Showing Their Love [for NE DC]


H Street came alive this weekend between 4th and 14th Streets NE. Artists, thrift store owners, food trucks, grill masters, and 125,000 patrons gathered to celebrate the trendy Northeast DC neighborhood. H Street Festival, which concerned residents first organized after the 1968 race riots, was not always so well attended. In 2007, however, local volunteers reinvented the fair by inviting more artists, merchants, and performers to exhibit more extensive offerings to attendees. Now crowds hardly fit into the ten-blocks of festival grounds, restaurants hand out free beer, and vendors from across DC compete for space to sell their products.


DC residents of diverse backgrounds, from long-time inhabitants of Northeast to recent transplants, stood in line together, watched each other perform, and traded tips on where to find the best food. DC Roller Girls displayed a few tricks and dancers showed off their moves outside of Atlas Theater. Some community members sat together in front of their shops and restaurants, observing the scene.

Colorful Display

Fast forward one day to FiestaDC 2014, an annual celebration of Latino culture on Pennsylvania Avenue. Country-specific flags, fùtbol jerseys, and skull art abounded. Tubs of white liquid (someone described it as "sweet rice water") and lemonade sweated next to grilling corn and skirt steak. Teenagers kicked soccer balls around with their younger siblings but didn't go easy on the kids.

Most impressive were the food vendors, sweating in 90° heat to grill meat, pour broth, and fry yucca. Cashiers made sense of the disorganized lines to keep money and provisions flowing. Opposite the food tents, dancers encouraged the crowd to join their energetic display. Despite the heat almost everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including the kids (probably because so many toys were on sale).