The 2022 H Street Festival executed on every street festival/block party need: Good food, good…read moremusic & entertainment, good vendors, a little dancing with a whole lot of celebration.. and Mother Nature brought the good weather! Not only was there diversity within the items listed above but it brought out a diverse crowd--I'm sure every identity was present at the festival making for good vibes. Food wise, there was a range of vendors that included food from across the Black diaspora (Jamaican, Haitian, Southern soul food), American cuisine, Bar food from H Street bars & restaurants, sushi & other Asian cuisine , among other fun food trucks. The music I experienced spread across multiple genres (African, r&b, reggae, hip hop, country, and pop) and was put forth by live musicians, DJs, and drag queens. Street formers were also off stage entertaining us with their percussion and brass instruments.

H Street Festival is the largest neighborhood festival in Washington, D.C. It started out 12+ years…read moreas a block party. Now it spans 11 blocks and attracts 150,000 people in one day, always a Saturday in September. It usually starts at noon and goes into the evening. Since it's a massive festival almost every business along the H Street corridor is involved (except for Whole Foods and Starbucks). In addition, almost every food vendor and truck sets up shop at the festival. They have all kinds of food and there are many vendors selling arts and crafts (usually around 4th Street). There are also several staging areas, booths giving out water, and even a few stalls from churches. It's always a great time and you'll get a taste for all types of culture in the city. It's AWESOME!

Fun times, show up early and bring your ID. No backpacks.read more

First time attending 420 festival, I enjoyed music by action Bronson and my boy ludacris, I brought…read moretickets online, I heard people looking for tickets outside venue, because they were sold out, that happened to me last year, so I was prepared for this year. They could have done better with traffic, no officers directing traffic, so that was a nightmare getting into event, not to mention ncf, could have done a better job putting information on map what lot parking was going to be in, trying to find the lot to park in was hell , as well as parking was $20, overall I had a good experience, can't wait to see what headliners are for next year.

Small carnival located in parking lot 6 of RFK. $5 entry fee. No charge for parking, and there's…read moreplenty of it. Standard fair games. Standard carnival food like deep fried Oreos, corn dogs. They have an icee place which is nice, also a smoothie stand. A few rides, mostly for smaller children. This year there was one that went upside down like the pirate ship ride.

Thank you so much, Sydney and Jollof Festival, for allowing me to participate in this event!…read more There was a bit of a confusion in terms of how to redeem our tickets and the check-in process - it seemed a bit disorganized, as there was a line to 'enter' the festival on one side of the festival, but people were coming through the other side. The security seemed to be overwhelmed with the questions from the patrons and how to get their waistbands, since the event planners didn't seem to relay any of the protocol, procedures, and how to check people in... With persistence, we were able to get our wristbands and our tickets - the front staff didn't explain what the tickets were for... we did find out that the 'meal ticket' is to gain entry to the 'Orange Ticket Holder' area to sample various vendors' jollof rice, and the Yelp red tickets were to use to cast votes at the vendors that were located outdoors. We were able to check out: +Fly Chef +Hajara's Kitchen +Yvoni's There was a DJ playing some beats, vendors who were selling jewelry/accessories and clothing, and a bar located in the middle to order beverages. The hubs and I had a great time sampling the jollof rice and speaking with the business owners! Definitely a packed event! Street and lot parking can be found in the area. Thank you for a fun Saturday! +jollof tasting & contest +friendly vendors +music +local businesses +at Union Market

Ticket made possible through Yelp Elite Squad…read more First introduction to the Jollof Festival was unorganized. With 2 entrances open for guests to arrive, only 1 was designated for ticketing which was unmarked. Signage had directions for way-finding only for the festival itself rather than the ticketing portion. This made for getting into the festival a longer (even if you arrived close to opening time there was a minimum of 1 hour wait in peak DC summer heat) excursion. With not being able to properly check in, no designated between VIP or general ticket holders, a wristband shortage, a line down the block, and abundance of under trained staff, and increasingly agitated guests, it was visibly rough for everyone there. For tickets above general entry that included a Jollof Rice Tasting, visitors had to stand along to the Union Market garbages for their 5 (realistically 4 samples due to shortages) of jollof. The option to taste the samples in the venue itself was open to visitors, but had no tables or chairs to accommodate so folks were eating a box of jollof either standing or on the concrete ledges only at the edge of the interior building. Despite this, the festival itself was lively with all the external contractors independant to the festival really carrying the enjoyment factor. The Dj was well placed in the center and had festival goers moving. The bar was also centrally placed with more access to alcohol and beverages. Food vendors brought BBQ pits, making jollof fresh, and added a modern twist to these familiar food palettes. We spoke to some of the chefs and they are incredibly proud of the food they're sharing. Mascot was on point! Jewelry vendors were fair and approachable.

