Things to Do

Crazy Hair Alert! It’s Honfest, Hon.

The Baltimore festival offers hair-raising fun this weekend

Baltimore’s 36th Street this weekend will be a beehive of activity–literally–during Honfest 2015.

The unorthodox street fair, which started in 1994 as a beauty pageant of sorts behind Café Hon (“hon,” short for honey, is a term of endearment), has grown to fill four blocks of the quirky Hampden neighborhood and to celebrate the working women of Bawlmer. It’s a charming parade of cat-eye glasses, blue eye shadow, spandex, leopard print, and bouffants—most adorned with bows or flowers.

Visitors can get their very own beehive styled in the Glamour Lounge, listen to live music on multiple stages, watch contests like the Best Hon talent show or Best Mustache Contest, and check out work by local artists.

The festival runs Saturday, June 13, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (with hundreds of beehived hons gathering at 4 pm for a photo at Roland Avenue and 36th Street), and Sunday from noon to 6.

Editor in chief

Sherri Dalphonse joined Washingtonian in 1986 as an editorial intern, and worked her way to the top of the masthead when she was named editor-in-chief in 2022. She oversees the magazine’s editorial staff, and guides the magazine’s stories and direction. She lives in DC.