Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival and 19 other things to do this weekend, Sept. 16-18

Need something to do this weekend? Why not plan out your beer-filled fall with 20 festivals celebrating all things hops and barley, including two big Oktoberfest block parties happening this fall. Have kids? Actress Jamie Lee Curtis will be in town reading from her new kid's book. And don't sleep on these great fall festivals.

Not enough for you? Check out the 20 events below:

» READ MORE: Love Jones: The Musical

8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday, Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St., $72.25-$82.25, 215-893-1999.

Chrisette Michele, Musiq Soulchild, Marsha Ambrosius, some of R&B's most notable voices, star in the adaptation of the 1997 film about a poet and a photographer who fall in love against the background of upscale club. Theodore Witcher, who wrote and directed the movie, adapts it for the stage. - Molly Eichel

» READ MORE: A Streetcar Named Desire

7:30 p.m. Friday through Tuesday at the MAAS Building, 1325 N. Randolph St. $15; $10 students. Call 215-413-1318.

Tennessee Williams' hothouse drama of lust, longing, and lies is given an immersive production by the Deep Blue Theatre Collective in the cavernous MAAS Building. The gritty action surrounds the audience as the bereft Southern belle Blanche Dubois deals with her brutish brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, affording a new view of the American classic. - Michael Harrington

» READ MORE: Boy and the World

2 p.m. Saturday at International House, 3701 Chestnut St. $5. 215-387-5125.

Brazilian director Alê Abreu's Oscar-nominated animated feature, true to its title, tells a picaresque tale of small boy (drawn as if with a child's hand) who ventures out to find his father in a troubled, war-torn, corporate-dominated world (depicted as advertising and propaganda illustrations) with music as its only hope. (Read Tirdad Derakhshani's review of the film) - M.H.

» READ MORE: Mini-Golf at Independence Library

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Independence Library, 18 S. Seventh St. $5. 215-685-1633.

For once, you can yell in the library, and no one will shush you - as long as you yell, "Fore!" Play on an 18-hole course through the stacks (clubs are provided), and check out the display of golf books from the collection. Before you leave, why not take out a book (or two or three)? - M.H.

» READ MORE: Grist Mill Day

1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Morris Arboretum, 100 E. Northwestern Ave. Free. 215-247-5777.

Springfield Mills, the 160-year-old Wissahickon Creek mill at Bloomfield Farm, across the street from Morris Arboretum, has been restored and made operational. Get a close-up view (and taste) of what everyday life was like in our region, as the one-ton millstones grind corn kernels, and the cornmeal is sifted, bagged, and baked into muffins to sample. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Kidz Bop Live

2 p.m. Sunday at BB&T Pavilion, 1 Harbor Blvd., Camden. $15 to $25.

The cover-song sensations play the big room across the river. Sure, it's kind of cheesy. But it's a chance to enjoy a time when your kids will want you to go to a concert with them. - M.H.

» READ MORE: Betty Buckley

3 and 7 p.m. Sunday at the Rrazz Room at the Prince Theater, 1421 Chestnut St. $50 to $85.

The Tony-winning Broadway star performs songs that range from Stephen Schwartz to Radiohead to rising-star composers Joe Iconis and Ben Toth in her show Story Songs. - M.H.

» READ MORE: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week

10:15 p.m. Saturday at the Prince Theater, 1421 Chestnut St. $13.

From one 1960s pop-culture celeb to another: Ron Howard (already famed as Opie when the Beatles hit U.S. shores), the acclaimed director, has created a documentary on the Mop Tops' touring years (1962 to 1966) using fans' movies of shows, TV news clips, and bootleg recordings from soundboards (so you can hear the Fab Four without the screaming) to bring the boys back as the band they were. The 7 p.m. special screening is sold out, but tickets remain for the 10:15 show. Yeah, yeah, yeah! - M.H.

11 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Rittenhouse Square, 18th and Walnut Streets.

Celebrating 89 years on Rittenhouse Square, this fine-art fair brings artists from all over the country to show off their work. In addition to the artwork, artists will give demonstrations each day at 1 p.m. -M.E.

» READ MORE: Manayunk StrEAT Food

11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Main Street from Green Lane to Shurs Lane, 215-482-9565.

More than 50 of the city's top food trucks roll onto a closed-off section of Main Street each spring and fall. The theme this time around is "apple," so you know what to expect on each truck's menu. Manayunk restaurants join in on the fun, too, before gearing up for the two-week Manayunk Restaurant Week that follows the festival. - Grace Dickinson

» READ MORE: Mexican Independence Day Festival

2-7 p.m. Sunday, Great Plaza at Penn's Landing, 101 S. Columbus Blvd. Free.

Technically, Grito de Dolores, or Mexican Independence Day, happens Friday, but celebrate all things Mexican culture Sunday on the waterfront, from food to music and art. - M.E.

» READ MORE: Linvilla Pumpkinland Festival

8 a.m.-7 p.m. through Nov. 6, Linvilla Orchards, 598 Linvilla Rd., Media, 610-876-7116.

