47° / Cloudy
 

Special Events

Downtown DC buzzes with activity no matter what the season. Springtime brings the National Cherry Blossom Festival® with a variety of activities to celebrate the season's arrival. The FRESHFARM Farmer's Market (8th and E Streets) is where locally grown produce finds its way to Downtown dinner tables May through November. Summertime sizzles with adventurous and innovative performances as part of the Capital Fringe Festival . Fall is for Arts on Foot, Downtown's free visual and performing arts festival. Holiday is always an especially bright season with festive lights, banners and store windows to warm your spirit. Our Holiday Market makes one-stop, unique gift shopping a neighborhood gathering place.

04-08parade.jpgNational Cherry Blossom Festival ®

The Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) has partnered with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Inc. since 2001, providing office space and staff support for the city's and the Downtown's premiere springtime event - a fresh, delight-filled, Spring Celebration of the arts, natural beauty, and community as only DC can produce. Recognizing the Festival's importance as a cultural asset , the BID is working to promote the National Cherry Blossom Festival organization as it continuously advances the quality and creativity of the Festival to ensure that it remains the nation's greatest springtime celebration, delivering real economic, social and cultural benefits to all its stakeholders including the city, the region, and the country. 

Visit the National Cherry Blossom Festival's official website >   top

FRESHFARM Farmers' Markets

The markets, located in two prime Downtown locations, are open Thursday afternoons from 3 pm to 7 pm with farmers and producers from West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia selling the freshest fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs, flowers, plants, breads, pastries and handmade soaps. A full schedule of Chefs at Market features seasonal cooking demonstrations and tastings late in the afternoon. 

Visit the FRESHFARM Markets website>

  

top

Capital Fringe Festival

The Downtown BID is a major sponsor of this edgy and award-winning independent performing arts showcase. Since 2006, the festival has featured one-act plays, comedies, dramas, improvisation, musicals, dance, rock and roll, hip-hop, mime and presentations so avant-garde that they can't be classified. Each July, 1000 or more local and visiting artists put on hundreds of seasoned and world-premiere productions in scores of venues, often performing for sold-out audiences. Beginning in 2009 all venues were exclusively in Downtown.


Visit the Capital Fringe Festival website >  top

Arts on Foot
aof

Arts on Foot is an annual celebration of the arts featuring free events the whole family can enjoy. Smooth Jazz 105.9, the Pennsylvania Quarter Neighborhood Association and the Downtown DC BID work together to promote local and regional artists as well as neighboring arts attractions. Arts on Foot highlights include: more than 70 artists selling works of fine art and crafts at the Art Market; area chefs demonstrating Cooking as Art; Downtown restaurants offering delicious samples at minimal prices; performing artists providing live entertainment; and area museums, theatres and cultural institutions hosting a variety of tours, activities and demonstrations.

Visit the Arts on Foot website >  top

The Downtown Holiday MarketHoliday Market

Located across from the Verizon Center (601 F Street) and Gallery Place-Chinatown metro, this outdoor bazaar has grown to include more than 150 local artisans and exhibitors.

Exhibitors, including several food and beverage vendors, rotate, so that visitors never have the same experience twice. The excitement also includes live entertainment, ranging from jazz and blues to klezmer, hip-hop and a cappella. 



Visit the Holiday Market page for links to each day's schedule and more >  top

 

Selected Web Resources

Arts on Foot   Find out more about the annual celebration of local arts downtown. -- www.artsonfoot.org/

Capital Fringe Festival   Find out more information about the performing arts movement in Washington, D.C. -- www.capfringe.org/

Cultural Tourism DC   This nonprofit coalition of DC's cultural and community organizations promotes economic development and cultural appreciation. Their website includes a calendar of events and information on DC sites and attractions -- www.culturaltourismdc.org/

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities   Find information on the arts -- a complete calendar of events, information on learning and outreach programs, grant applications, other opportunities in the arts and public art programs. -- dcarts.dc.gov/dcarts/

FRESHFARM Farmers' Markets   Promoting food with a face, a place and a taste in the Chesapeake Bay area. -- www.freshfarmmarkets.org/

Helen Hayes Awards   An association dedicated to recognize achievement and promote excellence in theatrical production and performance in the Washington metropolitan area; to stimulate further development of the professional theatre community and thereby the community as a whole; and to encourage the growth and stability of theatrical audiences and support for professional theatres. -- www.helenhayes.org/

Holiday Market   Find out more about the unique seasonal shopping experience in the heart of downtown DC. -- www.downtownholidaymarket.com/

National Cherry Blossom Festival   Find out more about what the nation's premiere springtime celebration has to offer. -- www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/

Washington Convention Center Authority   Find information about upcoming events, links to meeting planners and exhibitors, information on the businesses, hotels and restaurants around the Convention Center. -- www.dcconvention.com/

Neighborhood Information

Places to:

Getting from Place to Place

Downtown Neighborhood Survey

This year's survey closed officially on March 1, 2010. Results and prize winners will be announced by March 31, 2010. Watch this space for details.

DC Circulator Buses

What can you get for a buck? How about a trip to Downtown, Georgetown, the ballpark, the National Mall or hundreds of other DC destinations? The Circulator is cool, comfortable, cheap and quick.

FIND OUT MORE
 
http://www.downtowndc.org/_files/images/godcbanner1a.gif
     GET DETAILS