The Dutch ambassador, ballet dancers, a pair of expert bell ringers, and a princess.
All are among those set to be on hand for a special concert at the Netherlands Carillon near Rosslyn tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. The “one-of-a-kind event that celebrates friendship and freedom” is set to take place from 4-6 p.m.
“The second annual Freedom Concert is organized by the National Park Service and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in recognition of the Netherlands’ Liberation Day (May 5),” the Dutch embassy said in a press release. “Princess Margriet will deliver a keynote speech on the importance of celebrating freedom. The event also features carillonneurs Edward Nassor (United States) and Rosemarie Seuntiëns (the Netherlands) and a special performance by the Washington School of Ballet.”
The Netherlands Carillon, which wrapped up a two-year restoration project in 2021, features 53 bells and “serves as a reminder of the strong bond between the United States and the Netherlands,” the embassy notes. It was a gift from the Dutch people after World War II.
Princess Margriet, born in exile in Canada in 1943, counts President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a godparent.
More on the free concert, below, from another embassy press release.
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the George Washington Memorial Parkway of the National Park Service present the 2nd annual Freedom Concert at 4 p.m. May 10 at the Netherlands Carillon.
The Netherlands Carillon is a 127-foot-tall musical monument and a symbol of peace and freedom. It was presented to President Truman in 1952 by Queen Juliana as a gift from the Dutch people to the American people as token of gratitude for their help during and after World War II.
The Freedom Concert is held in recognition of the Netherlands’ Liberation Day which is celebrated on May 5.
Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, the featured guest speaker, will give remarks on the importance of celebrating freedom. Her Royal Highness was born in 1943 in Canada during World War II. The Royal Family returned to the Netherlands once it was liberated by Allied Forces in 1945.
Carillonneurs Edward Nassor of the United States and Rosemarie Seuntiëns from the Netherlands will play a selection of modern and classical music, and students from the Washington School of Ballet will perform a dance choreographed by Mimmo Miccolis specifically for the concert.
At the event, the media will have the opportunity to interview Dutch Ambassador André Haspels, Christine Smith, Deputy Superintendent of the National Park Service – George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the carillonneurs and dancers from the Washington School of Ballet.
The Columbia Pike Blues Festival is returning this summer for its 26th edition.
The annual summer music festival is set to take place on June 17 this year and will span several Columbia Pike blocks. It will feature a collection of performances, local food, beer, and family-friendly activities, as it usually does.
This year’s headliner is Judith Hill, a singer and songwriter featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Feet from Stardom.” She’s performed and worked with John Legend, Josh Groban, Prince, and Michael Jackson and has self-produced several of her own albums.
Also playing at the festival are Annika Chambers and Paul DesLauriers, local blues guitarist Bobby Thompson, Gayle Harrod Band, and Spice Cake Blues.
A number of local restaurants will be providing food and drinks, including New District Brewing. As co-owner Mike Katrivanos told ARLnow last month, the Green Valley-based brewery will be serving beer at the festival again this year despite the fact they may be without a home come June.
Another now-shuttered business, Rincome Thai, is still set to curate the wine list for the Blues Festival.
There will also be a kids activity area, while 9th Rd. S. will be transformed into an “art alley” where the Arlington Art Truck is set to have interactive exhibits, activities, and an exhibit from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project.
More programming and activities are still expected to be added to the line-up this year, Arlington Arts marketing director Jim Byers told ARLnow. Those additions will be announced via social media as it gets closer to the festival.
Arlington Arts co-produces the event with the Columbia Pike Partnership.
About 7,000 people are expected to come to the festival this year, though that depends on the weather, Byers said. In 2022, it’s estimated about 8,000 people attended, as the festival returned to being fully in-person for the first time in three years. It was also the festival’s 25th anniversary.
The Columbia Pike Blues Festival started in 1995 and, according to organizers, it is considered the largest music festival of its kind in the D.C. area.
A big event postponed due to the April 1 wind storm has been rescheduled.
Pink in the Park, organized by the National Landing Business Improvement District, will now be held from 4-8 p.m. on Sunday, April 30. Tickets, available for free online, are required.
