17th Street Festival
The District of Columbia is a vibrant and growing city and many of us feel lucky to live here. We are the Capital of the nation and the center of power in the world. We have the White House, the Capitol, the Smithsonian and the Mall. But what so many visitors to the District don’t know is that we are a city made up of many individual neighborhoods.
As the population of the city grows and people look for a sense of community, each year the neighborhoods in D.C. hold more and more festivals and block parties. Some of them grow to become must attend events. One of these is the 17th Street Festival in Dupont which on Saturday celebrated its thrid year. From noon to 6:00 pm 17th street from Riggs Place to P Street was closed and thousands of people enjoyed the great weather and wandered up and down the middle of the street enjoying the many booths on both sides of the street and the restaurants and shops behind them.
The Festival is produced by the Urban Neighborhood Alliance and Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets. This year the festival included and an art show; business specials; a large entertainment stage; a kids zone at Ross Elementary School; and a pet zone sponsored by City Dogs Rescue.
As a Dupont resident I appreciate all the work that volunteers put into planning and staging this event. Dupont has always been a great place to live and the 17th street business district is a vital part of it. We have some great restaurants and bars in the 17th street corridor that add life to our neighborhood. They include Jamie Leed’s Hank’s Oyster Bar; Floriana’s; those great old standby’s Annies, Trios and Dupont Italian Kitchen; and they are anchored on one end by JRs and the other end by Cobalt, 30 Degrees and Level One. Dupont has become a very diverse neighborhood and you could see that at the festival with young and old, gay and straight, and a lot of couples with young kids which you wouldn’t have seen in Dupont ten years ago.
Within just the few blocks on the 17th street business district there is FIT, a great personal training gym; Java House Coffee (which friends refer to as my living room); you can get your hair cut, go to a yoga class, buy real estate, do your banking, shop for groceries at Safeway, use the pharmacy at CVS or two independent pharmacies, or just wander through an art gallery.
Dupont is a great place to live and many of us already look forward to next year’s festival as it continues to grow.