Your Washington weekend could start with Punch Brothers, end with Frida Kahlo and leave room for fireworks in between. The Nov. 6–8 calendar spans live music, final theater performances and the first Saturday of National Harbor’s holiday festivities — with plenty of free options along the way.
We’ve rounded up 70 picks across Washington, Maryland and Northern Virginia, including museum exhibitions, sports, concerts and seasonal outings. Among the time-sensitive choices: “Some Like It Hot” at Olney Theatre Center, “Frida…A Self-Portrait” at Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival, all ending Sunday.
To see what else is happening in the coming weeks, head to the Washington Times DC Events Calendar. And don’t forget to check the weather forecast before heading out!
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Theater & Performing Arts
Some Like It Hot — The Tony-winning Broadway musical comedy in its first regional production, inaugurating Olney’s new Bernard Family Theatre. More Info →
Through November 8, 2026 | Olney Theatre Center — Bernard Family Theatre | Tickets Required
Nikola: A New Musical — A world-premiere musical about inventor Nikola Tesla, with book, music, and lyrics by Nikko Benson and Benjamin Halstead, directed by Marshall Pailet. More Info →
Through November 29, 2026 | Arena Stage — Kreeger Theater | From $59
Frida…A Self-Portrait — A solo work about artist Frida Kahlo, written and performed by Vanessa Severo, directed by Joanie Schultz. More Info →
Through November 8, 2026 | Shakespeare Theatre Company — Klein Theatre | Tickets Required
Hundred Days — DC premiere of the Bengsons’ autobiographical folk-punk musical about falling in love and living as if you had only 100 days left. More Info →
Through November 15, 2026 | The Keegan Theatre | Tickets Required
All the World’s a Stage — Regional premiere of Adam Gwon’s musical about a closeted 1996 high-school teacher who mentors a student, a story about self-acceptance and the power of art. More Info →
Through December 20, 2026 | Signature Theatre — ARK Theatre | Tickets Required
Les Misérables — The blockbuster Boublil & Schönberg musical of revolution and redemption, directed by Stephen Brackett. More Info →
Through January 31, 2027 | Olney Theatre Center — Roberts Mainstage | Tickets Required
Sleepy Hollow (Arlington transfer) — Synetic’s wordless movement-theater take on the Washington Irving tale, transferring to its Arlington home after the Olney run. More Info →
Nov 6–22, 2026 | Synetic Theater — Thomas Jefferson Theatre | Tickets Required
Music & Concerts
Kennedy Center: Free Millennium Stage — The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage offers free performances Wednesday through Saturday at 6 PM in the Grand Foyer — music, dance, and theater from local and national artists. Performance Schedule →
Through December 31, 2026 | Kennedy Center Grand Foyer | Free
Jim Brickman: Holiday Piano — The best-selling pianist opens the region’s holiday season with his signature romantic holiday hits across two intimate nights. More Info →
Through November 6, 2026 | The Barns at Wolf Trap | Tickets Required
U.S. Army Band: A Salute to Veterans — The U.S. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026, 7:30 PM | Hylton Performing Arts Center, Manassas, VA | Free
Punch Brothers — Chris Thile’s genre-bending string band headlines the Warner Theatre. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026, 8 PM | Warner Theatre | Tickets Required
Washington National Opera: Madama Butterfly — WNO’s relocated, fully staged new Puccini production on a redesigned “Revolutionary Stage” thrust into the audience on three sides, with café- and theater-style seating. More Info →
Nov 7, 13, 15, 18 & 20, 2026 | DAR Constitution Hall | From $57.60
Sports
Ice Skating at Reston Town Center — An outdoor rink at the center of the Town Center pavilion, ringed by shops and restaurants, with skate rentals and lessons available. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026 – Mar 14, 2027 | Reston Town Center Pavilion, Reston, VA | Tickets Required
Georgetown Hoyas vs. Maryland — The in-state rivalry game against the Maryland Terrapins. More Info →
Nov 7, 2026 | Capital One Arena | Tickets Required
DC United vs. New York City FC — MLS Decision Day — final regular season home match at Audi Field. More Info →
Sat, Nov 7, 2026 | Audi Field | Tickets Vary
Washington Capitals vs. Florida Panthers — The Capitals host the Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena. More Info →
Nov 7, 2026 | Capital One Arena | Tickets Required
Festivals & Free Events
Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival — The country’s leading festival of investigative documentary, paired with a craft symposium for journalists, in its 12th edition. More Info →
Through November 8, 2026 | Washington, DC | Tickets Required
