What We Do When We're Not Eating: Museum, Theatre and more

Summer is here! And with it, so many fun & exciting ways to celebrate the season. The best way to soak in the sunshine? All these springtime activations:  

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: 

Cox Farm Fall Festival: Take in the fall season and colors at the Fall Festival at Cox farm now through November 4th. Enjoy giant slides, world famous hayrides, rope swings, farm animals & their babies, CORNundrum© Cornfield adventure, farm chores, kiddie zone, local apples & fresh cider, food, entertainment, Imaginature Trail, over 90 acres of fun. fxva.com

The Maryland Renaissance Fair: The Maryland Renaissance Festival, a tradition for the entire family, begins its 48th season now through October 20th for nine weekends of thrills, feasting, handmade crafts, entertainment and merriment in Crownsville, near Annapolis, Maryland. The 27 acre Village of Revel Grove comes to life each autumn with more than 200 professional performers on ten stages, a 3,000 seat arena with armored jousting on magnificent steeds and streets filled with village characters.  Join His Most Royal Highness King Henry VIII in the forests and glades with over 140 artisans exhibiting crafts in their own renaissance shops, five taverns featuring cool libations, 42 food and beverage emporiums providing a vast array of succulent and sweet treats to sate even the most hearty of appetites. Find out more information here. 

Taste of Bethesda: The 32nd annual Taste of Bethesda is scheduled for Saturday, October 5th from 11am - 4pm, and will feature Bethesda's best restaurants, five stages of live entertainment, an activity area for kids and more. Find out more here. 

Get Shucked: The 11th annual Shuck It! oyster and beer festival is upon us on October 19th. Enjoy live music as you slurp on oysters and the best brews in the area. Tickets are going very fast, so make sure you get yours here. 

The Beast is Back : Snallygaster season is approaching very quickly and tickets are going fast. If you've been waiting to purchase your Basilisk tickets, this is your sign to jump on the opportunity. At the festival on October 12th, you can enjoy over 450 beers from over 175 brewers and enjoy the best of the best in food trucks, live music on two stages, entertainment and family fun all on Pennsylvania Ave in the heart of Washington DC. Purchase tickets here. 

DMV THEATRE:  

Opera Lafayette 30th Anniversary Season: Opera Lafayette has announced their 30th anniversary season. Their three mainstage productions will include performances that honor their visionary founder Ryan Brown, explore the cultural connections between 19th-century France and the traditional music of North Africa and India, and share the much-anticipated world premiere of the first extant opera by a Black American, Edmond Dédé. Get tickets here. 

Folger's Theatre: Folger Theatre announces the opening of its 2024-25 season with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by award-winning director and producer Raymond O. Caldwell, on stage at the Folger Shakespeare Library, October 1–November 10, 2024. In a nod to our current election cycle, Caldwell's fresh interpretation of star-crossed lovers marries the “uncivil strife” of Shakespeare’s Verona and the polarized political landscape of our nation's capital. With the Capulets and Montagues envisioned as political rivals during a contested election season, this production delves into the politics of division and the violent consequences that arise when the systems designed to protect and guide society’s youth—familial, religious, and governmental—fail catastrophically. Get tickets here. 

Ford's Theatre New Show: Ford's Theatre is putting on Mister Lincoln this September through October 13th. In this witty and revelatory one-man show starring Scott Bakula as President Abraham Lincoln, Mister Lincoln—as the President preferred to be called—shares stories of himself during some of our country’s most important historical events. From his own personal perspective, first as a prairie lawyer and anti-slavery advocate in Illinois, to later in Washington as president of the United States, when he signs the Emancipation Proclamation and becomes the liberator, this insightful play leans on Lincoln’s own brilliant language to reveal surprising aspects of the life of one of our nation’s greatest presidents. Get tickets here. 

