So, I think we can mostly agree that this year's festival was a success. I'm not sure exactly how many vendors there were, but the rough numbers I got from an organizer looked like this:
2005 Festival: 40-45 booths from vendors & sponsors
2006 Festival: 100 booths from vendors & sponsors
Another major change was a large kids area in the Auto Zone parking lot (which was used for general booths last year).
A child waits to have his face painted in the kids area.
Musicians perform at the western edge of the festival.
I also felt like the music was better this year (but I didn't spend a great deal of time hanging around the stages either year, so I only got snippets). Mostly, I either walked around taking photos, or worked at the Trinidad-Ivy City Garden Club booth. Which reminds me that I thought the process of assigning booths also went more smoothly this year. Due to the localized nature of the Garden Club, people working the booth asked those who stopped to look if they lived in the neighborhood. We not only spoke with a lot of neighborhood residents, but also a lot of people from Virgina & Maryland, which also happened last year, & lots more from other DC neighborhoods (southern parts of Capitol Hill, Shaw, & Deanwood), which I don't think did happen quite as much last year. So that was also an improvement. It's clear that H Street has been generating a lot of buzz recently & that people are now curious.
2 comments:
Thanks for the wrap-up on the festival. I really wanted to go but we had a family emergency. It's great to hear it was such a success.
I missed the Garden Club booth. Oh well.
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