, really hot. But there are things to do in Philly this week to cope with the heat and enjoy yourself, like spending the weekend seeing the Dave Matthews Band, catching Funny Girl at the Academy of Music, or checking out The Painted Bride’s artist residency for dance workshops.

For the history buffs, we have a youth Continental Congress at historic Carpenter’s Hall and a walking tour and magic show in Old City.

If you’re excited about the weather we have outdoor festivities galore with a block party on North Broad, an ale fest at the zoo, Lancaster Avenue’s Jazz and Art Festival, a food truck fest in University City, and Chinatown’s Summer Festival. This week also marks University City’s Dining Days, so get ready to eat.

There’s all that and more this week, so grab your friends and family or just yourself and enjoy what we have going on.

• • Things to do this week
  • Things to do this weekend
  • Ongoing things to do

Is that not enough? Thinking of things to do further head? Check out our year-round calendar about how to be a good citizen.

Lots of eats in University City, a youth Continental Congress in Old City, Funny Girl, Parks on Tap, and North Broad’s block party

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK IN PHILLY

VISIT CARPENTERS’ HALL FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. July 15 through 19, Carpenters’ Hall hosts high school students and their teachers from the 13 original colonies to explore the history of our nation’s founding and discuss contemporary issues of democracy and social justice. The Young People’s Continental Congress commemorates the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress and is a springboard for the celebration of the Semiquincentennial of American independence in 2026.  You can donate and sponsor delegates here. Carpenters’ Hall is open to the public 10am through 4pm Tuesday through Sunday. Free. 320 Chestnut Street

GO SEE THE CLASSIC MUSICAL FUNNY GIRL. Ensemble Arts’ Broadway Series continues with the iconic musical comedy Funny Girl at the Academy of Music July 16 through 28. Sing along with Fanny Brice in this dazzling revival. $24-$149. 240 S. Broad Street

Parks on Tap| Photo by Albert Yee

ENJOY BEER IN THE PARK. This week, Parks on Tap comes to Campbell Square in Port Richmond July 17 through July 21 from 4 to 10pm. The roving beer (and cocktail and food) garden provides a great excuse to bring your kids to happy hour.  Free admission. 2535 E Allegheny Avenue

Clockwise from top left: Dahlak, Board and Brew, Blaze Pizza, Garces Trading Co., LasScalas, Pattaya, Renata’s, Irie Entree

GOOD EATS ON THE CHEAP IN UNIVERSITY CITY. It’s the return of University City Dining Days July 18 through 28! Over 20 restaurants are offering a “3 Courses, 3 Prices” promotion for lunch and dinner at $20, $30 or $40. If you’ve been holding out on trying Louie Louie’s, The Post, 48th Street Grill or Pattaya, now is the time. $20-$40 plus gratuity. Various University City District locations

HIT UP THE BLOCK PARTY ON NORTH BROAD STREET. Come to North Broad Street July 19 from noon to 3pm for music, food, games, augmented reality, and yes, good vibes courtesy of North Broad Renaissance at the Summer aBroad Block Party. Free. 1600 N. Broad Street

Franklin Square’s birthday party, Kevin McDonald’s comedy, dance artists in residency in West Philly, magic in Old City.

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND IN PHILLY

DO THE TWO-STEP AND CRASH INTO CAMDEN FOR DAVE MATTHEWS. Dave Matthews Band is at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion July 19 and 20. Doors open at 6pm, showtime is 7:30pm. For the real DMB heads, you can opt for a two-day lawn ticket special. $70-$400+. 1 Harbour Boulevard, Camden, NJ

FIND MAGIC IN OLD CITY. Join the Old City Magic Show and Walking Tour with award-winning magician, Robert Malissa July 19 and 20 at 11am. $32.40. Tour meets behind the Bourse, 4th and Ranstead Streets

SPEND THE EVENING WITH A KID IN THE HALL. On July 20 at 7:30pm City Winery presents An Evening With Kevin McDonald – Featuring Stories From The Kids In The Hall. Look into the face … of evil! $32-$45. 990 Filbert Street

SPEND A DAY WITH JAZZ AND ART. Come to Saunders Park Greene July 20 from noon to 7pm for the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival. Headlned by the Jamaaladeen Tacuma Quintet, the day includes music, local vendors, fun children’s activities, and food trucks. Free. 39th Street & Powelton Avenue

