May 23, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Memorial Day weekend signals the start of shore season, but there's still stuff to do in Philly on May 24-27.
With apologies to the summer solstice, everyone knows the true start of the season is not June 20 but Memorial Day weekend. The end-of-the-month holiday kicks off shore season, as beaches along the Jersey coast welcome back crowds (and, eventually, beach tag inspectors) for another year.
If you're planning to battle the traffic for a spot on the sand, make sure to time your trip to Chickie's & Pete's annual toll promotion. But if you're staying in town, you can still hang by the water for a Saturday regatta or catch some rays in the garden bar of the Rodin Museum. When the sun goes down, the movie screen lights up at Clark Park for another edition of the "Under the Stars" movie program.
Between the snacks, drinks and tubes of sunscreen, a weekend trip to the Jersey Shore can get expensive. Chickie's & Pete's is cutting out at least one of the expenses by paying the tolls for some cars on the Atlantic City Expressway on Friday. The restaurant chain is once again covering the $4.70 toll for drivers passing through the eastbound Egg Harbor toll plaza from 4-5 p.m. as part of its "Free Toll Friday" promotion. Consider it ice cream cone or boardwalk fries money.
The ocean gets all the attention on Memorial Day weekend, but the Delaware River would like to remind you that it, too, exists with a returning competition. Sailors will square off on Saturday morning in the Philadelphia Cup Regatta, a race that was last held on the river in 2016. Audiences can view the action from the Spruce Street Landing, Cherry Street Pier and other locations along the waterfront, starting at 10 a.m.
Share a drink with "The Thinker" at the Rodin Museum's pop-up garden bar, which returns for another year on Friday. Visitors can sample a menu of light bites and beer, wine and cocktails amid the museum's foliage and Auguste Rodin statues, including a casting of his famously pensive muse. Eight of the sculptures are outdoors, but for the rest, you'll have to venture inside.
Clark Park's returning cinéSPEAK movie series will attempt to lure the bookworms outdoors with its first double feature of the season on Friday. The "Under the Stars" festival will make its 2024 debut with "Butterfly in the Sky," a documentary about the beloved PBS series "Reading Rainbow," and "The ABCs of Book Banning," the Oscar-nominated short about a recent wave of book challenges in the United States. While the movies won't start until sundown, folks can enjoy a pre-show story time from drag queen Lili St. Queer and set from DJ Mariyama beginning at 6:30 p.m.
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