The 25 best things to do in D.C. this weekend and next week

The best pubs for St. Patrick’s Day

From Ned Devine’s in Herndon to the Old Brogue in Great Falls to Galway Bay in downtown Annapolis, the Irish pubs are going to be packed with revelers making the most of St. Patrick’s Day, kicking off an unofficial three-day weekend. Friendly advice: No matter where you’re going, try to arrive as early as possible. Lines usually start building in the afternoon, and no one wants to wait outside while friends are enjoying themselves indoors.

No D.C. pub does it bigger than the Dubliner, where the drinks begin flowing and the bands begin playing at 9 a.m. Pints of Guinness are 49 cents for the first hour, in honor of the Dubliner’s 49 years on Capitol Hill. Expect bands to rotate throughout the day, plus party music from DJ Harry Hotter. There’s a $10 cover. (4 F St. NW.) Across the Pond gets started bright and early with Kegs & Eggs at 7 a.m. While there’s no cover charge, a special wristband ($25 advance, $40 at the door) is good for admission and $2 Guinness pints until 9 a.m. Expect pipers and Irish dancers throughout the day, and a live broadcast with DC101 from 7 p.m. to midnight. (1732 Connecticut Ave. NW.) Mattie and Eddie’s throws open the doors at 9 a.m. on Pentagon Row, with music starting at noon. Dancers from the Boyle and McGrath schools perform throughout the afternoon. (1301 S. Joyce St., Arlington.) Murphy’s Grand Irish Pub in Alexandria has a full day of entertainment planned: Live music starts at 10 a.m. with Pat Carroll, Pat Garvey, Brandon Kennedy and Colby Sard all taking the stage. (713 King St., Alexandria.) The Irish Inn at Glen Echo is know for live music, and the Galway Ramblers take the stage soon after doors open at 11 a.m. They’re followed by the Bog Band, which plays from 3 to 7 p.m., and the Irish Inn Mates, who perform from 7 until close. The Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance will make an appearance, too. There’s a $5 cover. (6119 Tulane Ave., Glen Echo.)

SoberRide discounted rides home

SoberRide, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program’s long-running anti-drunken-driving program, offers free and discounted Lyft rides home between 4 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday. Look for a code posted on soberride.com at 3 p.m. Friday, and enter it into the app for a $15 ride credit. If the ride is cheaper than that, it’s free; if it’s more, the passenger pays the difference. A limited number of credits are available, so keep an eye on the website and grab the code ASAP.

New African Film Festival at AFI Silver Theatre

AFI public relations manager Abbie Algar says the program at this 19-year-old festival includes close to 30 films “from across Africa and the diaspora, a number of U.S. premieres, and several countries’ 2023 Oscar submissions.” Previous festivals have seen Q&As with filmmakers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Blitz Bazawule. (Through March 30. $8-$13. All-access passes $150.)

Solas Nua Irish Book Day at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

If you’re over standing-room-only bars, Irish cultural organization Solas Nua provides a more thoughtful, intellectual celebration at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Irish Book Day brings a trio of Irish and Ireland-based writers, including award-winning author Sinead Gleeson, for an afternoon of readings and discussion, capped with “The Haunted Haunting Women,” a “text, sound and visual performance” by Gleeson and composer Stephen Shannon. Admission is free, but reservations are required. (1:30 to 5:30 p.m. 901 G St. NW.)

Synae’s story as a musician begins with the backdrop of pandemic lockdowns and the Black Lives Matter protests, which added turbulence to personal strife; the R&B artist was laid off from a job and experienced a death in the family. Joy was in short supply, and when it did come, it came from an unexpected source. Nintendo had just released “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” a colorful, relaxing game for Switch consoles where the player travels to an uninhabited island, befriends adorable anthropomorphic neighbors and designs what is, in essence, a perfect homesteading life. The game served as an inspiration for Synae’s EP “Wild World,” a four-song blend of heartfelt melodies and reflective lyrics littered with game references for keen listeners about catching bees and apple trees. Its standout is the upbeat, self-assured title track. The music video, featuring Synae dancing over clips of gameplay, is quirky and lighthearted, but the lyrics prove that exuberance didn’t come without a fight: “For someone like me, dreams don’t come for free / Before you die you gotta live like you were made for this / It’s a wild world out there, you gotta go for it.” (10 p.m. $15.)

[Interview: Washington, D.C., artist Synae turns turmoil into joyful R&B]

In a viral video that does exactly what it says on the tin — “me singing into a well in Italy” — Tiffany Day belts out “Hallelujah,” the stirring ballad written by Leonard Cohen but popularized by John Cale and Jeff Buckley and covered by hundreds of singers. For Day, the reverb of the well provides extra depth to her voice as she crescendos, adding melisma and going up an octave along the way. The Kansas-raised, LA-based artist has plenty to praise these days, and with her au courant take on soulful dance pop, she’s more than delivering on the promise of that viral video. (7:30 p.m. $18-$20.)