On Saturday, September 29, Southwest DC holds our neighborhood’s annual free-admission SW ArtsFest (view the Map & Schedule [pdf]). This year, SW ArtsFest forms part of Art4All DC, a six-week autumn arts celebration across DC’s four quadrants. For more about Art4All, go to culturaltourismdc.org.

Like last year’s SW ArtsFest, SW ArtsFest 2012 presents live music, outdoor art and flea markets, hand dancing, a film series, walking tours, many types of food and a sock-puppet studio on the waterfront.

Four neighborhood churches return from last year’s festival. At Westminster Presbyterian, listen to the Jazz Preservation Festival. Stroll St. Augustine Episcopal’s End-of-Summer Fair. Watch DC Shorts Film Festival selections at Christ United Methodist. Shop for bargains at Second Union Baptist’s Find the Art in the Flea Market.

SW ArtsFest 2012 also has spectacular new features. Check out the Central Art Market at the corner of M and 4th Streets, SW. Ride in the Festival of Decorated Bikes: A Rolling Art Parade, along M Street from Yards Park to 4th Street in Southwest. Watch and listen to Washington National Opera’s Opera in the Outfield simulcast of Don Giovanni at Nationals Park.

Most exciting: place your bid in the 2012 SW ArtsFest silent auction at the SW ArtsFest information table, just outside the Waterfront Metrorail Station. The silent auction’s fabulous items include dinners on cruise ships, weekend stays at the Capitol Skyline and the Holiday Inn and even a rare signed Bryce Harper National League bat.

SW ArtsFest would like to thank its generous donors: Barbara Ehrlich, Capitol Skyline Hotel, DC Shorts Film Festival, Documentary Center, Entertainment Cruises, Holiday Inn, Perry Klein, TR SW, the Washington Nationals, the Washington Waterfront Association, and (for their financial contributions) ArtsFest producers Arena Stage, Christ United Methodist Church, Washington Walks, Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, and Westminster Presbyterian Church. A special thanks for help with marketing to Donna Ledbetter and to MT Rohan Communications and also to Waterfront Station developers Vornado/Charles E. Smith for the use of its M Street lots.

You still have time to volunteer – even after the festival, SW ArtsFest will need volunteers. Contact Meg Brinckman at 202-554-2259 or mbrinckman@comcast.net. Without our donors, contributors and volunteers, Southwest could not have an arts festival.

See you at SW ArtsFest!

Courtesy of the organizers of SW ArtsFest.

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