Billy Joel returns to Citizens Bank Park and 15 other things to do in Philly, July 8-10

6 to 10 p.m. Friday. Pleasant Playground, 6757 Chew Ave., free, 215-685-2230.

The lovable - if a bit lethal - little yellow henchmen from the Despicable Me series star in their own film, a prequel that explains how they came to be Gru's helpers. Along the way, there's a plot to steal the crown jewels, a calamitous coronation, and one really big Kevin. The outdoor screening is at 8:30 p.m., but come early for story time and a book swap, plus the gourmet food truck. - Michael Harrington

» READ MORE: Stuffed-Animal Veterinary Clinic

10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Brandywine Zoo, 1001 N. Park Dr., Wilmington. $7; $5 seniors and ages 3 to 17; ages under 3 free (includes zoo admission), 302-571-7747.

Everyone remembers their first love. (Ours was a floppy, rubber-nosed dog named Snoopy. Sigh.) Those plush toys get a lot of affection, but they take a beating in the process, losing fur, eyes, and that squeaky sound when you squeeze the nose.

The Brandywine Zoo in Delaware offers aid, though, with a special veterinarian available to check vital signs, supply bandages, and give a little extra medicine to put your best pal in top shape. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Mill Life in the 1860s

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Mill at Anselma, 1730 Conestoga Rd., Chester Springs. $5; $4 seniors; $3 ages 4 to 14; ages under 4 free. 610-827- 1906, .

See what life was like in the 19th-century heyday of the Mill at Anselma in Chester County, with reenactors demonstrating cooking, fishing, blacksmithing, and - of course - grinding, at the oldest grist mill in America still functioning with its original machinery. You'll never see 21st-century life as "the same old grind" again. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Historic Fair Hill Summer Festival

2 to 7 p.m., Historic Fair Hill, 2901 Germantown Ave., free. 215-870-8348.

The 300-year-old Quaker burial ground, the final resting place of antislavery activists such as Robert Purvis and Lucretia Mott, presents its annual celebration of life and freedom, featuring barbecue, games, crafts, music, plant potting, free books, pony rides, and a petting zoo. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Vintage Base Ball

Played according to the rules of 1864, this match features the stout local lads of the Brandywine Base Ball Club of West Chester taking on the visiting Maryland gentlemen of the Rising Sun Base Ball Club of Rising Sun. As usual, decorum will be observed, with the players assisting the umpire in making calls. Some differences from our modern game: The ball is pitched underhand, no gloves are used, and there are no fences. Players will be dressed in appropriate attire and will be available for questions and demonstrations of the equipment. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Film and Notfilm

7 p.m. Friday, International House, 3701 Chestnut St. $9; $7 seniors and students. 215-387-5125, .

It should come as no surprise that the great absurdist playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett once collaborated with silent-film genius Buster Keaton. After all, Beckett's was a life that included both being the secretary to modernist icon James Joyce and chauffeur to wrestler Andre the Giant (when he was the writer's teenage neighbor in France).

Still, it is surprising.

The 1964 production of Film, commissioned by Beckett's publisher Barney Rosset (of Grove Press fame) and filmed on location in New York, was complicated by Keaton's illness and alcoholism and Beckett's difficult avant-garde script, in which a beleaguered Everyman seeks to escape from the perception of others, and himself. That's the subject of Ross Lipman's 2014 documentary Notfilm, which looks back on the movie - which Beckett considered "an interesting failure." As for Keaton, he told a colleague he mostly wondered just what, exactly, he had gotten himself into. - M.H.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue, $25-$55, 800-745-3000.

Alan Silvestri's score will be played by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at a screening of the classic Michael J. Fox-Christopher Lloyd film, with an additional 20 minutes added by the composer for this presentation. - Tom Di Nardo

» READ MORE: Jonas Kaufmann: An Evening with Puccini

1 p.m. Sunday, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. Tickets are $20; $10 students. 610-527-9898.

In this documentary, the German tenor performs arias by Puccini at Teatro Alla Scala di Milano and discusses how the composer has influenced his career. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Pokémon

7:30 p.m. Sunday, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue, $22.50-$80, 800-745-3000.

Pokémon, Symphonic Evolutions? Yes, the video-game images will be accompanied by the Pittsburgh Symphony, performing carefully timed visuals to the recent and classic Pokémon games. - T.D.