“Located at the Long Bridge Park Aquatics & Fitness Center, Pink in the Park will feature an exciting musical lineup of DJ Chan Don, Crush Funk Brass, Umami House, Footwerk, Reesa Renee, and headliner Black Alley,” a BID spokesperson wrote. “With a cashless beverage garden, food trucks, immersive, cherry blossom-inspired art installations, Instagrammable moments and more, Pink in the Park is the can’t-miss finale to cherry blossom season!”
The event will be hosted by Orlando Jones of MADtv and 7Up spokesman fame.
More below, from a press release.
Pink isn’t just a color, it’s a vibe. Celebrate the end of cherry blossom season and pump up the pink at Pink in the Park, presented by Amazon and produced by the National Landing Business Improvement District at the Long Bridge Park Aquatics & Fitness Center in National Landing.
From 4 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 30, adults can enjoy unforgettable music and entertainment with special guest and celebrity host Orlando Jones, and performances by DJ Chan Don, Crush Funk Brass, Umami House, Footwerk, Reesa Renee, and headliner Black Alley. Enjoy a spring-themed cashless beverage garden, food trucks, immersive, cherry blossom-inspired art installations, Instagrammable moments, and much more.
Full performance lineup includes:
4:00 p.m.: DJ Chan Don
4:30 p.m.: Crush Funk Brass
5:00 p.m.: Umami House
5:30 p.m. Footwerk
6:15 p.m.: Reesa Renee
7:00 p.m.: Black Alley
Adult beverages, including beer and wine, will be provided by #FrayLife Bar, Crystal City Wine Shop, Beauty Champagne and Sugar Boutique, Drunk Fruit, Lost Boy Cider and more. Guests can also sample flavors of National Landing restaurants and food trucks including:
And more!
“We are excited to announce a new date for Pink in Park and to bring all the pink energy across the river in National Landing on Sunday, April 30 as we close out the National Cherry Blossom Festival,” said Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, President and Executive Director of the National Landing BID. “We’re proud to highlight the festival in our neighborhood’s signature park in collaboration with our sponsors and vibrant National Landing businesses and look forward to being part of our region’s storied cherry blossom celebration.”
“Amazon is thrilled to partner with the National Landing BID and the National Cherry Blossom Festival to bring the joy of the cherry blossoms to National Landing,” said Patrick Phillippi, Senior Manager of Community Engagement for Amazon. “Pink in the Park will be one of the largest National Cherry Blossom Festival events ever in Virginia and we are excited to celebrate spring with our community.”
Please stay tuned for updates and more community programming by visiting nationallanding.org or following the BID on Instagram @nationallanding.
WHEN: Sunday, April 30 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Long Bridge Park Aquatics & Fitness Center; 333 Long Bridge Drive, Arlington, Virginia
HOW: FREE festival tickets are available at NationalLanding.org/Pink. Tickets are required.
(Updated 4:45 p.m. on 3/14/23) Builders and entrepreneurs tell ARLnow they are waiting up to twice as long as they used to for Arlington County to issue permits, costing them thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of dollars.
Permits that used to be issued the same day now take 1-3 weeks while those that took 2-3 months take double that time, they say. Meanwhile, the Arlington Permit Office’s limited hours of operation compound the delays and the high permitting fees exacerbate the costs incurred from waiting.
The apparent degradation of the county’s permit operation — corroborated by a number of sources, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals — follows the years-long development of a new online permitting system dubbed Permit Arlington.
The online system was touted by the county as a solution for long-standing problems with the former, more antiquated paper system.
“They have completely destroyed the system. They are slowing progress. The new system still doesn’t work nearly two years later,” a local custom home builder said. “Builders’ and developers’ holding costs are staggering.”
The Arlington Chamber of Commerce concurs.
“Some of our members may accept paying more for a quality permit service, but the timeframe and process must improve in order to justify the costs,” spokesman John Musso said. “We encourage the County to continue to recognize businesses as customers seeking a service, in this case permits.”
The complaints come as Arlington County continues transferring all permitting processes to its online system. The county has tied delays to the migration of permits into the system but has maintained that the overall wait time has not changed.
“With the phased launches of Permit Arlington, we are moving from a system with 1990 technology to a modern system,” said Dept. of Community Housing, Planning and Development spokeswoman Erika Moore. “This type of technological transition is complex and presents a learning curve for both staff and customers as all users adjust to using a new system.”
