Still Life With Robin: Not Feeling Festive These Days? There's a New Festival in Town That May Change Your Attitude...

Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

by Peggy Robin

It’s Solstice Saturday! If you haven’t heard of this, it’s because this is the first year of what we hope will turn into an annual tradition at the Smithsonian. On the Saturday after the summer solstice, the Smithsonian museums are staying open until dusk – and a few have activities on till midnight -- to celebrate the longest day of the year.

Here’s the announcement from Smithsonian NewsDesk:

https://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/celebrate-summer-smithsonian-solstice-saturday

and you can find the schedule of activities here:

https://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/celebrate-summer-smithsonian-solstice-saturday

The Smithsonian is holding these events in conjunction with a new four-day arts festival called By the People, which started on Thursday and features with an engaging mix of free performances, art installations and exhibits, demonstrations, talks on all kinds of topics, and interactive shows (like "Yarn Bomb" - an interactive knitting project). Most are free; a few require reservations; a few also charge an admission fee.

There are events at FIVE different venues:

Union Market

THEARC West

Washington National Cathedral

Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building

The Parks at Walter Reed

On top of that, there are one-time events at these satellite locations:

Transformer @ Farragut Square Park

La Maison Française - Embassy of France

Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center

The Miracle Theater

Split This Rock @ Busboys and Poets

The Anthem

U Street Music Hall

Unity in Diversity at Bossa Bistro + Lounge

United States Institute of Peace

Just to give you a sense of what kind of thing the By the People Festival presents – take a look at just these two events:

Augmented Reality Art Hunt by ARTECHOUSE

https://halcyonhouse.org/augmented-reality-art-hunt-powered-artechouse (installations at all Festival hub locations)

Or the Pop-Up Dance/Video Performance by the Bridgeman-Packer Troupe

https://halcyonhouse.org/bridgmanpacker-dance (this afternoon and evening at THEARC and Union Market and Sunday at Union Market – all free!)

For a broader sense of what you can see and do at the Festival, here’s the write-up in the Washington Post: https://wapo.st/2KflFDG. Will the By the People Festival turn out to be as great as Austin’s South By Southwest Festival? Go and find out!

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland ParkListserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.