Thursday, September 2
It’s Beatlemania at Gaylord National this weekend, with more than 100 Beatles cover bands taking the stage at the Abbey Road on the River music festival. In addition to music, there’ll be film screenings, forum discussions, guest speakers, karaoke sessions, and vendors selling Fab Four memorabilia. The festival runs Thursday through Monday with events throughout the day. Tickets are $15 to $199.95; purchase them here.
Get a dose of culture while you party at the Art Museum of the Americas’ inaugural Art After Dark event. A $15 tickets gets you in for a night of performance and video art by local artists, dancing, and a cash bar. Get tickets here. 8 to midnight.
Professionals in the City is hosting its final Jazz on Jackson Place event of the summer at the Decatur House. This month’s installment features a performance by the Yvonne Johnson Trio. Tickets ($25) include a tour of the historic venue and admission to the performance, plus beer, wine, and light hors d’oeuvres. 6:30 to 8:30.
The Gibson knows how to celebrate Labor Day: with an all-you-can-eat-and-drink party. The event, which is $75 a person, includes a barbecue, Dolcezza gelato floats, ice-cream sundaes, and more. Call 202-232-2156 for reservations. 8 PM to 2 AM.
Parrotheads can take one last trip to Margaritaville—or in this case, Bristow, Virginia—for the ultimate end-of-summer concert. Jimmy Buffett’s playing tonight and Saturday at 8. Tickets are $48.50 to $157.
Friday, September 3
Haitian rums are the theme at Café Atlàntico’s annual Rum Weekend, which runs through Sunday. Friday’s the night to go, though, because the restaurant is offering free tastings from 4 to 6. Other Rum Weekend specials include a Rhum Barbancourt flight ($15), which gets you three one-ounce pours of the Haiti-based producer’s rum; specialty rum-based cocktails ($11 to $12); and a four-course dinner menu ($55), featuring chicken croquette “lollipops,” rum-glazed short ribs, rum-poached snapper, and rum cake. Can’t make it this weekend? Not to worry. The rum-and-vermouth cocktail Jose’s Sour will be available throughout September; a portion of each drink sale will be donated to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. For more information, go here. Call 202-393-0812 to make reservations.
Wolf Trap’s Filene Center is alive with the Sound of Music this weekend—the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is on stage through Sunday. Tickets are $20 to $80. There are matinee performances at 2 as well as evening performances at 8.
Saturday, September 4
For the ninth year in a row, the Kennedy Center hosts the Page to Stage Festival, a great way to witness the genesis of a play. More than 40 of the area’s theater companies are holding free readings and rehearsals of works currently under development. The event, which runs through Monday, is free, but seating is limited—arrive early to guarantee a spot. Readings run from 2 to 10.
Have the end-of-summer blues? Maybe the annual DC Blues Festival at Carter Barron Amphitheatre will cheer you up. The free event features five blues acts, including the Silver Spring-based Big Boy Little Band, Louisiana’s Bryan Lee and the Blues Power Band, and California-based singer-songwriter Doug MacLeod. Noon.
Escape the heat and head to Annapolis’s Susan C. Campbell Park for the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association Race Week. While the boats compete on the Chesapeake, enjoy a variety of tent parties featuring live music, shopping, food, and drinks. Saturday and Sunday noon to 8, Monday 3 to 8. Free.
The Mid-Atlantic Breakdancing Championship comes to Alexandria’s Urban Evolution gym today. Hundreds of breakdancers will perform their best moves to compete for a $1,000 prize. $15; 2 to 10.
Oh, The Wiz. We admit it—this Michael Jackson/Diana Ross-version of the Wizard of Oz terrified us as kids. Time to face our fears, right? The Atlas Performing Arts Center is screening the 1978 film today as part of its Summer Film Series. Kids are welcome (at their own risk!). 5 PM; $6.
The Black Cat turns 17 today and is celebrating with a humongous party featuring 11 local bands. $5; 8 PM.
The first Saturday of the month means Mass Appeal at Rock & Roll Hotel. DJs spin everything from ’80s pop to electronica for this popular dance night. 9:30 to 2:30; free.
Sunday, September 5
It wouldn’t be a national holiday without some sort of patriotic hullabaloo, right? The annual Labor Day Capitol Concert hits the West Lawn of the Capitol Building tonight at 8. The free, no-tickets-required concert includes a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra led by associate conductor Emil de Cou. Gates open at 3:15.
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Free-for-All performances of Twelfth Night conclude today with shows at 2 and 7:30. This year, free tickets are being given out via an online lottery. For matinée tickets, visit the Web site between midnight and 1 PM on the day prior to the performance; tickets for evening performances are given out between midnight and 1 on the day of the show. Performances are held at Sidney Harman Hall.
Monday, September 6
Glen Echo Park’s annual Labor Day Art Show wraps up today. It features photographs, paintings, ceramics, jewelry, and more from over 150 artists. Pieces are available for purchase. Noon to 6 in the Spanish Ballroom.
The city of Herndon is celebrating Labor Day with an all-day jazz festival featuring unlimited wine tastings as well as craft-beer samples. A $15 ticket gets you samples of as many wines as you’d like or pours of five micro-brew beers; extra beer tastings are $1 each. Nondrinkers can get in for $8 and enjoy a day of music and crafts. 12:30 to 6 at the Herndon Town Green.
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