HANG OUT IN CHINATOWN FOR A STREET FESTIVAL. On July 20 from 1pm to 10pm, Chinatown Summer Festival brings neighborhood restaurants, food trucks, local artists, music and dance performers, games, and more to the neighborhood between Arch and Vine Streets. Free. Arch and 11th Streets to 9th and Vine

DRINK BEER AT THE ZOO. I know, you do that anyway, but on July 20 from 7 to 10pm the Philadelphia Zoo hosts Summer Ale Festival, with over 100 award-winning craft beers, ciders, hard iced teas and hard seltzers, plus local food trucks and live music. $35-95. 400 W. Girard Avenue

GO TO A FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL. On July 20 from noon to 6pm, The Lawn at uCity Square hosts The Katika Festival. Featuring more than 40 food trucks and vendors, a double dutch competition, DJs, a chef showdown and a children’s magic show, the event promises a day of food and fun suitable for everyone. $5-$20. 3701 Filbert Street

CELEBRATE FRANKLIN SQUARE’S BIRTHDAY. Bring the family on July 20 from 10am to noon for Franklin Square’s Eighteenth Birthday Celebration. The first 100 guests enjoy free rides on the carousel, plus there are crafts, Fun with YoYo, and the Chinese Lantern Festival Scavenger Hunt. Don’t miss Ben Franklin’s 11:15am Happy Birthday serenade. Free. 200 N. 6th Street

GO CONJUR UP SOME JOY THROUGH ART AND DANCE. Conjuring Joy, a new community-centered artist residency at The Bride in West Philadelphia, opens July 21 and runs through September 8 with workshops in dance, movement theater games, interactive performance, film screenings, and digital art-making. Some events have limited spots available and require registration. See the whole calendar here. Free. 5212 Market Street

CELEBRATE NATIONAL MANGO DAY. Women-owned local specialty purveyors The Mango Hut will be setting up outside the Museum of Illusions on July 22 from noon to 3pm in celebration of National Mango Day with free sorbet samples! Pay as you go. Museum admission $20-$27. 401 Market Street

ONGOING EVENTS

Art exhibitions, live shows, and more things to do, until you can’t anymore.

Artist Risa Puno. Photo by Carlos Avendaño courtesy of the Fabric Workshop and Museum.

FEEL A GROUP HUG. This week is your last chance to catch Risa Puno’s first-ever solo exhibition at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Group Hug: Risa Puno is as visually captivating as it is interactive. Choose one of two paths in the show, and you’ll either lounge in a giant, soft, coconut shell-looking pod that transforms into a cozy armchair, or you’ll play Whack-a-Mole. Either way, you’ll learn a life lesson. The exhibition ends July 21. Free. 1214 Arch Street

CONTEMPLATE WHAT’S REAL. In the artistic sense, not in the existential crisis kind of way. Capturing the Surreal is at In Liquid Gallery through July 22. Through photography, artificial reality and animation, the work of artists Charmaine Caire, Kelli S. Williams and Eva Wu evokes fantasy and intertwines the physical and the virtual world, asking, what is real and what isn’t? Free. 1400 N. American Street, Suite 108

To Understand a Tree.

SEE NEW EXHIBIT AT THE MUSEUM FOR ART IN WOOD. Now through July 21, catch To Understand a Tree by interdisciplinary artist, designer and woodworker Gina Siepel. The exhibit focuses on “the dignity of a living tree, its network of eco-systemic relationships, and the ubiquity of the material of wood in design and daily life.” The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 pm. Free. 141 N. 3rd Street

THIS IS THE STAR WARS BURLESQUE PARODY YOU’RE LOOKING FOR. The hit show The Empire Strips Back is live at the Susan Roberts Theater through July 28. Your evening promises to deliver “sultry Stormtroopers, a dangerously enticing Boba Fett, some tantalizing Twi’leks, a delightfully lukewarm Taun Taun, a lady-like Skywalker,” and Droids, of course. Showtimes vary. 18 and older only. $39-$59. 480 S. Broad Street

JAM OUT AT THE PENN MUSEUM. Garden Jams Live Music Happy Hour at the Penn Museum’s Stoner Courtyard is happening every Wednesday in July from 5 to 8pm. The outdoor summer concert series offers bites and sips from food trucks plus a stocked garden bar. You can BYO everything for a picnic (except alcohol), and admission is included with your ticket. The galleries stay open to 8pm, and concerts move inside if the weather doesn’t cooperate. This week’s live music comes from Zydeco-a-Go-Go. $15. 3260 South Street

Courtesy of the Mütter Museum.

