The Atlantic Festival, which runs from September 21 through September 23, has found a new home at the Wharf. The move was sparked by the media company’s plans to relocate its headquarters to the Southwest development later this year.”It was about really setting down some roots and allowing us to build a new campus with this built-in experience in this bustling Wharf neighborhood,” says Candace Montgomery, senior vice president and general manager of AtlanticLive.
Announced Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Anthony Fauci and and White House chief of staff Ronald Klain will headline the three-day festival. They will be joined by Michael R. Jackson, the playwright and composer of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning A Strange Loop; Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson; and lots of Atlantic writers and editors. The event will also feature the premiere of upcoming documentary series Shadowland, based on the magazine’s reporting on conspiracy theories; a session on banned books with the Atlantic contributing writer and author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi; happy hours; and networking events.
Unlike last year’s event, the festival doesn’t have a specific theme. But attendees will be able to curate their own festival itinerary based on their interests in politics, culture, tech, and other topics. “The festival really speaks to us bringing the most consequential issues of our time to the biggest stages and creating an experience where you can hear multiple diverse perspectives,” Montgomery says. “If you’re interested race and politics or business, you can sort [the events] by category and build your own festival schedule.”
Tickets are now on sale, with passes starting at $350. Folks can choose between the All-Access, Three-Day, One-Day, or Three-Evening passes, based on which events they want to attend. If you don’t want to break the bank, you can also snag a free pass to catch a livestream of their afternoon programming each day.
Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.