» READ MORE: Animus

8 p.m. Saturday, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. Tickets are $12. 215-222-1400.

The musical ensemble, which mixes Middle Eastern sounds with blues, rock, jazz, and klezmer, among other genres, presents its annual belly-dancing spectacle, a treat for ear and eye. - M.H.

» READ MORE: BalletX

8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Wednesday and Thursday; 2 p.m. July 16 and 17. Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., $35, 215-546-7824.

The cutting-edge dance company presents world premieres by always-imaginative cofounder Matthew Neenan and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. The piece will also be graced with projection lighting and other visual effects by the technology masters Klip Collective. - T.D.

» READ MORE: Florida Georgia Line

With Cole Swindell, the Cadillac Three, and Kane Brown, 7 p.m. Saturday, BB&T Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, $25-59.75, 800-745-3000.

Just because you're a young, good-looking guy making burly country music in the 21st century doesn't mean you're crafting slick, macho bro-country.

Take the two men who front Florida Georgia Line - vocalists Brian Kelley (the Floridian) and Tyler Hubbard (the Georgian). With 2014's Anything Goes, and Dig Your Roots, due out next month, they have put more raw folksiness in their sound, which makes them as much like the Avett Brothers as it does Brooks & Dunn. Either way, they're perfect for a breezy setting outdoors in Camden this week, and the beaches of Atlantic City, where they'll return Sept. 3. - A.D. Amorosi

» READ MORE: BeachGlow Music Festival

7-11 p.m. Friday, 3-11 p.m. Saturday, Beach at East Burk Avenue, Wildwood, N.J., tickets start at $39.

When BeachGlow was founded in 2011, its CEO Dane Kunkel was only 16. He spearheaded the EDM festival with almost no help.

Now in its sixth installment, it's taking over Wildwood's beaches for two days with a staff of more than 25, plus volunteers. Eleven groups will perform, including Kunkel, who mixes beats between managing BeachGlow and going to classes at William & Mary. Proceeds go to Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit that fosters music programs and donates instruments to underprivileged schools. Last year, BeachGlow funded music initiatives that reached 4,000 Philadelphia and 750 Atlantic City kids.

This weekend, Audien, Slander, and Nico & Vinz take the stage, among others. - Alexandra Villarreal

» READ MORE: Love on the Streets

Noon-10 p.m. Saturday, Paine's Park, Martin Luther King Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, free.

This second annual music and skateboarding fest and celebration of Philly street culture presented by the Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund was postponed from May. Now it's happening Saturday across from the Art Museum, with Sunday as a rain date.

The new lineup includes locally connected bands Creepoid, Steady Hands (side project of Sean Huber of Modern Baseball), Amanda X, Mumblr, Mercury Girls, Hurry, Vicky Speedboat, and Frank Sriracha, among others. Plus food trucks and a beer garden. - Dan DeLuca

» READ MORE: Hall & Oates / Sharon Jones / Trombone Shorty

7 p.m. Sunday, BB&T Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, $25-125, 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.

An evening of tried-and-true soul, funk, and R&B headlined by the Philadelphia duo whose career has been on an upswing for the last decade.

Cancer-battling bandleader Sharon Jones - the subject of Barbara Kopple's coming documentary Miss Sharon Jones! - and her Dap-Kings are practiced show-stealers, and New Orleans horn player Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is his generation's leading Crescent City party starter. - D.D.

» READ MORE: Billy Joel

Billy Joel, Citizens Bank Park, 1 Citizens Bank Way, 8 p.m. Saturday, $180-$265, 215-463-1000,. Paul McCartney, Citizens Bank Park, 8 p.m. Tuesday, sold out. Guns N' Rose, Lincoln Financial Field, 10120 Pattison Ave., 8:30 p.m. Thursday, $45-$250.

There are not one, not two, but three stadium rock shows happening in South Philadelphia in the coming days. Billy Joel plays Citizens Bank Park for the third summer running on Saturday. Next, Paul McCartney brings his One on One tour to the home of the Phillies — who will be off for the All-Star break — on Tuesday, promising a set list of Beatles and solo hits that's been shaken up since he played the Wells Fargo Center last year. Thursday, Guns N' Roses, featuring the suddenly busy Axl Rose, who is also touring with AC/DC in the fall, brings its long-awaited by some, Not In This Lifetime tour to Lincoln Financial Field. — D.D.