VISIT AN EXHIBITION ON HOMELESSNESS. Through August 5, the Mütter Museum hosts Unhoused: Personal Stories and Public Health, a special exhibition on American homelessness through the lens of public health. Museum hours are 10am to 5pm daily except Tuesday. Free-$20. 19 S. 22nd Street

TAKE THE FAMILY TO LEARN SOMETHING AT THE PARK. Through August 15, Parkway Pals at Sister Cities Park offers free educational programming for families every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning with the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the Philadelphia Ballet, and on select days, Design Philadelphia. Sister Cities Park features the Earth Fountain and Children’s Discovery Garden and pebble-bottomed boat pond, open daily. The Sister Cities Café is also open and offers beverages, snacks and grab-and-go meals. See the full schedule of events at sistercitiespark.org. Free. 18th Street & Benjamin Franklin Parkway

DON’T MISS THE ANNUAL CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL. Celebrate the Year of the Dragon in Franklin Square at the Chinese Lantern Festival. View astounding illuminated displays, authentic Chinese food, cultural performances, a fountain show, and the iconic 200-foot-long dragon. The festivities run through August 18. Timed tickets are required on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. $16-$28. 200 N. 6th Street

SLIP INTO A SPEAKEASY IN A SHIP. A couple Fridays a month, the historic cruiser Olympia, docked at Penn’s Landing, turns into an admission-only party, with a different theme every week: sci-fi on July 26 and August 9, and the 90s on August 23, always from 6 to 9pm. $35. 211 S. Columbus Boulevard

EXPERIENCE THE ART OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE. Now through August 26, the Barnes Foundation and Mural Arts Philadelphia present Visions, an exhibition of original work created by artists from Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Guild program and artists at the State Correctional Institution Phoenix. $5-$30, children under 12 free. 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway

SIP IN CENTER CITY. Back for its 20th anniversary, Philly’s “favorite happy hour’ Center City SIPS  continues every Wednesday through August 28. Dozens of bars and restaurants are offering exclusive discounts weekly from 5 to 7pm: $7 cocktails, $6 wine, $5 beer, and half-price appetizers. Select locations will offer 15 percent off dinner after 7pm. Pay as you go

TAKE AN IMAGINED UNDERSEA TOUR OF NORTH BROAD STREET. Sea aBroad is the latest addition to the North Broad Renaissance mobile AR experience along North Broad Street that lets you envision the Leon H. Sullivan Charitable Trust and its surroundings 50 feet out as if you were swimming with the fishes. In a good way, not in the mobster way. The Summer aBroad AR Tour app is available on Google Play and the Apple App Store and the Under the Sea experience is live now through August. Free. 1415 N. Broad Street (but once you’re in the app you may as well enjoy all the stops between the Rail Park and the Uptown Theater)

HANG OUT IN THE OVAL. Now through August 25, The Oval offers eight acres of fun on the Parkway for the whole family. Food, drinks, games, activities and special events like live music and quizzes are on deck. Hours: Thursdays from 4 to 9pm, Fridays 4 to 11pm, Saturdays noon to 11pm and Sunday noon to 9pm. This Thursday features Community Yoga with Yoga Habit from 6 to 7pm, remember to bring your own gear. Free. 2451 Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Art of the Brick at the Franklin Institute.

EXPERIENCE LEGOS LIKE YOU NEVER HAVE BEFORE. Through September 22, the world’s largest display of LEGO art returns to the Franklin Institute. The Art of the Brick by Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of artworks made exclusively in plastic bricks that snap together, including original pieces and re-imagined versions of famous masterpieces, a multimedia exhibition of LEGO-infused photography by Dean Wes, and a 9,000-square-foot brick play space. Museum hours are 9:30am to 5pm daily, with evening hours to 8pm, Thursday through Saturday. $20-$43. 222 N. 20th Street

DANCE IN LOVE PARK. Siempre Salsa Philly presents a Salsa & Bachata Dance Party Friday nights through September 27 at LOVE Park, featuring DJ Kevin Ngo. Dance lessons start at 7pm followed by live music at 8pm. Free. 15th and Arch streets

GET FIT IN DILWORTH PARK. Center City Fit is happening every Tuesday at 6pm through October 1 with professional trainers from City Fitness holding free outdoor workouts in Dilworth Park. Bodycombat will be the focus in July. BYO mat and water! Free. 1 S. 15th Street

MORE GOOD THINGS TO DO IN PHILLY