summer in the city

Countless beer festivals ask you to stand around a parking lot. This one is begging you to stand next to a snow leopard enclosure with a flight of hard cider in hand, which is either the strangest or the best pitch for a Saturday night in Philadelphia, depending on how you feel about animals watching you drink. The Philadelphia Zoo's Summer Ale Festival returns this weekend, and if you haven't been, clear your schedule.

Somewhere in a Philadelphia planning meeting, someone pitched "let's build an entire weekend around a Nick Cage movie from 2004" and it became an actual three-day event with a director's appearance, an escape-room-style heist game, and two outdoor screenings on the exact lawn where half the movie was filmed. That's National Treasure Weekend, running August 20 through 22 across Carpenters' Hall and Independence Mall, and it turns out the Historic District's tight footprint makes it unusually easy to build a real crawl around.

Every neighborhood has one bar that everyone thinks they know the whole story of, and in Old City, that was Mac's Tavern — the place tourists wandered into hoping to spot Danny DeVito, mostly because the internet told them Rob McElhenney used to own it. Fifteen years and one closure later, 226 Market Street has a new occupant.

Philadelphia's most recognizable vacant building just got a reason to stop being vacant. Broad Street Brewing opened a beer garden on the plaza surrounding LOVE Park's long-shuttered "flying saucer" pavilion, and it's quickly becoming one of the easiest additions to any Center City crawl.

This Sunday, Synthicide and Shadowplay PHL are teaming up to throw the very first annual TROPIGOTH Festival at Liberty Point, and it might be the most delightfully out-of-the-norm party concept Philly's waterfront has seen all summer.

If your Saturday plans are still a question mark, let Queen Bey answer it for you. Tomorrow night, Underground Arts is splitting itself in two for a double room takeover: Beyoncé Night in the main room, and Sweet Revenge, a pop/emo party, in the Black Box. Inside us are two wolves, and this night perfectly caters to both of them.

Light up the night at River Glow on Saturday, August 1 at Cavanaugh’s River Deck! DJ Sitch will keep the waterfront party moving while you enjoy free glow sticks, sparklers, neon vibes, drink specials, swag, and giveaways. Buy Tickets for the $10 one-hour open bar, plus enjoy $6 Super Lytes, $5 Fireball shots, and $4 Miller Lites all night long.

We’ve got a new cocktail bar up on the docket for you, Philadelphia. Known Associates has opened in Washington Square West, bringing together creative cocktails and one of the city's most respected culinary teams under one roof. 

Known Associates isn't trying to transport you back to Prohibition. There are no secret passwords, hidden entrances, or over-the-top themes. Instead, the city's newest cocktail destination lets the drinks, food, and atmosphere do the talking, proving that creativity doesn't need to be gimmicky, and, because of that, Known Associates is already shaping up to be one of the openings cocktail lovers will be talking about all year.

Philadelphia's nightlife scene has had a bit of an explosiveness to it over the last decade, and now you've got two solid paths to choose from on a night out: the hoppy world of craft beer, or the polished world of craft cocktails. Both scenes are thriving in this city, but they attract very different crowds and price points. So how do you pick?