Adams Morgan Day Festival

The street will be packed. You might as well get in early, because most of the free giveaways are usually gone after the first hour, and everything worth visiting will have a line.
Most of the festival is divided among vendors of art and food and various musical performances. The food is usually vegetarian/​vegan friendly; this year there were three vegan booths, not to mention the actual restaurants on the street that remain open. I’ve also found some nice little art pieces.
But seriously, come early, and don’t bother trying to drive or park anywhere in the neighborhood. The secret is long out.

Attended my second Adams Morgan day festival yesterday, and confirmed my recollection that this event is a guaranteed good time.
The street festival, on 18^th St and surrounding sidestreets, is an all-​day party in AdMo. There are tons of street vendors (mainly of the art variety or, my preference, the food variety), and the bars/​restaurants/​shops on the street have deals and events.
There is a ton of food, so I recommend making a full loop before deciding. Everything is reasonably priced, from thai food to italian sausages to churros to ice cream to Jamaican. I got Pad Thai, an egg roll, and a drink for 8 bucks. Nothing spectacular, and the food options can probably be a little better, but theres a wide variety, I wasn’t complaining.
The jewelry and art and stuff is probably pretty cool and all, but not my cup of tea. The music and performances are… nothing groundbreaking, but fun to have there.
Because the festival is on a Sunday, there is football (the first week of the season this year). So the bars along 18^th are hopping as well.
Important final note: You could get a fried oreo here.

Great area. food vendor quality is a bit lacking. Hst festival has a lot more quality vendors for food.

This was my first Adams Morgan Day experience and I am definitely regretting that I haven’t come before. The easiest way to describe Adams Morgan day is as Eastern Market on steroids. It has a lot of the same jewelry and art tents as Eastern Market, but also much more.
One thing that stood out to me was all the food options. It seemed like every third tent was some kind of food and all of them smelled delicious and were really reasonably priced. I guess normally when I see tents like this it is at a sporting event or concert where prices are inflated. Here this was not the case, I got 2 curries, rice, and a soda for $ 10 and my friend got pad thai for $ 5.
Additionally, there was music everywhere you went. There were four stages set up that had performers from a range of genres. Plus, on every corner there were street performers and Brass Monkey even set up karaōke, which was very amusing.
Overall it was a great experience. The streets were busy, the bars were packed, the art was good, and the music was entertaining. I can’t wait till next years festival.

I’ve never missed this festival since I’ve moved to DC! I always like watching the performers, walking around the booths with unique and usually well priced jewelry. There’s always so many food options to temp me, and even the yogurt stand was giving out free greek yogurts which tasted great on a hot day.
One booth that I will not forget was one that sold fun/​funky pillows (for example a pillow with sushi screen printed on it). His advertisements for the pillows cracked me up — they had men seductivy posed around all the pillows.

This is a really fun event. 2012 was the first year there was no alcohol and this lead to a subdued and family-​friendly environment but was still very packed and a lot of fun. Too crowded for the pets — an fyi for next year. Metro in, there is no parking. The music and food are great! Bring cash.

Great experience attending this event! There was a great selection of performers from Cuban to mariachi to country. The locations of the stages were perfectly placed throughout the fair to not drown each other out while still making it easy to stop into a bar for a drink between performances and shopping.
The variety of business booths, a diverse range of food options and the crafts of local artisans made for a great combination of DC culture.
Even the weather cooperated, which is impressive considering there was a tornado warning the day before. Couldn’t have been a more perfect event! Definitely look forward to going again in the future!

I had a great time here on Sunday. I had jerk chicken from one of the vendors and it HIT THE SPOT! I was afraid it would be bad.
The music was pretty good too. It had me moving. The Cuban band was awesome as were the West African drummers and dancers. What I liked most about the festival was that it was a really fun, positive, ime which made it perfect to people watch. OMG, and that weather was amazing.

Great Weather led to a a great turnout of people attending this event. This was my first time attending this and it was nice.
Great selection of food and drinks and vendors and musical entertainment made it enjoyable for me and the family. We had a great time after getting there by Metro around 12:30 pm. We had lunch from the Jamaican place in the middle. Around the corner from the school was Stonyfield Yogurt which is actually how I found out about it this year. With free yogurt samples for children and adults, coupons and a free photo booth it was good.
Two free moon bounces and a vertical reality trampoline ($ 10) with harness and waiver signing before riding made it great for kids who were at the event.
Rita’s frozen delights had two booths and long fast moving lines and great prices to help keep you cool.
I was expecting more food trucks to be around but I guess they didn’t know about it or were not allowed to be a part of it.
I am already planning to be back next year

Mother Nature was on her best behavior providing us with plenty of sunshine, low humidity and by keeping that thermostat set around 75 degrees all afternoon.
At 1:00 P.M. we were beckoned towards the Florida Avenue stage by the sounds of sick beats belonging to Brazilian samba music. A little closer and we were wowed by the talented Zezeh Brazilian Dancers. Imagine exotic Brazilian flamingos and peacocks crossbred with a slinky while shaking their tail feathers to the beats of samba drums. Throw some water on that skillet and watch them sizzle!
You gotta love how Washingtonians represent the music, art and craft scene. There were a lot of familiar faces that I’ve seen around town at other markets, festivals and art shows. For instance, Michael A (
) was there showing off his goods. Check out the backlight pics I took of his work under the art-​o-​matic 2012 Unilocal review. He’s a good example of great artists that give D.C. it’s unique flavor.
The festival made good use of it’s space which branched out into side streets, the school and tennis courts. Wish Crafty Bastards was the same size. Actually, space was a little tight here and there but that’s a sign of a good turnout.
There were NO shortage of food tents this year. Rest assured that there was plenty of lemonade and chicken on stick– I had both.
Plenty of flavor, plenty of sizzle and the food was good too. The thing I loved the most was the people. All types of people put into a shaker to the beat of a samba drum. Cool.
From where I stood, Mamma Madam’s Organ had a big smile on her face and looked very satisfied.