Arts on Foot Festival celebrates Penn Quarter

It’s one thing to talk about how different things are downtown today: new restaurants, new museums, new theaters, new shops, new people, a busy, high-energy streetscape and night life.

But to gauge just how much has changed, step out Saturday to Penn Quarter’s 13th annual Arts on Foot Festival. It’s a celebration of all that is vibrant — there’s plenty — in the area bounded by Fourth and 14th streets and L Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

For city lovers, it could prove to be pure bliss.

“The streets are full of visitors — from near and far — exploring, shopping and experiencing firsthand the accessibility and excitement that make up our revitalized downtown,” says Angela Fox, executive director and CEO of Cultural Tourism DC. Cultural Tourism will run a guided walking tour of the Penn Quarter neighborhood starting at 11 a.m. from its festival pavilion on F Street.

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So why not begin at the center of the festival? That’s the tented area between Seventh and Ninth streets — between the National Portrait Gallery, still being renovated, and the International Spy Museum at 800 F St. NW and the Hotel Monaco at 700 F St. NW. Then fan out into the Penn Quarter area to see the rich and varied cultural scene.

The main festival area is both a destination and a starting point: It’s within sight of a cluster of new restaurants on Seventh Street and Ninth Street, in the shadow of the MCI Center. It’s just one block from the busy Seventh Street corridor — and that goes all the way from the National Archives, past the Shakespeare Theatre Company (where Avery Brooks is starring in “Othello”), past the District Chop House and on to Gallery Place and a gaggle of new stores and shops and the Regal Cinema all the way up to the Warehouse Theater, a cutting-edge showcase for performance and visual art.

The tented area features top chefs from downtown restaurants putting on cooking demonstrations as part of a “Cooking as Art” program. You don’t have to bring lunch, either, since many of Penn Quarter’s top restaurants will be offering samplings for sale for a dollar or two.

A performance stage, hosted by Smooth Jazz 105.9 radio personalities, will offer live music and performances. Other tents will feature presentations by the area’s theaters, museums, galleries and cultural institutions. And at a juried art market 75 artists will show off their works for sale.

That’s just for starters. From there, visitors can branch out toward a rich array of cultural and art offerings, many of them especially held, staged or created for this annual festival.

It’s helpful to use a “passport,” a booklet that also serves as a guide, program, map and event listing. You can get individual visits to sites stamped, making you eligible for prizes from local shops and restaurants.

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Even in its infancy, the festival was designed to put visitors directly in the path of the area’s cultural and arts sites. You’re likely to end up at the National Building Museum, which is offering not only special children’s activities but the busy “Festival of the Building Arts.” That’s adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, where a children’s tour of the memorial is available.

Or you could wind up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, only a block down from the center of the festivities, to enjoy a sidewalk book sale, musical performances, art exhibits and artists.

You might find yourself on a backstage tour at the Warner Theater, the Warehouse Theater or the Woolly Mammoth Theater. At the nearby National Theatre, you might run into the Barrymore Eagle, the theater’s mascot, or take in a children’s puppet show of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.

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