Pick out a pumpkin to carve, and get inspiration from the fest's jack-o'-lantern exhibit. Before heading home, take the kiddos on a hayride, train ride, or pony ride, or wander through the straw-bale and cornfield mazes. - G.D.

» READ MORE: Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

Health & Fitness Expo: Noon-7 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St. Free. Guster: 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Finish Line Festival, Eakins Oval, 2451 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Free.

If you haven't already been training, you probably won't be able to join the marathon. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the finish-line concert, with headliners Guster at the Finish Line Festival. Don't forget to cheer on the runners while you're at it. A Health & Fitness Expo precedes the race Friday and Saturday and is open to the public. -M.E.

» READ MORE: Analog-A-Go-Go

Bellevue State Park, 400 Carr Rd., Wilmington, 1 p.m. Saturday, $85 ($100 with Distillery Garden or Best Firkin Friends Festival), 800-441-7223.

For five summers, Delaware brewer Dogfish Head has held a boutique music and all-things-craft festival outside its Rehoboth Beach brewpub. This year, the festival grows up and moves 90 minutes closer to Philadelphia, to Bellevue State Park. The lineup is stellar, with stalwart '90s indie guitar heroes Built to Spill, renewed and relevant New Orleans trad heroes Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Philadelphia rock-and-roll romantics Beach Slang, and conscious-rap legend Talib Kweli, plus Newark locals Fiancé. With beer and distillery garden, vinyl-record and artisan market, and lots of food trucks. - Dan DeLuca

» READ MORE: Coltrane at 90

Various locations, Saturday through Sept. 25, 267-259-3802.

Were he alive, nonpareil jazz man John Coltrane would turn 90 on Sept. 23. Philadelphia Jazz Project celebrates this milestone with eight days of music, starting with Saturday's "Jazz Walk - Giant Steps," noon-6 p.m. at six stations around the East Park Reservoir in Fairmount Park, featuring Space Whale Ensemble, Tim Price Trio & Michael Pedicin, Larry McKenna, and others. The Lucky Thompson All Star Group's "Cookin' & Sweatin' " tribute to Trane's hard-bop beginnings is 4:30 p.m. Sunday at New Barber's Hall on West Oxford Street. The saxophonist was born in North Carolina, but was a Philadelphia resident in the 1940s and '50s. - D.D.

» READ MORE: Ben Wendel

Chris' Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St., 8 & 10 p.m. Saturday, $25 first show, $20 second show, 215-568-3131.

The title of Ben Wendel's latest album, What We Bring (Motéma), reflects the Grammy-nominated saxophonist's thoughts about how personalities combine to create improvised music. His yearlong "Seasons" series, throughout 2015, posted monthly video duets with a dozen collaborators. Bring, a quartet album, showcases Wendel's gift for merging the soulful and the cerebral, which has him playing rock and electronica-inspired jazz, and accompanying Snoop Dogg on tour. He'll bring a stellar quartet here - with pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Eric Harland. - Shaun Brady

» READ MORE: Rock Allegiance

Saturday and Sunday, Talen Energy Center, 1 Stadium Dr., Chester. $54.50- $129.50.

A whopping 19 hard-rock-leaning acts play Chester over two days, expanding from last year's one-day fest. Leading the bill will be '90s mainstays Alice in Chains, Wiles-Barre's Breaking Benjamin, and comedian Jim Breuer (he just released his first album). Beyond the music, there's #GourmetManFood (their hashtag, not ours), craft beer, and a Jack Daniel's experience. - M.E.

» READ MORE: P.S. Eliot

Convention Hall, Asbury Park, 9:15 p.m. Friday, $28 and $30; PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., 8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, sold out, 267-519-9651.

Philadelphia can claim as its own Katie Crutchfield's Waxahatchee and her sister Allison's Swearin', but the twins grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and have led bands since they were 15. The collected works of P.S. Eliot, their second band, have just been reissued, and one iteration of the group is on a short tour that stops at the New Alternative Music Festival in Asbury Park and has sold-out shows at PhilaMOCA. - Steve Klinge

» READ MORE: Cody Jinks/Whitey Morgan

Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., 9 p.m. Wednesday, $25.50 and $28.50, 215-627-1332.

This is one dynamite double bill of hard-core country. No pretty boys here singing about pickup trucks. Some pretty dark themes run through Jinks' new album, I'm Not the Devil, although there are soaring moments, too. Morgan is another longhair with a big beard and a serious songwriting talent. He and his band, the 78's, keep the honky-tonk flame alive, with the kind of working-class sensibility you'd expect from a band out of Flint, Mich. - Nick Cristiano

» READ MORE: Philadelphia United Jazz Festival

Through Sunday, South, 600 N. Broad St.; Warmdaddy's, 1400 S. Columbus Blvd.; Relish, 7152 Ogontz Ave.; and Paris Bistro, 8229 Germantown Ave.

Lifeline Music Coalition's annual Philadelphia United Jazz Festival, presented by the Daily News, has grown to four venues over five days. Performers include the U.S. Army Jazztet, Grant Calvin Weston and the Outsiders Quartet, Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, and more. - M.E.