Local Ish (Festival Season): 6/5-6/7

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The theme of this weekend seems to be the outdoor summer festival.  As June brings in the warm summer weather, expect to see more and more of these going on for the next few months.  This weekend is the perfect example as there are five fests taking place locally, each one of a different size and also with the target audience they are looking to attract.

What is probably the largest of the 4, is the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival.  This 11-day event kicks off today (June 5-15) celebrating the rich heritage of the New Orleans music scene.  The schedule includes multiple performances including one by Grammy Award-winner Terence Blanchard and of course, the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  A link to the full schedule of events (including a couple free concerts on June 13 & 14) can be found here.

While normally, two festivals of a similar type over the same weekend would cause you to wonder if one can only be successful only through the failure of the other, in this case I think they may actually complement each other.  Jazz fans, this is the weekend for you as Capital Jazz Fest 2009 is also going on at Merriweather Post Pavillion (June 5-7) and while this may be saying a little much, it has previously been referred to as “the Woodstock of jazz festivals”.  Woodstock it is not, but there will be plenty to do in addition to the music.  Bringing in tens of thousands of jazz lovers each year, you can also spend your time between sets checking out the arts and crafts at the Festival Marketplace, grabbing some food, or even trying to make it big yourself in the Capital Jazz Challenge Competition.

(photo credit: Christopher Anderson)

For over a month, thousands of artists have been working to setup their exhibits for one of the largest art festivals in the area.  It just opened on May 29th and they’re projecting over 6,000 visitors that weekend.  If you happened to miss opening weekend, no worries…the 10th installment of Artomatic, runs for about a month.  This is another event where there is just too much on the schedule to list here, but all the information you need can be found directly on their site.

One of the more popular “types” of summer festival (2nd probably only to outdoor concerts) has got to be the wine festival (see review from last weekend)…and for good reason.  Virginia is 2nd only to California in the United States in wine production and many of the larger vineyards are located less than 2 hours away along Skyline Drive.  While The Food and Wine Festival (June 6-7) takes place at the National Harbor in Maryland, you can be assured that many of the wineries represented will be from this very area.  What makes this wine festival different is the focus on the food and wine pairings.  Since this is taking place at the National Harbor, expect a lot of fresh seafood with a strong focus on local fare.  Another thing that makes this wine festival different is the fact that they offer beer.  So even if you aren’t a wine fan, there will still be plenty for you to enjoy.  Here you can find a full schedule of events so that you can pick the time that works best for you.

Now based on the scale of all of these other festivals, one could say that the last event I’ll mention is small by comparison, but I think that “small” is hardly the word to use based on everything that will be going on here.  Taking place at the Fairfax County Government Center, Celebrate Fairfax! is Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration with tens of thousands of visitor’s expected over its 3-day run (June 5-7).  Over 400 exhibitors, food vendors and crafters will be in attendance.  In addition, there is an array of interactive activities spread throughout the 25-acres.  Included are 5 concert stages (with Blues Traveler and Naughty by Nature among the performers), an Interactive SciTech Center and ExxonMobil Children’s Avenue, a petting zoo, a karaoke contest, and your obligatory carnival rides.  And if you’re not exhausted from all of the day’s events, at night you can relax and watch the fireworks displays.

5 local outdoor festivals in one weekend is probably too much for any one person to experience so if you do attend, leave a comment and share your experience with others.  Also, make sure you check out the event websites.  Many of these are going on for a week or more so the schedules are too varied to list here.  So even if your weekend is already booked solid, you may be able to find something worth checking out during the (normally) less-eventful weekday nights.

udothedishes…