Whats better than a St. Patricks Day Festival??? Yeah, I can't think of anything either…read more This years event was held in the parking lot of RFK Stadium. This thing is pretty darn cool, they bring in beer trailers of all your typical Irish beers and more, Guiness, Killians, Bass, Miller Lite, Red Stripe etc. It's more than just beer, they had a stage where they had a like 30 or 40 bands playing, including "The Roots". Yeah I was drinking, I missed them. But they also have various tents where they have different themes. There was a hip hop tent, irish music tent, etc. They also had beer pong going on in the tents. In terms of food they had typical carnival food like corn dogs, bbq, funnel cake, etc. I paid for the VIP ticket ($85), which gave you special access to all the areas at the event, plus unlimited beer. I would definately recommend this. When there are all these different types of beer, no limit is the way to go. The only knock on this place was it rained this year, but that was no ones fault, it was still a kick ass time. They tented this festival pretty good so you could find a way not to get wet. Another positive, is I've never seen so many porto-potties in my life, there were definately lines, but it was the best toilet line-ups I've ever seen at an event. I hear the festivals location changes from time to time, so we will see where it is next year. All in all a great time, I would recommend it.

Amazing trails, gorgeous giant lotus blossoms, bullfrogs, birds, dragonflies... oh my! This park is…read morea hidden gem right within DC limits and an absolute dream for photographers. It's peaceful and beautifully maintained by the National Park Service, with benches tucked along the trails so you can pause and take it all in. Whether you're there for the wildlife, the lotus and lily ponds, or just a quiet nature walk, it's worth the trip. A rare blend of serenity and stunning photo opportunities in the heart of the city.

It's in a sketchy area with no public parking (only street parking). The entrance was confusing…read more I had high hopes for this place and for the longest time wanting to visit, but it was just one giant swamp. Very buggy but that's par for the course! The paths aren't clearly marked so you end up wandering aimlessly. There are sunken spots and areas where you can't tell if the ground is stable. There were random groups of people chanting right when we entered. The boardwalk toward the far end goes nowhere and there's nothing memorable or worth the walk to see. We saw a few lotus flowers and many lilies and a great blue heron made my day! Apart from that, a flop! I would probably never come back.

The Glo Run took place at night at RFK Stadium. The rain started coming down a bit during our race…read morebut that just added to the fun. Good thing though cause there wasn't a whole lot of fun to be had otherwise. The course was extremely dark (people kept running into each other because at some points you honestly couldn't see). There were some very treacherous parts of the course. If you're going to run a race at night it's probably not the best idea to run the course over extremely uneven terrain. There was a spot where it looked like steps (stairs) right in the middle of the course and we had to stop running and carefully walk over so as to not hurt ourselves. I would be able to more accurately describe what it was but again the course was extremely dark. It was a night run but it was raining pretty good so maybe this has a lot more potential than we experienced. Doubt I'd run again though. On to the next one...

