Kidchella, Shakespeare in the cemetery, Oval opening, and more this weekend

This weekend, head from Kidchella in Fairmount Park to so-bad-they’re-good shark movies to stuffing yourself at a Balkan feast on the banks of the Schuylkill — and don’t miss the Oval opening.

The kiddos kick Friday off with the fifth annual Kidchella Music Festival at Smith Memorial Playground. Doors open at 4pm, when the Youth Arts Zone from the Village of Arts and Humanities takes over the front lawn. Local food trucks will be on hand, and you can bring everything into the six-and-a-half-acre playground, for music from kid-friendly, Grammy-nominated hip-hop group The Alphabet Rockers, plus Shine and the Moonbeams. Tickets are $10 in advance or at the door ($5 for Smith members or PA ACCESS cardholders), and families can bring their own picnics.

Shakespeare in the cemetery

For a different scene entirely, head to Laurel Hill Cemetery for the opening of the Mechanical Theater’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, running on Friday and Saturday nights this weekend (July 20 and 21) and next (July 27 and 28). Gates open at 6:30pm; all shows are at 7pm. This theater company’s name comes from the rude mechanicals of Midsummer, and Mechanical has built an exciting niche over the last few years with performances in Philly’s historic and museum spaces. BYOBBB & P (beverages, blankets, beach chairs, and picnics). Tickets are $20 and are available online or at the door, but you should book your bit of the graveyard in advance. (Parking is free.)

Music, music, music

There’s also plenty of music happening this weekend, including the 12th Annual Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival at Penn Presbyterian’s Saunders Park Green (39th and Powelton) on Saturday afternoon. The theme is “Different Shades of Jazz,” with a wide range of performances from established and emerging jazz artists, curated by the Producer’s Guild of Philadelphia. Tim Warfield headlines, featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford. Dance your way in starting at 11:30am with the Mill Creek Marching Band, firing up at the Bank at 3750 Lancaster Avenue and heading to the park.

On Saturday night, classical fans can catch the Philadelphia Orchestra’s final Neighborhood Chamber Concert of the summer at Penn Treaty Park. The show is free, but reservations are recommended. Activities including lawn games for the kids start at 2:30pm. The concert, featuring the orchestra’s brass and percussion ensembles, starts at 5pm.

And on Sunday, West Philadelphia Orchestra and Philadelphia Women’s Slavic Ensemble team for the second annual Balkan at Bartram’s Garden celebration, from 6-11pm. It’s happening on the banks of the Schuylkill at the 56th Street Riverside Plaza (in case of rain, it’ll be under Bartram’s Eastwick Pavilion). It’s a night for all ages, including a folkdance workshop, flower crown making, a Balkan dinner buffet, and tons of music. The banquet is at 6pm, the Women’s Slavic Ensemble is onstage at 7pm, and the West Philly Orchestra starts the dance party at 8pm. Tickets are $20 ($10 for the music only).

Stay dry at the cinema

There are plenty of film screenings this weekend, but a stand-out pick surely is the Saturday night double feature at South Street Cinema, in partnership with Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival. At 8pm, it’s 2013’s Ghost Shark, in which a Great White becomes an angry phantom and therefore terrorizes people everywhere, including swimming pools, bathtubs, and buckets. At 10pm, it’s Deep Blue Sea.

The Oval+

But don’t worry: The ghost shark can’t get you at Mr. Mister, the water feature at the Oval, a premier pop-up park space landing in Eakins Oval for its fifth year.

The Oval (actually dubbed “The Oval+” this year for its many expansions) takes over a surface parking lot near the base of the Art Museum — an asphalt expanse which, as a few city leaders pointedly noted at this week’s preview, is perhaps not the best use of urban space.

According to Parks & Recreation commissioner Kathryn Ott-Lovell, 70,000 people live within a 10-minute walk of the Oval, developed in partnership with the Fairmount Parks Conservancy, design and illustration studio Heads of State, Philly-based design firm PORT, and Mural Arts.

It’s 56,000 square feet of pedestrian, play, and picnic space, including a massive mural on the ground, an 800-square-foot sandbox, colorful installations for climbing or sitting in the shade, and a beer garden. This year, the space includes Eakins Oval itself, as well as three blocks of the Parkway (the northern, outbound piece of the Parkway between 20th Street and the Oval), closed to traffic until the park wraps up on August 19.

Visit online for the full line-up of programming. Opening day is Friday, July 20 from 5-11pm.

Above: The city is your sandbox at the Oval. (Photo by Alaina Mabaso.)