Holidays at National Harbor: Festive Fireworks & Christmas Market — Waterfront holiday Saturdays with evening fireworks over the Potomac and a rotating artisan Christmas market and holiday craft show. More Info →
Saturdays, Nov 7 – Dec 26, 2026 (fireworks 5:30 PM; market 12–7 PM) | National Harbor, Oxon Hill, MD | Free
Museums & Exhibitions
A South Forty: Contemporary Architecture and Design in the American South — Surveys place-based contemporary Southern architecture and civic design from 1990 onward, attentive to climate, materials, and labor. More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Building Museum | From $19
Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen — A major solo exhibition by celebrated American artist Adam Pendleton at the Hirshhorn Museum, exploring themes of Blackness, abstraction, and language through paintings, videos, and installations. Museum Info →
Through January 3, 2027 | Hirshhorn Museum | Free
Coming Together: Reimagining the American Downtown — Explores how U.S. More Info →
Through November 30, 2026 | National Building Museum | From $19
Holocaust Museum: Americans and the Holocaust — A powerful permanent exhibition examining the American response to Nazism and the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s. More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | Free (timed passes recommended)
International Spy Museum — The world most visited spy museum explores the real world of espionage through immersive exhibitions, artifact-packed galleries, and hands-on experiences across 140,000 square feet. Get Tickets →
Through December 31, 2026 | International Spy Museum | From $24.95
America’s Presidents — The National Portrait Gallery’s signature exhibition of presidential portraits, tracing American leadership from George Washington to the present. Gallery Hours →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Portrait Gallery | Free
National Museum of African American History: Power of Place — The newest Smithsonian museum presents Power of Place — a landmark exhibition exploring how African American communities have shaped and been shaped by the places they call home. Reserve Passes →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Museum of African American History and Culture | Free (timed passes required)
Nick Cave: Mammoth — Internationally renowned artist Nick Cave explores the entanglement of land and race in American consciousness. Museum Info →
Through January 3, 2027 | Smithsonian American Art Museum | Free
Star Power: Hollywood Photographs by George Hurrell (A Sequel) — Following the success of the first installment, the National Portrait Gallery presents a sequel exhibition of George Hurrell’s iconic Hollywood glamour photographs from the Golden Age of cinema. Gallery Info →
Through January 10, 2027 | National Portrait Gallery | Free
Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium — A career survey of pioneering American abstract photographer Carlotta Corpron (1901–1988), drawn largely from a recent gift to the Hirshhorn. More Info →
Through January 31, 2027 | Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Free
The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph x Fry & Welch — Examines the design and cultural significance of Tuskegee University’s landmark chapel, with models, masonry replicas, Ezra Stoller photography, and a robotically-laid brick sculpture. More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Building Museum | From $19
A Better Life for Their Children — Chronicles the extraordinary partnership between Sears Roebuck founder Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Museum Info →
Through January 31, 2027 | National Building Museum | Admission Required
Camouflage: Designed to Deceive — An immersive exhibit tracing camouflage from nature to the battlefield, connecting biological deception to espionage and modern military design (included with admission). More Info →
Through January 31, 2029 | International Spy Museum | Tickets Required
Busy Bliss: A Collector’s Passion — A Special Exhibitions Gallery show drawn from a collector’s passion, on view throughout fall 2026. More Info →
Through February 28, 2027 | Dumbarton Oaks | Free
Insular Horizons: Travel and the Environmental Imagination on Crete, 1598–1845 — A Rare Books Gallery exhibition examining travel and the environmental imagination on the island of Crete across three centuries. More Info →
Through April 30, 2027 | Dumbarton Oaks | Free
Sky Hopinka: Kicking the Clouds — Through photographs, poems, and film, Indigenous artist Sky Hopinka connects family, language, place, and lived Native American experience in this solo presentation at the National Gallery. More Info →
Through December 6, 2026 | National Gallery of Art | Free
¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa — A new exhibition at the National Museum of the American Latino tracing the origins and cultural journey of salsa music and dance across Latin America, New York, and beyond. Museum Info →
