FESTIVALS

Did someone say festival? I think there's an echo in here... there are so many festivals–and open houses–it's going to be hard to catch them all.

Saturday

Check out the annual D.C. VegFest, this year in Foggy Bottom at GWU from noon to 6 p.m. Enjoy free samples of veggie food, cooking demos, workshops and more.

It's also the annual Arts on Foot Festival along 7th & F Streets, NW. Chat with local designers and artists, view and purchase their works, enjoy live music and more from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hop over the bridge to Virginia for the 20th Annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival on Saturday from 1 to 7 p.m. If you're coming from D.C., you may want to hop on the newest Circulator route which covers Dupont-Georgetown-Rosslyn, rather than Metro. The snazzy red bus has comfy seats, gives you a three hour transfer with Smartrip, and is still just a buck.

Sunday

Kick back and listen to some folk music at the annual Takoma Park Folk Festival from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m

Enjoy an eclectic mix of music and performances on five stages at the annual Adams Morgan Day Festival where you can also stroll through the Arts on Belmont vendors and enjoy great food, drinks and people watching from noon to 7 p.m.

OPEN HOUSES

Saturday

Check out the Kennedy Center's Open House Arts Festival and Multicultural Childrens' Book Festival from noon to 6 p.m.

Fans of poetry and literature can head over to Bethesda to learn more about the programs offered at The Writer's Center at their open house event from noon to 3 p.m.

Sunday

Pack a picnic and hang out with friends or family in the garden a the Kreeger Museum Open House. Explore one of DC’s lesser known museums and enjoy live music, workshops and more, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

ART OPENINGS & RECEPTIONS

Thursday
It's the Second Thursday Art Night in Old Town Alexandria. Browse through artists studios and enjoy special events at The Torpedo Factory and walk over to Gallery West, just down the street, for their reception for “Big World–Small Paintings” from 6 to 9 p.m.

Friday

Head over to the opening at Transformer Gallery on P Street for their new site-specific installation, "Archetype," by British artist Rebecca Key, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Saturday

In the Atlas District over at 8th and H Streets NE, you can check out the opening of “Night Goat and other Flights of Fancy” at City Gallery from 6 to 9 p.m.

Gallery plan b, on 14th St near P, also hosts an opening reception for their new show “Relative: Recent Paintings and Drawings” from 6 to 8 p.m.

OTHER STUFF OF INTEREST...

Thursday

The Art Market, in connection with the Arts on Foot Festival, is taking place today and tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Stroll through, view and purchase works from local artists and designers, just steps from the Gallery Place-Chinatown metro arena exit at 7th & F Streets NW.

"Pix on the Plaza" will be showing a free outdoor screening of “Shine at Light” at Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 13th & Penn. Ave, NW, above the Federal Triangle metro, at 8 p.m. preceded by free Karaoke which starts at 6 p.m.

Friday

Jazz saxophonist Bruce Swain plays the final "Jazz in the Garden" this summer at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

Saturday
Learn how to make gazpacho with chef Ris Lacoste of Ris at the newly renovated “social” Safeway in Georgetown on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Join Collective Voices at MLK Library at 1 p.m. as they host a special Poetry and Performance event to Commemorate 9/11.

Sunday

It's the last day to check out the Da Vinci exhibit at National Geographic.The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission to the exhibit is free.

Amy Melrose is the creator of Free in DC, a blog that highlights low-cost and free events in the D.C. metro area. For complete details about the events mentioned above, visit Free in DC or follow Free in DC on Facebook.

Saturday, Sept. 11
On a map of jazz festivals, the Rosslyn Jazz Festival has historically been a tiny speck. The one-day free event tends to gather a few regional artists from DC and Baltimore and mix them with a national headliner—generally a traditionalist—for a dependable but small-scale afternoon of music. This year, however, is the festival’s 20th anniversary, and to commemorate it they’re doing something very different. The top-line act is still a (very good) straight-ahead artist, critically acclaimed vocalist Tierney Sutton. But there’s much more to the lineup, beginning with the zesty, enthusiastic, and edgier-than-you-think Afro-Bop Alliance, a Latin jazz septet whose danceable rhythms sneak the heavy stuff right past. Jason Moran is quite simply the most talked about (and lauded) pianist of his generation, with a fascination for melding jazz with the postmodern and a tendency to blur the separations between eras in the music’s history. The Bad Plus, a progressive jazz piano trio from the Midwest, have made waves with their quirky and avant-garde cover tunes (from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”), but whose captivating new album Never Stop features only their complex and angular original compositions. Call it “Rosslyn Gets Hip.” The Rosslyn Jazz Festival takes place at 1:00 p.m. at Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Highway, Rosslyn. Free.

Monday, Sept. 13
Bassist Charnett Moffett joined Wynton Marsalis’ first band when he was 19, went on to work with Ornette Coleman (as had Charles, his drummer father), and has since played every style within and without that spectrum. " I’ve always had an open mind," Moffett told City Paper last year, "and I’ve tried to incorporate many different styles into the expression of a creative idea in the moment." But he does it on his own terms, impossible to predict save for bass solos that are intricate and original beyond imagination. Moffett is among the most diverse and idiosyncratic musicians in the world these days, one who sees it as his purpose to use expanding technology to capture the expanding possibilities of humanity and creativity. That will make for an extraordinary performance when he performs at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $25.

Wednesday, Sept. 15
Lenny Robinson is, like a surprising number of D.C.'s jazz musicians, a veteran of the U.S. Army Band. He's also worked with Stanley Turrentine, Dewey Redman, Jaco Pastorius, among others, but those of us in the District know him simply as a gregarious but steady and disciplined drummer and bandeader. By and large he works the straight-ahead angle with his regular trio, featuring local power players Brian Settles on tenor saxophone and Tarus Mateen on bass. They used to be known simply as the Lenny Robinson Trio, but they've got a new moniker: Mad Curious, no doubt in deference to the unknown territory on the fringe that they tend to explore in their music. But all you really need to know is that three of the best musicians in DC are working together at 8 and 10 PM at Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW. $10.

Not this year. It's the festival's 20th anniversary, and it's responding with some A-tier musicians. Headlining on September 11 is Tierney Sutton, the tremendously acclaimed (and Grammy-nominated) vocalist; the supporting cast includes the Afro-Bop Alliance, an award-winning and energetic-as-hell Latin jazz septet from Annapolis; the Bad Plus, the Midwestern trio who have made an enormous reputation with their performances of rock songs and quirky originals in an avant-garde context; and Jason Moran Bandwagon, whom I've already told you about.

That there is a can't-miss event, especially with no cover.

Arlington Arts, the good people behind the annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival, have just announced that the "predicted severity of Tropical Storm Hanna" has resulted in the festival's cancellation. No rain date or anything...just flat canceled.

If you were planning to head out to Gateway Park on North Lynn Street to see and hear pianist Lafayette Gilchrist, harmonicist Frederic Yonnet, singer Holly Cole, or the Spanish Harlem Orchestra–for that matter, if you were planning to stay in and listen to it on WPFW's simulcast–well, make new plans.