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The weekend of July 9 brings a packed calendar to Northern Virginia and Washington, with food tours, concerts, theater, films, art exhibitions and family activities unfolding across the region.

Falls Church diners can begin the Foodie Trek, which runs through Aug. 31 at 12 restaurants: Borek G, Cafe Kindred, Ellie Bird, The Falls, Harvey’s, Ireland’s Four Provinces, Panjshir, Preservation Biscuit Co., Solace Outpost, Stray Cat Bar & Grill, TeaDM and Westover Taco. Participants can collect passport stamps and submit completed cards from Aug. 18 through Aug. 31 for a chance to win one of three baskets containing restaurant gift cards and other items.

Activities for teens and families

Arlington’s Summer Teen Nights continue with a Splash & Glow Party from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Arlington Mill Community Center, 909 S. Dinwiddie St. Additional teen nights are planned for July 26 and Aug. 23, along with an Aug. 19 pool party at Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center.

Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Road in Arlington, will hold daily animal talks at 3 p.m. from July 15 through July 18. Families can meet two live or preserved animals, hear stories and learn about local wildlife. Registration is required.

Family magician Drew Blue Shoes will bring illusions, comedy and audience participation to Lubber Run Amphitheater at 11 a.m. Sunday, July 13. The free performance is presented with Arlington Public Library.

An untold chapter of computing history

Author and internet law professor Kathy Kleiman will discuss and sign copies of Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer from 2 to 4 p.m. July 12 at Mary Riley Styles Public Library. The program, held in the upper-level conference room, is intended for teens and adults.

The book recounts how the U.S. Army recruited young women with mathematics backgrounds during World War II to calculate artillery trajectories by hand. Six of those women were later assigned to program ENIAC, an experimental general-purpose electronic computer, despite having no manual or programming language to guide them.

Kleiman knew four of the six original ENIAC programmers and recorded extensive oral histories about their work. Her 2014 documentary, The Computers: The Remarkable Story of the ENIAC Programmers, won the 2016 UNAFF Grand Jury Award for best short documentary. Proving Ground received the IEEE William and Joyce Middleton Electrical Engineering History Award in 2023 and a Sejong Book Award in 2024.

Outdoor concerts fill the week

Founders Groove continues from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 14 at Founders Row, 110 Founders Ave. in Falls Church. The schedule features 49 Cent Dress on July 10, Oasis Island Sounds on July 17, Mac Heat on July 24, On The Edge on July 31, Mardi Gras Kings on Aug. 7 and Ty Sherwood on Aug. 14.

Falls Church’s free Concerts in the Park series begins at 7 p.m. Thursdays at Cherry Hill Park, 312 Park Ave. Guests may bring chairs, blankets and picnic dinners. Upcoming performers are 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. Performances last approximately 60 to 90 minutes, and advance registration is not required.

Creative Cauldron’s Summer Passport Music Festival continues at 127 E. Broad St. through Sept. 14. Ayreheart, a progressive Renaissance-folk quartet founded by Grammy-nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane, performs with vocalist Heather Aubrey Lloyd at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 11. Tickets are $25 or $30, with a $15 livestream option. Tables with wine are available for $90 for two people or $180 for four.

Glen Echo Park’s free summer concerts run from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at the Bumper Car Pavilion through Aug. 21. Black Masala performs July 10, followed by The High and Wides on July 17, the U.S. Marine Band Latin Jazz Ensemble on July 24, Halley’s Hot Gumbo Swingtet on July 31, Kiti Gartner & the Drifting Valentines on Aug. 7, Justin Trawick and The Common Good on Aug. 14 and the James Bazen Big Band on Aug. 21. Shows take place rain or shine, and guests may bring folding chairs. Parking is free.

At Lubber Run Amphitheater, 200 N. Columbus St. in Arlington, The Sidleys perform rock and soul at 8 p.m. Friday, July 11. The family group features Annie and Steve Sidley with their sons Sean, Colin and Ian.

King Soul follows at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 12. The eight-member group plays Southern soul with original songs, horns and driving rhythms. Members have collectively earned more than 30 Washington Area Music Association Wammies and Austin Music Awards. Lubber Run’s free series continues through Aug. 1, generally with shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. Sundays.

The Wharf’s Rock the Dock series resumes at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, with Secret Society at Transit Pier, 970 Wharf St. SW. Later performers include The HariKaraoke Band on July 23, So Fetch on July 30, The JoGo Project on Aug. 6, DuPont Brass on Aug. 13, Uncle Jesse on Aug. 20 and Pink PaLiSh on Aug. 27. The free concerts welcome all ages and leashed dogs. Seating is limited, and outside alcohol is prohibited.

Free Thursday concerts at Veterans Amphitheater, 10455 Armstrong St. in Fairfax, feature the Main Street Community Band on July 10 and the Fairfax Swing Band on July 17, both at 7:30 p.m. The Stacy C. Sherwood Center will serve as the bad-weather location. A children’s concert on July 24 will include free ice cream, balloons and pre-show activities.

Comedy, pop and theater take the stage

The hosts of the LOL Podcast — Cash, Kate, Harper and Maverick — bring their Laugh Out Loud World Tour to Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 12. The live show includes games, personal stories and material not heard on the podcast. Tickets start at $40, with some packages offering meet-and-greet access or a pre-show gathering.

Mamma Mania!, a New York-based ABBA tribute group, performs Friday, July 11, at The Vault in Capital One Hall, 7750 Capital One Tower Road in Tysons. Doors open at 7 p.m. The show recreates the band’s 1970s sound with costumes and vocal harmonies.

