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Juneteenth commemorations, summer-solstice gatherings, outdoor concerts, museum programs and new theater productions fill the calendar across Northern Virginia and Washington from Wednesday, June 18, through Sunday, June 22.

Juneteenth in Falls Church and Washington

The Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation will hold a free Juneteenth celebration from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at 106 Tinner Hill Road in Falls Church. Built around the themes of freedom, community and unity, the afternoon will include music, history, storytelling, games and food.

Falls Church’s Concerts in the Park series also returns Thursday at 7 p.m. in Cherry Hill Park. The Falls Church Concert Band will perform, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The Tinner Hill Music Concert follows June 26 with Bushmaster featuring Gary Brown.

At the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building, a free Family Day will explore Juneteenth through the themes of family and home. Visitors can create fabric quilt squares, examine materials from the American Folklife Center and hear quilt artist Sandra Smith discuss her work at 11:30 a.m.

At 2 p.m., author Jewell Parker Rhodes will discuss “Will’s Race for Home,” her middle-grade adventure about a father and son seeking land during the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. The programs will take place in room LJ119. Timed-entry tickets are required for the building.

Other Washington-area commemorations include the Juneteenth Literary Jubilee and Black Author Book Fest at Planet Word on June 18; a wellness block party and Black-owned business market at Bryant Street Market on June 19; and the Freedom & Unity Walk across the 11th Street Bridge, recalling enslaved people who crossed the Anacostia River toward freedom in 1852.

The Ward 7 Juneteenth Parade will bring floats, marching bands and community groups to Penn Branch on June 19. An all-day Freedom Celebration featuring music, dancing, food trucks, yoga and urban gardening follows June 21 at the Anacostia Community Museum.

The Summer Solstice Arrives

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court in Vienna, will mark the longest days of the year with a guided sunset program from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 20.

Lauren Lang of Within Nature’s Embrace and Ilana Rubin of Kindred Nature will lead gentle movement, mindfulness and nature-therapy activities through the gardens. The group may travel up to a mile over paved and unpaved terrain before closing with tea, light snacks and a gratitude practice.

The rain-or-shine program is open to adults, requires advance registration and costs $65. Participants should meet at the visitor center, arrive 10 to 15 minutes early and bring water, outdoor shoes and weather-appropriate clothing. No previous yoga or nature-therapy experience is required.

Smithsonian Solstice Saturday arrives June 21 with programs across participating museums. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the National Gallery of Art and National Museum of Natural History will host free drop-in activities in the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden.

The program will combine natural-history specimens, artmaking, story time, nature journaling, music by the Onyx Club Boys and a tour with ecologist Rea Manderino. Bad weather will move the event into the National Gallery’s West Building.

Georgetown will become a neighborhood-wide stage from 3 to 10 p.m. June 21 for Fête de la Musique. More than 40 acts are scheduled at locations around Georgetown from 3 to 7 p.m., followed by performances at La Maison Française from 6 to 10 p.m.

Free Music Spreads Across the Region

Founders Row, 110 Founders Avenue in Falls Church, is bringing back its free summer programming through August. The development’s Thursday-night Founders Groove concerts continue with Johnny Cash tribute band Cash Only on June 19 and contemporary swing group King Teddy on June 26.

The remaining lineup includes 49 Cent Dress on July 10, Oasis Island Sounds on July 17, Mac Heat on July 24, On The Edge on July 31, the Mardi Gras Kings on Aug. 7 and Ty Sherwood on Aug. 14.

Founders Row is also hosting outdoor wellness sessions and a monthly Young Explorers Club for families. The six-week Flex & Flow series concludes June 24 with puppy yoga supporting animal-rescue nonprofit Petey and Furends. A splash pad will be available during the family series.

Nearby development continues with Founders Row II under construction and Paragon Theaters preparing to open. Current restaurants include Ellie Bird, Seoul Prime, Chasin’ Tails and The Club.

Falls Church’s 33rd Concerts in the Park season continues at 7 p.m. Thursdays in June and July at Cherry Hill Park, 312 Park Avenue. After the June 19 Juneteenth concert and June 26 Tinner Hill program, scheduled performers include Dede & the Do-Rights on July 3, the Richard Walton Group on July 10, Kiti Gartner and the Drifting Valentines on July 17, the Bob Gibson Big Band on July 24 and Big Tow on July 31. Admission is free, and visitors may bring chairs, blankets and picnics.

