It’s a mega music weekend in South Philly with Metallica, Barry Manilow, Post Malone, and Jelly Roll

It’s going to be a stadium- and arena-sized weekend in Philly music, with all the metal and Manilow you can handle. Plus, a triple bill of country-rap and straight-up country, all happening at the South Philly sports complex.

But first: Bob Dylan turns 84 on Friday, and for 25 of those years, his birthday has been celebrated by Philadelphia bands in an event co-hosted by local songsmiths Jon Houlon and Kenn Kweder.

This year, the Bob Dylan Birthday Bash celebrates its silver anniversary on Tuesday at Ardmore Music Hall, with 40 Philly acts doing one Dylan song each over the course of a four-hour evening.

Notable guests of Houlon and Kweder — who will sing “Under a Red Sky” and “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” respectively — include Osiris Wildfire, the Rock-A-Fillys, Kate Gaffney, Joey Sweeney, Mia Johnson, No Good Crowd, Rich Kaufmann & Brian Seymour, Fiona McHugh, Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra, and Schist Creek Singers. It’s free, and a great way to sample the Philly music scene.

Dylan himself started his run of shows on Willie Nelson’s “Outlaw Music Tour” last week, and along with Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchie, and Madeline Edwards, they’re due at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion on Sept. 12.

Speaking of free, the Live and Local series, booked by indie promoters 4333 Collective at Spruce Street Harbor Park, is Thursday with New York band Frog and Philly outfit Wescansin. The series will continue on Thursday through the summer, and some Mondays.

North Jersey native Ketch Secor leads roots music string band Old Crow Medicine Show into the Zellerbach Theater on Thursday. The band, whose signature song “Wagon Wheel” (cowritten by Secor and Bob Dylan) tells of a hitchhiker who gets passed a joint by a Philly truck driver, is touring behind its 2023 album, Jubilee.

D.C. songwriter Lauren Calve and Jersey rocker and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Ana Dobken bring their “Electric Bloom Tour” to the lounge at World Cafe Live on Thursday, and New York City indie stalwart Shilpa Ray is at PhilaMOCA on Wednesday. night.

Lucius is at Union Transfer with Victoria Canal. And Free Form Funky Freqs — featuring Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Philly bassist extraordinaire Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and drummer Calvin Weston, are at 118 North in Wayne, also on Thursday.

Memorial Day weekend is Metallica weekend. The storied and quintessential metal band is bringing its M72 Tour — named for its 2023 album 72 Seasons — to Lincoln Financial Field on Friday and Sunday.

Not only that: There are all kinds of Metallica events going on in the Philadelphia area. Rock and Roll Playhouse does a Music of Metallica & More concert for kids at noon on Saturday at Brooklyn Bowl Philly, followed at 2 p.m. with a Rock & Bowl event with the band’s crew and WMMR-FM (93.3) personalities.

On Saturday night at the Fillmore, guitarist Kirk Hammett will show off his collection in a conversation with Gibson Guitars’ Mark Agnesi. Full Metallica Takeover events are listed on Metallica.com.

The Linc show will follow the No Repeat Weekend format, with no songs performed twice. (Yes, that includes “Enter Sandman.”) Friday’s openers are Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills. Sunday is Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera.

And if you want to spend your entire weekend at the sports complex in South Philly, never fear, there are Saturday night entertainment options too.

At the Wells Fargo Center, Barry Manilow is playing what is being billed as “The Last Philadelphia Concert.” What could be more metal than a guy who has a signature song called “I Write the Songs” he didn’t actually write?

Manilow has a long Philly history dating to the early 1970s when he was a regular at the Bijou Cafe. The 81-year-old “Mandy” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)” singer is on, what he says is, his final tour. After this, you’ll have to go to Vegas to see him.

Your other Saturday in South Philly choice is the Post Malone and Jelly Roll team-up of face-tattooed artists on the country and hip-hop continuum called the “Big Ass Stadium Tour.”

Postie has been busy lately collaborating with Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen and Beyoncé, who’s playing just up the road at Met Life Stadium in North Jersey this weekend. Jelly Roll is back after headlining the Wells Fargo Center last October. Sierra Ferrell — who won four Grammys this year, sweeping the Americana categories — is the opener.

Other stuff happening this weekend that isn’t quite so mega: Horsegirl, the Chicago all-woman post-punk trio whose Phonetics On and On is one of the albums of the year, plays Free at Noon at World Cafe Live on Friday. That night, the sassy and fabulous Carsie Blanton headlines the WCL, with rising Philly songwriter Brittany Ann Tranbaugh opening.

The Bar Band — led by David Uosikkinen of the Hooters, with guests including Kenny Aaronson and Richard Bush of The A’s — plays 118 North on Saturday.

At the Shore, shock-rock pioneer Alice Cooper ― whose album The Revenge of Alice Cooper is due in July ― plays Ovation Hall at Ocean Resort on Saturday.

Concert announcements of note: Yusuf / Cat Stevens — that’s how the “Wild World” singer bills himself — will open a combo book and music tour at the Met Philly on Oct. 2 for his memoir Cat on the Road to Findout. Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at CatStevens.com.

And Billie Eilish, who played a Philly date on her “Hit Me Hard Hit Me Soft Tour” last fall, is coming back to the Wells Fargo Center for more on Oct. 23. Presale is already underway at billieeilish.com, with general on sale Thursday at noon.