As part of the migration process, which started in 2019, Certificate of Occupancy permits moved online last week and last summer, nearly 10,000 active applications for building, trade and land disturbing activity permits moved online.
In response to customer inquiries, Moore said the Permit Arlington team is actively working through issues, has increased the size of the help desk team, has added numerous “how-to” documents and is making permanent fixes to prevent issues that caused earlier delays.
“The team will continue to work through these fixes until all the issues are resolved,” she said.
She says the Permit Arlington team applied lessons learned from the launch last summer to improve the implementation process for Certificates of Occupancy, “which launched smoothly two weeks ago.”
Musso counters there were still some issues.
“We have had several members note pain points with the transition of Certificates of Occupancy to Permit Arlington, resulting in confusion and uncertainty,” he said.
Concurrently, the county is requesting feedback about the permit process from recent applicants.
“We have heard from 250 people, but we want to provide enough time for people to respond,” Moore said. “Once it is closed, we will analyze the feedback and identify any potential action items.”
Meanwhile, the feedback was rolling into ARLnow.
Another home designer and builder was frustrated with office hours, which are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. Every third Thursday, the office closes at noon. The Permit Office re-opened for in-person service in September after being completely virtual due to the pandemic.
“I would be willing to say that the eight hours a week are just not enough and that the threat of Covid is no longer there,” said home designer and builder Leonard Matthews. “How odd it is that Arlington County Schools are [fully] open but the permit office is not?”
Arlington County code could soon no longer reference “public dance halls” and the dizzying disco the term evokes.
That would mean live entertainment venue operators would be cut loose from paying for a $600 permit annually.
This weekend, the Arlington County Board is slated to hear a request to advertise a public hearing on whether to repeal a section of the county code governing dance halls. If a hearing is approved, the Board could authorize the change next month.
The section of code in question was adopted in 1969, when people were doing the “Funky Chicken.” That year, a state law allowed localities to issue licenses for public dance halls to “regulate and mitigate the land use impacts associated with establishments where dancing occurred,” per a county report.
A Northern Virginia Sun article from the time notes that the first dancing allowed by the permit took place at the Windjammer Lounge of the Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel, the first lodging establishment opened by the now-international hotel chain.
But Arlington County says this regulation is redundant and burdensome for today’s venues hosting DJs remixing Bad Bunny beats.
That’s because four years after the 1969 code was adopted, the county began requiring business owners to obtain a County Board-approved special exception use permit to provide “live entertainment” — a broad category that includes dancing. Anyone looking to allow dancing specifically still needed the dance hall permit.
“These parallel processes effectively result in the Zoning Ordinance being the primary regulatory mechanism for public dance halls with the County Code assuming an administrative function,” according to a county report.
To ease up on live entertainment venues, the county is looking to simplify permitting processes.
Repealing the code, per the report, “both reduces regulatory burdens for small businesses and eliminates unnecessary regulatory processes without adverse impacts to standing policies and practices related to the regulation of live entertainment and public dance halls.”
The county will still regulate live entertainment venues, given the “land use impacts” associated with live venues, such as noise, disorderly guests or frequent police visits. That means there will still be public hearings, when the community can seek redress for potential impacts a venue may have, such as modified hours of operation.
“It is not just that they may be upsetting to neighbors; they are considered impacts because they are potentially ordinance violations,” said Erika Moore, a spokeswoman with the Department of Community, Planning and Development. “For example, music being played would have to violate the Noise Ordinance for it to be considered a land use impact.”
For instance, Arlington had to revoke the live entertainment permits of Pines of Italy and the Purple Lounge, both of which operated from the same building on Columbia Pike, over health and Alcoholic Beverage Control Board violations.
In proposing the change, county staff noted the dwindling number of places seeking dancing permits. For instance, the Salsa Room moved from Columbia Pike to the current Palladium space at 1524 Spring Hill Road in Tysons in March 2020.
“The current number of public dance hall permits represents a reduction of 60% in the total number of public dance halls over the past 5 years,” the report said.
The Zoning Division issued 10 public dance hall permits in the past 12 months, per the county. They were for:
- Darna (946 N. Jackson Street)
- Pike Bolivian Pizza (4111 Columbia Pike)
- O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub (3207 Washington Blvd.)