Through October 18, 2028 | National Museum of the American Latino (in NMAH building) | Free
Free and Independent: A Celebration of the Declaration — A major special exhibition at the National Archives Museum explores the story behind the Declaration of Independence — how it came to be, how it has been preserved for 250 years, and how the U.S. More Info →
Through July 5, 2027 | National Archives Museum | Free
Bison: Standing Strong — A major Smithsonian exhibition on the American bison with an immersive prairie soundscape and three larger-than-life bronze bison sculptures outside. Museum Info →
Through May 1, 2029 | National Museum of Natural History | Free
In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness — The Smithsonian’s America250 centerpiece: 250 objects spanning the nation’s full 250-year history across all three floors, including the original Star-Spangled Banner and Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk (note: on display at the Smithsonian Castle Jun 2–Jul 26; a reproduction shown in its place during that period). More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Museum of American History | Free
Stretching the Canvas: Ten Decades of Native Painting — A survey of 100 years of Native painting — 50+ works by 46 artists — tracing how Native painters redefined Native art from the post–WWI era onward. More Info →
Through May 1, 2027 | National Museum of the American Indian | Free
American Icon: The US Flag in Art — Over 30 works from the late 1800s through today illustrating changing American interpretations of the flag, opening as part of the NGA’s America 250 programming on the same day as the gallery’s massive Block Party event. Gallery Info →
Through December 6, 2026 | National Gallery of Art, East Building | Free
Reset: Abstraction Embodied in Design — A companion design show presenting abstract objects — chairs, rugs, textiles, lighting — by contemporary Black designers. More Info →
Through June 12, 2027 | National Museum of African American History and Culture | Free (timed passes required)
Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction — Explores abstract art by African American artists from the mid-20th century to today — 41 works by 38 artists including Alma Thomas, Gordon Parks, and Simone Leigh. More Info →
Through June 12, 2027 | National Museum of African American History and Culture | Free (timed passes required)
From These Lands: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage — A 250th-anniversary exhibition of 600+ specimens and cultural objects representing all 50 states, DC, and five territories, exploring where natural and cultural history meet. More Info →
Through December 31, 2029 | National Museum of Natural History | Free
The Spirit of Invention: Patent Office and Patentees — Timed with the U.S. More Info →
Through June 6, 2027 | National Portrait Gallery | Free
The Declaration’s Promise — Opening in the David M. More Info →
Through January 8, 2027 | Library of Congress | Free
National Air & Space Museum: 50th Anniversary Galleries — Five major new galleries open simultaneously on the museum’s 50th birthday, including the Flight and the Arts Center — whose inaugural exhibition features 30 works by Robert Rauschenberg (on his centennial) exploring the artist’s relationship with NASA and aviation. Museum Info →
Through June 1, 2027 | National Air and Space Museum | Free
The Megiddo Mosaic: Foundations of Faith — The third-century Megiddo mosaic, whose inscriptions are among the earliest physical evidence of Christian worship. More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Museum of the Bible | Free
The Bible in Times of War — Military Bibles from America’s major conflicts paired with soldiers’ first-person accounts. More Info →
Through February 28, 2027 | Museum of the Bible | Tickets Required
Sacred Liberty — How biblical texts and ideas shaped the American founding era. More Info →
Through February 28, 2027 | Museum of the Bible | Free
Shahzia Sikander: The Last Post — A video work using Indo-Persian miniature-painting vocabulary to interrogate the legacy of British colonialism in Asia. More Info →
Through November 8, 2026 | Smithsonian American Art Museum | Free
Marlo Pascual: Making Something Out of Something — Pascual recontextualizes anonymous vintage photographs and found objects into sculptural tableaux. More Info →
Through February 28, 2027 | National Museum of Women in the Arts | Tickets Required
Much Here Is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial — Photographs documenting communities across the United States during the nation’s bicentennial era, exploring how Americans defined themselves and their country. Learn More →
Through April 18, 2027 | Smithsonian American Art Museum | Free
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California — More than 80 quilts tracing how Second Great Migration families carried textile traditions west. More Info →