MUSEUMS:

Friends Artspace: Friends Artspace is a Washington-area gallery the New York Times’s T Magazine once described as “a fantastical art gallery masquerading as a suburban garage,” is pleased to launch its fourth season with “Beginner’s Mind,” a group exhibition exploring the Zen Buddhist concept of shoshin, or approaching the world with a receptiveness to new ideas and knowledge. Friends Artspace owner and curator Margaret Bakke tapped 22 nationally recognized and local artists for this group show. Francesco DiMattio, a New York-based artist whose work melds the traditions of craft and architecture, has created a diminutive table and chairs that evoke play. Find out more information here. 

Marcela Hazan x Smithsonian American History Museum: Marking the centennial of Marcella Hazan’s (1924–2013) birth, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has received a donation from the family of the influential cookbook author and legendary teacher of regional Italian cuisine in the United States and United Kingdom. Hazan is widely known for her six cookbooks on the cuisines of Italy, published between 1973 and 2004. Her husband Victor Hazan, an authority on Italian food and wine, and son Giuliano, a chef and cooking teacher, donated 20 of her specialized Italian cooking tools, including a passatelli press, garganelli pasta comb, a mattarello for rolling out pasta, her wood cutting board, lasagna pan and her cotton apron to the museum’s food history collections. The donation also includes a selection of her recipe notebooks, written in Italian, that will be housed in the museum’s Archives Center. Hazan immigrated to the United States from Cesenatico, Italy, with her husband in 1955, and they made their home in New York City where she opened a small cooking school in her apartment in 1969 and published her first cookbook, The Classic Italian Cookbook, in 1973. Hazan was the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Association of Culinary Professionals Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), Cavaliere della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana Award (2003) and the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2000).Constitution Avenue NW, between 12th and 14th streets; americanhistory.si.edu 

Subversive Skills, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women at the Renwick: The thirty-three artworks in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women, now open at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, piece together an alternative history of American art. Accessible and familiar, fiber handicrafts have long provided a source of inspiration for women. Their ingenuity with cloth, threads, and yarn was dismissed by many art critics as menial labor. The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime took up fiber to complicate this historic marginalization and also revolutionize its import to contemporary art. They drew on personal experiences, particularly their vantage points as women, and intergenerational skills to transform humble threads into resonant and intricate artworks. Book visits here through January 2025. 

LET'S GET INTERACTIVE:

DC Ghost Tours: You can experience the spooky spirits of DC with DC ghost tours. With tours that explore iconic sites like the White House, Lafayette Square, and Ford’s Theatre, we delve into the eerie stories and dark secrets that have shaped the city’s past. Book your tickets here. 

King Tut's Tomb: An Immersive Experience: “Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures,” the most in-depth and historically accurate recreation about King Tut and his treasures ever mounted, and it has never previously toured in Washington, D.C. Produced by Exhibition Hub and Semmel Exhibitions in partnership with Fever, this hands-on experience offers guests the chance to explore ancient Egypt with unprecedented detail and scale, mirroring Egyptologist Howard Carter's discovery right in Washington D.C. Find out more info here. 

OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHTS:

Mount Vernon Movie Nights: In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Mount Vernon is taking you back to  2004 with their Movies in Milian series this season. They have put together a lineup filled with nostalgia and cutting-edge animation that will bring you back to younger times Check out the lineup below:

Tuesday, October 8: National Treasure (PG)  

Cabin John Movie Nights: Bring your blankets and lawn chairs to the Village Green at Cabin John. Enjoy movies like Top Gun Maverick and more all summer long and through October. More info here. 

The Drive-In at Union Market: The Drive-In at Union Market is back for the 12th season.  Get ready for a blend of movies and munchies with concessions. From street food to Michelin-starred fine dining, experience it all at Union Market District. Bring your chairs and blankets for a cozy picnic-style set up in front of The Market. No tickets are needed to watch on Neal Place through October. More info here. 

EXPERIENCES:

Riverdale Artisan Market: The Riverdale Artisan market is back for the summer. Enjoy locally crafted fresh goods, artisanal crafts and live music at monthly markets from May to October. Markets will be held on the last Saturday of each month, featuring a variety of local vendors offering everything from paintings and jewelry to vintage clothes and even ice cream. More info here.