🍽️ A celebrated outdoor food market returns | Things to Do

It’s finally April which means we’re seeing the return of beloved seasonal markets, festivals, al fresco dining options, and a truly rich variety of events happening all across the region. There’s so much fun to choose from, so let’s get into it.

This week’s lineup:

— Rosa Cartagena (@_RosaCartagena, Email me at [email protected])

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Mouthwatering, good food returns to FDR Park this weekend as the Southeast Asian Market reopens for the next six months. The outdoor market features a wide array of cuisines from Philadelphia’s diverse immigrant communities representing Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The Inquirer named it one of the city’s essential food experiences so don’t miss out.

🎭 Final weekend: The Broadway musical &Juliet is in town for just a few more days delivering its cheeky storyline — in this universe, Juliet doesn’t die, she goes to party in Paris and find new purpose — to pop hits from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and Pink. It sounds bonkers because it is.

🍻 Sip in the sunshine: The beloved traveling beer garden Parks on Tap will reopen on Wednesday, kicking off its season at Azalea Garden before it pops up at Clark Park, Schuylkill River Park, and elsewhere over the next few months.

📦 Wow-worthy: Who is Philadelphia’s “cardboard genius”? Take a look at the elaborate, towering sculptures — depicting the Ben Franklin Bridge, the Chinatown gate, the Statue of Liberty, and more — from Germantown artist Kambel Smith in his first local show.

🎹 Birthday bash: Philadelphia pianist Orrin Evans is playing multiple nights at Chris’ Jazz Café this weekend in honor of his 50th birthday. 50 Shades of O features Evans collaborating with Captain Black Big Band, Jason Moran, and many more jazz stars. The Inquirer named it one of the best jazz concerts to see this Spring.

🎥 Arcade history: One of my all-time favorite arcade games is Skee-Ball — and I just learned that it was actually invented by a Philadelphian! The first alleys opened in Atlantic City. Find out more in a new documentary about its fascinating local history.

🌏 Watch and learn: April is Earth Month and the Academy of Natural Sciences is hosting its monthlong environmental film festival Confluence for the second year in a row. Partnering with local film powerhouses BlackStar Projects, cinéSPEAK, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, and the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival, the Confluence festival spotlights regional filmmakers responding to the theme of “regeneration.” Explore the full lineup.

🖼️ New museum: A small space at Temple holding millions of treasures just opened to the public for the first time as the new Temple Anthropology Lab and Museum. Take a first look inside.

📅 My calendar picks this week: Sakura Weekend Cherry Blossom Festival, Dine Latino Restaurant Week, Open Streets: West Walnut

Today marks the official start of Philly Theatre Week, the longer-than-a-week festival celebrating all things theater all around the region with pay-what-you-can tickets. It’s a great way to explore smaller companies off of Avenue of the Arts that you might not be as familiar with, and catch multiple shows over 11 days at affordable prices. See two Shakespeare classics at Quintessence Theatre in Mount Airy, sip along to a boozy courtroom satire in Rittenhouse, or find something experimental at FringeArts’ Miniball. It runs through April 13.

 ​💿 New sounds: In the coolest music news this week, Bruce Springsteen announced he’s putting out unreleased music recorded between 1983 and 2018 this summer. Tracks II: The Lost Albums contains seven LPs, including Streets of Philadelphia Sessions. Here’s everything you need to know.

🥤 On trend: People have been lining up in Fishtown for Riverwards Produce’s popular and picturesque smoothies. We break down why the internet is dubbing their drinks “Erewhon dupes.”

🖼️ Art is life: Singer and guitarist Lucy Dacus of boygenius released her fourth album, Forever Is a Feeling, and she recently opened up about finding inspiration for one song at the Barnes Foundation.

📺 Get it right: The new Peacock show Long Bright River features Australian actor Ashleigh Cummings (alongside Amanda Seyfried, who plays her sister). We caught up with her to ask how she mastered the Kensington accent.

👩‍🍳 Food news: The nominees for the 2025 James Beard Award were announced this week and the list includes three Philly chefs and Friday Saturday Sunday in the running for outstanding bar. Here’s what we know so far.

Pop music critic Dan DeLuca and classical music critic Peter Dobrin break down the best upcoming shows.

🎤 Thursday: The action kicks off Thursday with Japanese singer and composer Eiko Ishibashi — who collaborates frequently with her partner, Jim O’Rourke — at Johnny Brenda’s. Philly instrumental band Hour opens.

🎤 Also Thursday: Baltimore duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat — singer Schrader and bassist Devlin Rice, plus touring guitarist Dylan Going — make experimental music that hearkens back to New Wave / No Wave era bands like Suicide and Joy Division. They play PhilaMOCA on Thursday in support of Orchestra Beats.

🎹 Friday: See Mitsuko Uchida at the Perelman Theater. Always musically provocative, the much-worshipped pianist plays Beethoven’s two-movement Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90; Schoenberg’s just-this-side-of-total-despair Opus 11 Three Pieces; and an uninterrupted backward vault over the eras (with no pause) from Kurtág’s Márta ligaturája into Schubert’s Sonata in B Flat Major, D. 960.

🎸 Also Friday: It’s a headbanger’s weekend. On Friday night, the Deftones, the Sacramento, Calif., band fronted by Chino Moreno — which was recently joined on stage by Hayley Williams of Paramore in Nashville — headlines the Wells Fargo Center. The Mars Volta and Fleshwater open.

🎸 Friday and Saturday: Decibel Metal and Beer Fest — presented by Philly-based Decibel Magazine — takes over the Fillmore with Exodus headlining Friday and Dismember on Saturday. Featured breweries include Pa.’s New Trail, Imprint, and Attic, and Delaware’s Bear Cult and Brimming Horn Meadery.

Read more music picks.

This week I finished reading Ursula Le Guin’s classic sci-fi novel The Lathe of Heaven, a trippy look at a man whose dreams change the world with disastrous consequences. What are you reading these days? Let me know!