Through January 17, 2027 | National Museum of Women in the Arts | Tickets Required
To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare — A new exhibition examining Black women’s relationship to Shakespeare across performance and history. More Info →
Through May 2, 2027 | Folger Shakespeare Library | Free
Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea — Explores the friendship among Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko through ~90 works inspired by summers on Cape Ann, Massachusetts (organized with the Cape Ann Museum). More Info →
Through January 24, 2027 | The Phillips Collection | From $20
At Home in Space — A new gallery exploring how humans live and work in space, opening as part of the museum’s ongoing renovation. More Info →
Through May 2, 2027 | National Air and Space Museum | Free (timed passes required)
Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Reopening (with Yoshitomo Nara: Sentinels of Stillness) — The Hiroshi Sugimoto–redesigned Sculpture Garden reopens after a multi-year renovation, debuting eight major new acquisitions plus Yoshitomo Nara’s inaugural West Lawn installation of three monumental aluminum heads. More Info →
Through November 7, 2027 | Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Free
Edgar P. Richardson Symposium: Revolutionary Rivals — Portraits from the Global Theater of War — Marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, subject-matter experts explore the global context of the American Revolution — the foreign nationals who joined colonial forces against the British and the Americans who wielded influence abroad. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026, 9:30 AM–3:30 PM | National Portrait Gallery — McEvoy Auditorium | Free
Materials, Methods and Meanings: Craft in the Archives of American Art — Archival material on American craft practice, programmed alongside the Renwick’s craft initiative. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026 – Apr 16, 2027 | Archives of American Art, Victor Building | Free
Portrait Connections — A relaxed evening social event designed for adults who identify as Autistic or with sensory, learning and developmental disabilities. More Info →
Nov 6, 2026, 5–6:30 PM | National Portrait Gallery — Great Hall, Third Floor | Free
Art Walk — A themed sketching tour featuring up to three portraits from the museum’s collection, where educators encourage participants to look closely, sketch and make connections. More Info →
Saturdays, Nov 7, 14 & 21 and Dec 5, 12 & 19, 11–11:30 AM | National Portrait Gallery — G Street Lobby | Free
Art Studio — A free drop-in art program where visitors of all ages explore a different artistic medium each Saturday, drawing inspiration from the Portrait Gallery’s collections and exhibitions. More Info →
Saturdays, Nov 7, 14 & 21 and Dec 5, 12 & 19, 11:30 AM–1:30 PM | National Portrait Gallery — Education Center, E151 | Free
Special Events
DC250 Programming — DC serves as the epicenter for America’s semiquincentennial celebration with special programming, exhibitions, and events. DC250 Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Various Locations | Varies
National Harbor Holiday Tree Light Show — A 60-foot RGB tree whose half-hourly light show is set to music by the U.S. More Info →
Nightly, Nov 7, 2026 – Jan 3, 2027 (every half hour, sunset–9 PM) | National Harbor — The Belvedere, Oxon Hill, MD | Free
Eastern Market — Historic public market with local farmers, artisans, and crafters. Market Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Eastern Market, Capitol Hill | Free Entry
DC Farmers Markets — DC vibrant farmers market scene runs year-round. Market Locations →
Through December 31, 2026 | Various DC Neighborhoods | Free Entry
Meridian Hill Park Drum Circle — Every Sunday afternoon, Meridian Hill Park hosts one of DC most enduring community traditions — a spontaneous drum circle drawing dozens of drummers and hundreds of participants. Park Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) | Free
Tidal Basin & Cherry Trees — Nearly 4,000 cherry trees surround the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK Memorials. NPS Cherry Blossom Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Tidal Basin | Free
Georgetown Waterfront — Stroll the C&O Canal towpath, explore boutique shopping, and dine at waterfront restaurants with Potomac River views. Georgetown Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Georgetown | Free
National Geographic Museum of Exploration — Grand Opening — The brand-new 100,000-square-foot National Geographic Museum of Exploration opens June 26 at the organization’s historic DC campus. More Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | National Geographic Society HQ, 1600 M St NW | From $22.99
Event dates, times, and prices are subject to change. Please verify details directly with venues before attending.
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