Start of Festival Season

 It's Here, Finally...

Back when I lived in Baltimore's queer hub, the Mt Vernon community, the Flower Mart was hailed as the official start of festival season. One weekend in May, Mt Vernon place/Washington Monument exploded in plants, music, and food. 

 

A view of the Washington Monument from our seat in the grass, at the 2023 Flower Mart.

Friends and I would walk over from my apartment, usually hungover, to enjoy Flower Mart. It was the gateway...afterward we could then look forward to: 

• the Pow wow (now being re-tooled as a better representation of first nations communities), 
• SoWeBo festival, 
• Caribbean Festival
  
• Charles Village festival, 
•  Gay Pride, 
• the Bluegrass Festival, 
• ArtScape,
• AfrAm Festival, 
• the Lavender festival, 
• MD State Fair, 
  
• the Renaissance festival in late October, and everything in between!
  

From the Charm City Bluegrass festival, also on Saturday, in Baltimore.

These were all opportunities to get glammed up, day drink, catch up with friends, see live music, buy art, sit in the grass, and eat street chicken. Let me just say that until Saturday, I have not eaten street chicken since the Gay Pride Picnic (at Druid Hill Park) in '07 (when I got hella-sick after eating chicken on a stick). 

Saturday's Flower Mart was like coming home to the Mt Vernon of 2 decades past, in fact it's even better as I'm no longer faced with social anxiety. I joined hubby and friends in a couple glasses of wine, saw a few of his teacher friends, complimented women on beautiful dresses, and ate street chicken (in the form of Chicken Tika Masala + Samosas + Veggie Pakoras courtesy of Akbar Restaurant ; a Mt Vernon staple. 

One recent pin-ball artwork by Bob Godin

After a meal seated in the grass north of the monument, we schlepped further north to the Ottobar to take in some pin ball art by one of my fave former bartenders at the Mt Total Tavern ..it was like a blast from years past. I had to get a picture of with my favorite couple who made it.

It's possible I haven't seen these two phenomenal artists in 10 years. I feel like I watched them grow up.

 

We and a few friends at the Charles Village Festival (2023)