Halloween weekend in Washington doubles as a weekend of new beginnings, starting Friday when The Washington Ballet opens its 50th-anniversary season with Go-Go 50, a world-premiere program set to the District’s homegrown go-go music, at the Warner Theatre through Sunday. On Saturday, the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden reopens after a multi-year renovation, debuting eight major new acquisitions alongside Yoshitomo Nara’s three monumental aluminum heads on the West Lawn.
For a more traditional Halloween chill, Synetic Theater’s wordless gothic-horror adaptation Sleepy Hollow takes its final bows Sunday, Nov. 1, at Olney Theatre Center.
In all, 68 events made our list this weekend. As always, the Washington Times DC Events Calendar has the full rundown. 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
Measure for Measure — Shakespeare’s problem play opens Folger Theatre’s 2026-27 season. More Info →
Through November 1, 2026 | Folger Theatre | Tickets Required
Wish You Were Here — Sanaz Toossi’s play follows Salme and her four closest friends from a 1978 wedding in Karaj, Iran, through a decade of revolution and departure. More Info →
Through November 1, 2026 | Studio Theatre — Mead 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
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk — DC premiere of Daniel Jamieson’s music-and-movement piece about Marc and Bella Chagall’s love story through the Russian Revolution. More Info →
Through November 1, 2026 | Theater J, Edlavitch DCJCC | Tickets Required
Sleepy Hollow — Synetic Theater’s wordless, movement-based gothic-horror adaptation of the Washington Irving classic — well-timed for Halloween. More Info →
Through November 1, 2026 | Olney Theatre Center — Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab (a Synetic Theater production) | Tickets Required
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
Pancho Villa y los Niños de la Bola — U.S. More Info →
Through October 31, 2026 | GALA Hispanic 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 →
Oct 30, 2026 – Jan 31, 2027 | Olney Theatre Center — Roberts Mainstage | Tickets Required
The Fruits of Our Labor (Step Afrika!) — Step Afrika! brings its percussive-dance production rooted in the African American tradition of stepping to Arena Stage. More Info →
Through November 1, 2026 | Arena Stage — Fichandler Stage | Tickets Required
Go-Go 50 (The Washington Ballet) — A world-premiere program opening The Washington Ballet’s 50th-anniversary season, set to DC’s homegrown go-go music. More Info →
Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2026 | Warner 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
Hudson Westbrook — The fast-rising Texas country singer-songwriter headlines the venue. More Info →
Oct 30, 2026 | The Anthem | Tickets Required
John Summit: CTRL Escape Arena Tour — A Halloween-night arena set from the chart-topping house/dance DJ and producer. More Info →
Oct 31, 2026 | Capital One Arena | Tickets Required
Undertale: The Determination Symphony — A full orchestral concert performance of the acclaimed video-game score, with two shows. More Info →
Nov 1, 2026 (3 & 8 PM) | The Anthem | Tickets Required
Sports
Washington Wizards vs. Charlotte Hornets — The Wizards host the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena. More Info →
Oct 30, 2026, 7 PM | Capital One Arena | Tickets Required
Washington Spirit vs. Chicago Stars FC — NWSL Decision Day — final regular season home match of 2026 at Audi Field. More Info →
Sun, Nov 1, 2026 | Audi Field | Tickets Vary
Festivals & Free Events
El Día de los Muertos Festival — The Portrait Gallery’s annual Day of the Dead celebration and one of the museum’s biggest events of the year, with live music, Mexican folk-dance performances, a community altar and calaveras and papel picado workshops. More Info →
Nov 1, 2026, 5–8 PM | National Portrait Gallery — Kogod Courtyard | 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
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)
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
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)
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
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
Sacred Liberty — How biblical texts and ideas shaped the American founding era. More Info →
Through February 28, 2027 | 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
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 →
Opens Oct 30, 2026 | 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 →
Opens Oct 31, 2026 | Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Free
Spanish-Language Walk-In Tours — Join a volunteer docent on select Sundays and Thursdays for a lively tour of the National Portrait Gallery in Spanish. More Info →
Sun Nov 1 & 15, Dec 6 & 20 (3:30 PM); Thu Nov 12 & Dec 10 (5:30 PM) | National Portrait Gallery — F Street Lobby | 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
Moonshot Studio at the REACH — A hands-on, drop-in art-making studio at the REACH celebrating creativity for all ages (recommended 5+), open most weekends. More Info →
Through October 31, 2026 | Kennedy Center REACH | Free
DC Farmers Markets — DC vibrant farmers market scene runs year-round. Market Locations →
Through December 31, 2026 | Various DC Neighborhoods | Free Entry
Eastern Market — Historic public market with local farmers, artisans, and crafters. Market Info →
Through December 31, 2026 | Eastern Market, Capitol Hill | Free Entry
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
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
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
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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