Riki Lindhome’s Dead Inside begins preview performances July 9 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. NW. Directed by Brian McElhaney and presented by Ali Wong and Bill Hader, the musical combines solo comedy, personal storytelling and original songs drawn from Lindhome’s experience with infertility.

Preview shows are scheduled for 8 p.m. July 9 through July 11, 2 and 8 p.m. July 12, and 2 and 8 p.m. July 13. Artist talkbacks will follow the July 17 and July 24 performances. The production contains explicit language and discussions of infertility, miscarriage, abortion and sexual acts.

Greg Kalleres’ comedy Apropos of Nothing opens July 12 at Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW, and runs through Aug. 10. The story follows five friends after Owen unexpectedly admits that he loves his best friend’s wife. Performances are generally at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, with selected Monday and Wednesday shows. Tickets are $54 for adults and $44 for seniors, students and patrons under 25, plus a $5 service charge. Kalleres will join a free post-show discussion after the July 13 matinee.

Arena Stage’s world-premiere musical adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time continues through July 20 at 1101 Sixth St. SW. Based on Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery Medal-winning novel, the production follows Meg Murry, Calvin and Charles Wallace on a journey through space to rescue Meg’s missing father.

The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical enters its final weekend at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave. in Arlington, with performances through July 13. Joe Iconis’ rock musical, directed by Christopher Ashley with choreography and musical staging by Jon Rua, traces Thompson’s life from the 1940s to 2005, including the creation of Gonzo journalism, his political battles and the consequences of his drug use.

The approximately two-hour, 35-minute production is recommended for audiences 18 and older. It includes adult language, drug use, violence, strobe lights, theatrical haze and gunshot and explosion sounds. A post-show discussion is scheduled after the 7:30 p.m. performance July 9.

Free films and a new horror sequel

The Wharf’s free Sunset Cinema series screens Twisters at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 10, at Transit Pier. The remaining lineup includes Moneyball on July 17, Casablanca on July 24, Shrek on July 31, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on Aug. 7, Pitch Perfect on Aug. 14, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on Aug. 21 and La La Land on Aug. 28.

A limited number of Adirondack chairs become available at 7 p.m., and guests may bring blankets or folding chairs. All ages and leashed dogs are welcome. Closed captions are available upon request.

The National Gallery of Art will screen Eleanor Mortimer’s How Deep Is Your Love from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 12, in the West Building Lecture Hall. The 100-minute 2025 film follows scientists exploring the central Pacific 4,700 meters below the surface, where they collect and identify previously unknown species. It also examines the potential threat that deep-sea mining poses to the ecosystem.

M3GAN 2.0 is playing at Paragon Theaters Founders Row, 112 Founders Ave. in Falls Church, with screenings at 3:15, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. July 9 and 12:30 and 3:15 p.m. July 10. The sequel brings back the artificial-intelligence doll two years after her murderous rampage in the original film.

New and continuing art exhibitions

The second portion of the Falls Church Arts All-Member Show features 67 artists whose surnames begin with M through Z. It runs at 700-B W. Broad St. from July 12 into August, with a meet-the-artists reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 12.

Photographer Jessica Caso’s Côte d’Azur Mon Amour remains at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St., through Sept. 28. The exhibition presents images from Nice, Èze and other locations along the French Riviera.

Neither/Nor, a collaboration between George Mason University MFA candidates Traci Reynolds and Liz Johnson, is on display through Sept. 5 at Fenwick Gallery, 4400 University Drive in Fairfax. Using photography and handmade paper, the artists explore the body as a nonconforming and changing space.

Johnson’s self-portrait series Ripe and Rot pairs her body with decaying fruit to consider fertility, time and physical transformation. Reynolds’ large handmade-paper sculpture Raise incorporates hair and latex while examining trans and non-gender-conforming bodies through ideas drawn from body horror, identity, protection and reconstruction.

Reston Art Gallery’s eighth annual Invitational Show continues through July 27 at 11400 Washington Plaza West. It includes original work by gallery members and their invited artists.

Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest remains at the Phillips Collection through Sept. 28. The exhibition brings together paintings, prints, works on paper and archival material from Browne’s four-decade career. Browne helped establish the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, belonged to the SOHO20 women’s art cooperative and taught at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1992.

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Shahzia Sikander’s 10-minute animated work The Last Post runs continuously through July 12, 2026. The 2010 piece uses Indo-Persian miniature-painting traditions, Indian court architecture, Chinese cut-paper silhouettes and a map of South Asia to examine the British East India Company and the legacy of colonial power. Its soundtrack is by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun. Admission is free.

ArtRave’s Dupont Artisan Market will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Dupont Circle, 1913 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Local vendors will offer paintings, sculptures, carved goods, jewelry, baked products, home décor and other handmade items. The market returns every other Saturday.

Lotus blooms and one last shot into the water

A guided Lotus Bloom Nature Therapy walk will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. July 12 at Meadowlark Botanical Garden, 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court in Vienna. Certified nature and forest therapy guide Ilana Rubin will lead adults along pond and woodland paths for sensory exercises, quiet reflection and tea.

The group will cover approximately one mile or less at a relaxed pace over paved and unpaved terrain. The program costs $35, requires advance registration and proceeds in rain unless conditions become hazardous. Participants should meet at the visitor center and arrive 10 to 15 minutes early.

The Wharf’s Waterfront Driving Range holds its final session from 6 to 9 p.m. July 9 at Transit Pier. Splash City Golf supplies clubs and certified biodegradable balls, allowing participants to aim at a floating target in the Washington Channel.