In May I ran Run or Dye at RFK and that was amazing! Fun, energizing and really motivated me to…read morelook for another 5k Fun Run. I found The Glo Run and the videos looked awesome. Glow Sticks, black lights, smoke machines and music?! Sounds like something that would be just as much fun as getting covered in colored powder. We registered early to get a discount and stocked up on dollar store glow sticks to prepare. The day before we picked up our packet and "the swag bag" was a shirt and our bib. Nothing else. That's fine, we will get our 3 piece glow kit there. Race day: $15 dollars to park because finding parking in DC is pretty much impossible unless you own something equivalent to a smart car or mo-ped. We enter RFK and CHAOS! No organized lines or designated areas for anything. Yes the tents were marked but their locations were very crammed into a small sections, inconveniently surrounded by food trucks, and people were shoving and pushing and not waiting in any kind of organized fashion. No-one who volunteered even attempted to keep order to this either. So we get our glow stuff and wait. The "DJ" starts playing music, badly, not well mixed or planned out play lists that meshed well together. But we are trying to be optimistic still, after all there are a pair of giant inflatable glasses in front of us that glow so the rest of the race should be pretty cool. WRONG. We start running...keep running...keep running and finally hit a marker. A tube that has lights and a smoke machine. Then after a moment of "fun?" we are back to nothingness again. A dark track in a parking lot with nothing to look at, no music, no strobe lights...oh wait...there is an inflatable unicorn...then a water station (the only one the whole race) and then black again. We continue on our route, walkers don't seem to know to keep to the right so you have to bob and weave around them, but don't trip over the road cones you can't see AT ALL because it is night time!!! Another tunnel comes up...this one is actually shorter and has a bubble machine in it...that barely blows bubbles. There is an "MC?" in there yelling at you I imagine to keep you pumped up but at this time the crappy glow glasses they have in your 3 piece kit won't stay on and you have tripped repeatedly over walkers trying to pick up stranded glow necklaces that have fallen off... Over my shoulder I hear someone say there is a mile left. Really, two tubes and only a mile left. Ok the last one better be cool. WRONG AGAIN!!!!! Glow arches...ARCHES! That do nothing but synchronized lighting that isn't even that excite. Take a bunch of unenthusiastic sports spectators and have them do the wave over and over and over and you have the excitement of the arches. Then you jog back to the glowing glasses... That is it. The dance party afterwards is a mob of people kind of dancing, mostly jumping and bumping and pushing to hit the barely viewable beach balls that are flying through the air. All in all the ENTIRE experience was a waste of money. The whole race seemed completely unorganized. If they had more stations to run through, more music and less pushing, fighting for a spot to stand in line then there is real potential for this to be a fun event but with my experience I would never recommend someone to waste their time, money and Saturday night, there are by far more fun things to doing.

My wife and I went to a few of the earlier iterations of this festival, but we have been away from…read moreit for a couple of years, and came back having scored a couple of free tickets. We both agreed that had we paid full price would would have been dissatisfied. Maybe I am just remembering with false nostalgia, but it seems to me that the price of admission has been going up while the number of separate stages and number of acts has been going down. Too many of the acts that we saw were overly electrified, and the amplification of the instruments overwhelmed the voices of the singers. A number of the acts seemed to be much more rock-ish and less bluegrass-y. Too many in the audiences were shouting at each other so that they could hear each other over the music, making the experience even less pleasant. The lack of any brochures that we could carry around to keep track of the schedules at various stages made it harder to find what we might have wanted; I thought the explanation for the no-brochures -- we are ging green" might well be an excuse for cutting a cost. And given the lack of brochures, the paucity of signage listing the various acts and times and stages was especially telling. I don't expect to be back

This festival by far exceeded my expectations, I won two free tickets on Yelp and my only…read moredata-point about the event was the then, only one very negative review by someone who, apparently needed to be hammered to enjoy anything. At this year's event there were literally dozens of beer tents, and kudos on the distribution of stainless steel pint glasses. But this festival has so much more to offer than just beer. Free kayaking, boat rides, food trucks and stages tucked into intimate pockets of forest make this festival a must visit event . We were able to take a guided pontoon boat tour with Trey of Anacostia Riverkeeper, seeing the river firsthand and hearing about the ecology and policy issues therein was definitely a highlight. This event reminds me of camp out jam session and we left feeling like we had considerable more outdoor time than just a few hours. Getting to the festival was super easy via metro then shuttle ride. Very kid and dog friendly.

The DC Armory hosts various events, such as galas, expositions, conventions, concerts, sporting…read moreevents, trade shows, and so on - there's supposedly 70,000 square feet of exhibition space, a seating capacity of 10,000, and 3 lots for parking. I recently went there for a festival, and the set-up was great. There was some confusion in regards to parking, but that was more on the event organizers' fault. I was directed to park at another lot by the school, but I should have gone for one of the 2-hour parking on the streets that are of limited availability. Note that there's construction and blinking traffic lights, so be cautious of the traffic. It is a bit of a walk from the lots to the main entrance area. There is security at the front where you will have your items checked and yourself scanned. +large event space +lots available for parking

Formerly the HQ for the D.C. National Guard, the D.C. Armory is now an events space operated by…read moreEvents D.C. It still looks military and the inside main floor is totally gutted so it can be transformed into anything- a stage, a court, an art gallery, you name it. There are restrooms throughout the building, snack stands, and it's literally right next to the Stadium-Armory Metro on the Orange/Blue line.