Creative Cauldron’s 14th Summer Passport Music Festival begins June 20 and runs through Sept. 14 at 127 E. Broad Street. Seán Heely opens the series at 7:30 p.m. Friday with “Òrain na Grèine,” a Celtic celebration of the solstice. Tickets range from $15 for streaming to $30 for top-tier seating, with table packages also available.

At Glen Echo Park’s Bumper Car Pavilion, Rise Band and Show will perform a free Juneteenth concert June 19. The Thursday series continues through Aug. 21 with the U.S. Marine Band Free Country, Black Masala, the High and Wides, the U.S. Marine Band Latin Jazz Ensemble, Halley’s Hot Gumbo Swingtet, Kiti Gartner and the Drifting Valentines, Justin Trawick and The Common Good, and the James Bazen Big Band. Concerts run from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., rain or shine.

Lubber Run Amphitheater, 200 N. Columbus Street in Arlington, offers Elikeh’s blend of Afrobeat and Togolese rhythms at 8 p.m. June 20. All You Need Is Beatles follows at 8 p.m. June 21, and Culture Queen presents an interactive African American cultural program for children and families at 11 a.m. June 22.

At the Wharf’s Transit Pier, Rock the Dock presents free concerts at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Labor Day. Too Much Talent Band performs June 18, followed by Pebble to Pearl on June 25. Later acts include Shane Gamble & the Pawnshop Hearts, Hot Cactus, Secret Society, the HariKaraoke Band, So Fetch, the JoGo Project, DuPont Brass, Uncle Jesse and Pink PaLiSh.

The concerts are open to all ages, with leashed dogs welcome. Seating is first-come, first-served, and outside alcohol is prohibited.

Major Artists Visit Tysons and Vienna

The Indigo Girls will perform with the Fairfax Symphony at Capital One Hall in Tysons on June 19 and 20, with doors opening at 7 p.m. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers will present orchestral arrangements blending their folk-rock catalog with symphonic instrumentation.

Buddy Guy is also scheduled at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Judith Hill. The listing gives June 6 at 7:30 p.m., with gates opening at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $51.50, including fees.

Museums and Galleries Open Their Doors

The Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium’s Museum Walk Weekend will provide free admission from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 21 and 22 at the Phillips Collection, Anderson House, Dupont Underground, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, O Museum in The Mansion and the President Woodrow Wilson House.

The Phillips Collection will offer educator talks throughout the afternoon, a museum-shop tent sale, books, coloring and a family creative-play area.

In Falls Church, the Falls Church Arts All-Member Show remains on view at 700-B W. Broad Street through Aug. 10. Mosaic Arts in Fairfax is displaying “This is 75—Aging Well for All,” the National Council on Aging’s photography-award exhibition, through June 30.

“The Invisible Skate Theory,” at Mason Exhibitions Arlington through Aug. 16, examines the relationships and informal networks sustaining skateboarding culture in the region. The exhibition, curated by Gato, considers how meetups, zines, pop-up events and social media have helped skaters build community outside traditional industry channels. It also recalls the 2024 visit of Bolivia’s all-female Imilla Skate collective during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and addresses women’s continuing underrepresentation in skateboarding leadership and visibility.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Olivia Tripp Morrow’s “(Un)tethered” runs through Sept. 7. Using embroidery, fiber installations and sculpture, Morrow reflects on caring for her mother during her illness and on the grief that followed her death in December 2023. Some works incorporate materials inherited from her mother, who taught Morrow embroidery during the artist’s recovery from spine surgery in 2020.

The National Portrait Gallery’s “Star Power: Photographs from Hollywood’s Golden Age by George Hurrell” continues through Jan. 4, 2026. The exhibition traces Hurrell’s rise from MGM’s principal portraitist to his independent Sunset Boulevard studio and his later work for Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures.

“Legendary: An Exhibition of Women Artists” remains at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax through Aug. 30. A women’s workshop roundtable is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon June 21.

A Crowded Theater Calendar

Arena Stage presents the world-premiere musical adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time” through July 20. Based on Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, the production follows Meg Murry, Calvin and Charles Wallace on a journey through space to find Meg’s missing father.

