Activities to Fill Your Labor Day Weekend
It is Labor Day weekend, the last unofficial weekend of summer. Remaining DMV students will head back to school next week, pools will close until next summer, but there is still plenty to do inside and out if you aren’t spending one last weekend at the beach.
This weekend, Yellow and Green Line trains will operate at regular weekend intervals. Red Line trains will operate every 20 minutes. Orange, Silver and Blue line trains will operate every 26 minutes. On Labor Day, Metrorail will open at 7 a.m. and close at midnight. Trains will operate on a Sunday schedule. Off-peak fares will be in effect all day, and parking will be free at all Metrorail parking facilities.
“Finding a Line” co-curator Ben Ashworth demonstrates skateboarding tricks in the bowl he helped design and build at the Kennedy Center. (Photo: Amanda Voisard)
Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music and Media
Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music and Media opens at the Kennedy Center. But until next weekend, it’s most notbable for one thing: They built a 20 feet wide by 40 feet long skateboarding bowl on the plaza. Inside, there are exhibitions of colorful, hand-painted decks and other skateboard memorabilia. Outside, there will be open skate sessions throughout the weekend.
Through Sept. 13 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. Open sakng is from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, 1:30-9 p.m. Saturday through Monday. Admission is FREE, however a waiver must be signed.
Maryland State Fair
The Maryland State Fair wraps up in Timonium this weekend. (Photo: Maryland State Fair)
The 134th Maryland State Fair in Timonium, Md. runs through the holiday weekend. Weekend activities include a chance to meet former Ravens players; the Latino Music Festival, Fifth Harmony and other concerts; various races and chases; an arm-wrestling competition; and chainsaw performance art. R5 and Bea Miller perform Friday from 7:30-10 p.m.; Fifth Harmony performs Saturday from 8-10 p.m.; and the Latino Music Festival takes place from 6:30-10 p.m. on Sunday. The concerts are not included in admission.
Through Aug. 7 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. at the Timonium Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Lutherville-Timonium, Md. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors 62 or older, $3 for children 6-11 and free for children 5 or younger.
Women’s Voices Theater Festival
What’s on the menu for Meredith, Tori and Sandy: the three women in Guy’s life? Healthy lifestyles, upward mobility, meaningful sex? Or self-loathing and distorted priorities? Find out in Women Laughing Alone with Salad. (Photo: Woolly Mammoth Theatre)
An unprecedented theater event is underway in Washington, with 46 theaters offering 52 plays by 50 women over the next couple of months as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. A handful of new shows will debut each week, including Women Laughing Alone With Salad on Monday at Woolly Mammoth. Current plays include The Oregon Trail at Flying V; Bones in Whispersand How We Died of Disease-Related Illness at Longacre Lea; Witches Vanish at Venus Theatre Co.; and Night Falls on the Blue Planet at Theater Alliance. Check the website for a complete schedule of plays and a list of venues.
Through Nov. 15 at various times and venue around the DMV. Ticket prices vary, but discount festival passes are available after the purchase of one ticket.
Free For All
A Mid Summers Night Dream is featured in this year’s Shakespeare Theatre Co.’s Free For All. (Photo: Shakespeare Theatre Co./Flickr)
The Shakespeare Theatre Co.’s annual Free For All event continues through the weekend, with the company staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the Bard’s most popular romantic comedies. Want to get in for that unbeatable price? You can enter the online lottery or line up at Sidney Harman Hall two hours before the curtain rises. The show, which runs through Sept. 13.
Through Sept. 13 at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Shakespeare Theater Co.’s Sidney Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. There is no show on Labor Day. Admission is FREE!
National Book Festival
Visitors at last year’s National Book Festival. (Photo: National Book Festival)
The 15th annual National Book Festival is back this weekend with more than 170 authors, poets, illustrators and special presenters while celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Library of Congress’ acquisition of Thomas Jefferson’s library. In addition to books, two groups of children will perform acrobatics and juggling tricks, tied to a presentation by Cynthia Levinson, author of Watch Out for Flying Kids! Authors include David Baldacci, Tom Brokaw, Robin Givhan, Ann Hornaday, David Ignatius, William Joyce, Nora Pouillon, Cokie Roberts, Al Roker and others.
Sept. 5 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. at the Walter E Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW. Admission is FREE!
Page to Stage Festival
Actors perform a reading at last year’s Page to Stage at the Kennedy Center. (Photo: Kennedy Center)
If you’re the type of person who likes to hear magicians explain their tricks, you’ll love the 14th annual Page to Stage Festival, where more than 40 DMV theater companies let audiences watch as they perform a series of readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being prepared for Washington premiers in the 2015-16 theater season. This year’s festival features more than 50 new plays, including Just Between Us: A Piano, A Mic, A Memory, an autobiographical, one-woman cabaret by Marilyn Hausfeld, a local actress who got her start in the Howdy Doody peanut gallery. Check the website for a schedule of plays and times.
Sept. 5 from 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sept. 6 from 6-7 p.m. and Sept. 7 from 11 a.m. -10:30 a.m. at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. Admission is FREE!
D.C. Blues Festival
Blues fans at last years’ D.C. Blues Festival. (Photo: D.C. Jazz Society)
For 27 years, the D.C. Blues Festival has helped shine a spotlight on some of the best and hardest working artists of the genre. This year the events will feature performances from vocal powerhouses Sharrie Williams and guitarist James Armstrong, who has worked with icons like Buddy Guy, Albert Collins and Rickie Lee Jones, among others. Other performers include Jackson & Oziel, The Mojo Priests and Full Power Blues.
Sept. 5 from noon-7:30 p.m. at Carter Barron Amphitheatre, 4850 Colorado Ave. NW. Admission is FREE!
Sunday Splash Pool Party
Sunday is the last Sunday Splash pool party at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. (Photo: Capitol Skyline Hotel)
The final Summer Splash pool party of the summer at Capitol Skyline Hotel in Southwest D.C. features DJs Antonio Ernesto, G-Mills and Yez spinning tracks while you take a dip, scope the scenery and try to be seen. There will be three outdoor bars and another indoors, and an outdoor grill will servefood all day.
Sept. 6 from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, 10 I St. SW Admission is FREE, but registration is recommended.
Best of Totally Awesome
The AFI Silver will show The Breakfast Club at noon on Monday. (Photo: The Kobal Collection)
Well, here we are. School starts tomorrow. You may as well feel rebellious on the unofficial last day of summer. AFI Silver feels your pain, and it’s showing two school daze classics as part of its Best of Totally Awesome: Great Films of the 1980s series. At noon, head to the library for a day of detention with the Brat Pack in The Breakfast Club. Then at 6:45 p.m., take notes on ditching class from the best in the business in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Sept. 7 at noon and 6:45 p.m. at the AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, students and military and $7 for children.
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.
