1. Plan ahead for travel because the street will pretty much be blocked off all day.
2. No cars can be parked on H Street after 4am. They will tow you. Around 4:30am they will block off intersections. After that you'll see cars on the street, but (unless they are art cars) they will be for vendor set up prior to the Festival. The street will not reopen until 11pm, so plan accordingly.
3. I tend to pretty much spend the whole day at the Festival (12-7pm), so I am always careful to remember sunblock. Saturday's forecast calls for a high of 89°, so plan accordingly.
4. Bring a water bottle. In recent years DC Water has had a free water station for refilling your bottle.
5. Bring cash. Not everybody takes cards & the ATMs might run out.
6. The H Street Festival is DC's largest neighborhood based festival. In recent years it has drawn in excess of 100,000 visitors each time. I recall that a few years ago lots of people had trouble making cell phone calls. I'm not sure if we overloaded the system, but there seemed to be a lot of missed connections. It can also be a little loud sometimes, and this can make it hard to hear your phone wringing. I suggest making advance plans about where to meet friends.
7. The larger crowds meant things got pretty congested in some spots a few years ago, but stretching the Festival all the way down from 4th-14th and H Street (it used to run from 8th-14th) really helped. I did not find the crowds overwhelming the last two years.
8. Leashed pets are welcome (there's even a special dog area), but make sure your pet is comfortable around crowds. Remember to water your pet on a hot day. Last year we brought our dog Jack, but even with water the black one year old puppy was ready to head home after about 45 minutes (and that was before the Festival even got crowded).
14 comments:
yup. they'll play around without a care in the world when there's no one around, but as soon as it gets crowded, those black puppies sure do get scared like a pussy cat.
Does anyone know if streetcar service will be interrupted? Oh, right....
From experience, the douche-bro parade doesn't arrive until 3pm so you are safe before then. After that, you are on your own. RUN!
I'll start at 4th street at noon and work my way down to 14th street without stopping much, then leave. I like the festival but don't like the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds I experienced a few years ago.
i'm just so happy that i finally have something in the neighborhood that i can spend the weekend avoiding... for all the right reasons!
rock on, h st!
Hi All, I used to love going to this festival. But ever since the restaurants and bars have taken over the sidewalks, forcing everyone onto the street to compete with vendors and performances, it has become a big issue. That combined with a lack of restroom facilities has been keeping me away recently.
"..lack of restroom facilities... That's what alleys are for" - anyone who visits H street on the other 364 days.
Please for the love of god don't bring your dog(s). No matter how friendly, your furbaby is not going to be comfortable around 100,000 people.
Only boring, grumpy curmudgeons post here, I've found. Get off my lawn.
If you don't mind the walk, you can pee in Tim Krepp's alley
What was with the large contingent from the Nation of Islam (aka fools in bow ties) I dont recall seeing so many in years past. Were they trying to recruit hipsters and successful young white folks??
6:12,
The Nation of Islam has definitely had a presence at the H Street Festival in at least some years.
I thought that this was the best organized festival yet. I really liked the vendors, performances ec; on the side, leaving the center of the road for pedestrians. I hope next year, people will walk their bikes in the festival, the fools on bikeshares were especially reckless.
As a side note the 7-11 is moving from the strip mall to the SW corner of H and 8th. That will truly make that intersection most pleasant to walk past :(
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