Nova Nightsky Theatre’s modern “The Taming of the Shrew” places Shakespeare’s Minola family inside a reality program called “Keeping Up with the Minolas.” Sarah Baczewski’s adaptation uses the television setting to explore performance, gender, marriage and identity.

Providence Players of Fairfax stages Steven Dietz’s “Shooting Star” at 7:30 p.m. June 19 through 21 at the James Lee Community Center Theater in Falls Church. The romantic comedy reunites former college lovers Elena Carson and Reed McAllister after a snowstorm traps them overnight in an airport.

Signature Theatre’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” runs through July 13 in Arlington. Joe Iconis’ rock musical follows Thompson from the 1940s to 2005, examining Gonzo journalism, counterculture, politics and the destructive side of his legacy. The approximately two-hour-and-35-minute production is recommended for audiences 18 and older and contains adult language, drug use, violence, strobe effects, haze and simulated gunshots and explosions.

Signature also reaches the final weekend of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on June 22. The intimate rock musical follows Hedwig’s journey from Communist East Germany to the United States and contains adult language and descriptions of trauma.

At 1st Stage in Tysons, August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Piano Lesson” centers on siblings Berniece and Boy Willie and an heirloom piano bearing their family’s history in 1930s Pittsburgh.

The Little Theatre of Alexandria has opened “The Play That Goes Wrong,” while Dominion Stage presents the final performances of Lindsey Brown’s “A Lovely Day to Kill Your Spouse” at 8 p.m. June 20 and 21 in Arlington.

GALA Hispanic Theatre’s world-premiere adaptation of “Columbia Heights Bolero Bar” runs through June 29. Presented in Spanish with English surtitles, the immersive cabaret uses famous boleros to tell stories of heartbreak among patrons attending a bar’s reopening. The lobby also features Cuban artist Reina María Valdés’ “The Divine Orishas,” depicting six spirits from Afro-Cuban Yoruba tradition.

“The Berlin Diaries” continues at Theater J through June 29. Andrea Stolowitz’s play follows her effort to reconstruct a family history scattered by war using her great-grandfather’s journal.

Mosaic Theater’s “Andy Warhol in Iran,” running at Atlas Performing Arts Center through June 29, imagines a 1976 confrontation between Warhol and a university student who takes him hostage in Tehran. Brent Askari’s play draws on Warhol’s trip to create portraits of Iranian royalty before the revolution.

Folger Theatre’s “Twelfth Night” closes June 22. Mei Ann Teo directs Shakespeare’s comedy of shipwrecked twins, disguises and crossed affections. Tickets range from $20 to $84, and the production runs about two hours and 15 minutes.

Olney Theatre Center’s world-premiere musical “Senior Class” also closes June 22. The story follows students who respond to arts-budget cuts by creating their own musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Tickets range from $41 to $101.

Shakespeare Theatre Company has extended Emily Burns’ adaptation of “Frankenstein” through June 29. The production focuses on the inner lives of Victor and Elizabeth Frankenstein and runs about two hours and 20 minutes.

History, Comedy and Creative Workshops

The Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center has opened “WWII: Voices of Service,” a traveling banner exhibition using photographs, letters and oral histories to trace the war from Pearl Harbor through the GI Bill. The panels highlight service members interred in national cemeteries. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays.

Comedian Demetri Martin brings his Quick Draw Tour to the Warner Theatre at 7 p.m. June 21. Falls Church’s State Theatre hosts a $5 comedy night June 20, with doors at 7 p.m. and the show at 8:30 p.m. Guests younger than 18 must be accompanied by a parent.

Aspiring writers can bring work to the Falls Church Writers Group from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 18 in the lower-level conference room at Mary Riley Styles Public Library. The group, open to adults in person and online, welcomes all forms of writing for discussion and feedback.

PlantHouse, 921 N. Saint Asaph Street in Alexandria, will offer a jellyfish terrarium workshop at 6:30 p.m. June 21. Participants will use rocks, sand, air plants and decorations to make a jellyfish-inspired display. A 3-by-9-inch cylinder costs $33, while a 5-by-10-inch version costs $43. Individual and two-person project-sharing tickets are available, and workshop guests receive 20% off plants that day. Refunds are available until seven days before the event.