- Restaurante El Salvador (4805 Columbia Pike)
- Spider Kelly’s (3181 Wilson Blvd)
- DoubleTree Crystal City Skydome (300 Army Navy Drive)
- Clarendon Pop-Up (3185 Wilson Blvd)
- Sushi Rock (1900 Clarendon Blvd)
- Top of the Town (1400 14th Street N.)
- Renegade Coffee & Kitchen (3100 Clarendon Blvd)
But that doesn’t mean live entertainment died during the pandemic. Two shuttered venues in Clarendon — Whitlow’s on Wilson and Clarendon Ballroom — have since reopened under new ownership.
In the Whitlow’s space, local restaurateurs Christal and Mike Bramson, who are behind The Lot beer garden, opened B Live and are working to open Coco B’s this fall.
After being home to a series of pop-up bars by the Bramsons, Clarendon Ballroom, was revamped and opened by Michael Darby, a local developer, reality star and former restaurant owner.
Rosslyn’s long-running jazz festival returns this weekend, and the festivities leading up to it will include a roving band in an open-air bus.
The 30th annual Rosslyn Jazz Fest, set for this Saturday, will bring the international sounds and rhythms of jazz to Gateway Park at 1300 Langston Blvd.
From 1-7 p.m., attendees can vibe to performances by the headliner, Cuban funk musician Cimafunk, as well as these acts:
- Harlem-based Mwenso and the Shakes, a jazz and blues band made of up immigrants from all around the world
- Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, a soul-and-jazz fusion band from Seattle originally
- Groove Orchestra, a jazz ensemble headed by D.C. multi-instrumentalist Samuel Prather.
There will be food trucks and yard games, and attendees can browse tables selling merchandise and representing community organizations.
Registration is encouraged due to the park’s capacity limit.
But the jazz party is already getting started, with happy-hour performances this evening and tomorrow. And, for the first time, jazz artists will serenade strollers from an open-top bus rolling through the neighborhood this Thursday.
Tonight (Tuesday), Stickman Band will play from 6-8 p.m. at the outdoor patio of Assembly, located in Rosslyn City Center (1700 N Moore Street).
Tomorrow (Wednesday), Blue Dot Jazz Troupe will accompany shoppers at the Freshfarm Farmers Market and happy hour event from 5-7 p.m.
BroadSound Band will perform a mix of jazz and pop hits from an open-top bus between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday.
More on that from the Rosslyn Business Improvement District, which organizes the annual festival:
Rosslyn’s first ever Rosslyn Rolling Concert is here in celebration of our 30th Rosslyn Jazz Fest! On Thursday, Sept. 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. an open-top bus will hit the streets through the Rosslyn neighborhood (and beyond) with the BroadSound Band performing a mix of jazz and pop hits!
At each stop, we’ll have Rosslyn swag giveaways for those out in the neighborhood. The bus will stop at designated locations (listed below) for performances, starting and ending at Central Place Plaza. Get rolling into the weekend with this final jazz performance before the festival!
If you can’t make the rolling concert, tune in for live updates on our Instagram story!
ROSSLYN ROLLING CONCERT SCHEDULE
- (A) 11:00 a.m. – Central Place Plaza
- (B) 11:30 a.m. – Corner of N. Oak St. and Wilson Blvd. (by Hot Lola’s and the Parklet)
- (C) 12:00 p.m. – HB Woodlawn Secondary School
- (D) 12:30 p.m. – 1425 N. Courthouse Rd. (by the Arlington County Justice Center)
- (E) 1:00 p.m. – 1400 14th St. N. Arlington
- (F) 1:15 p.m. – Dark Star Park
- (G) 1:30 p.m. – Central Place Plaza
A festival to showcase Latin American music, folk dance, art and food is coming to Rosslyn next month.
The ¡Viva Cultura! Festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 13, at Gateway Park (1300 Langston Blvd), which is a five-minute walk from the Rosslyn Metro station. The event is set to begin at 10 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Centro de Apoyo Familiar is organizing the family-friendly event and plans to provide live music, dance performances, exhibitions and food, according to the festival’s website. Folk dance groups representing countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico are expected to perform their traditional dances in traditional costumes as well.
As for the exhibition, Centro de Apoyo Familiar plans to have artisans from the Caribbean as well as Central and South America offering handcrafted items. Exhibitors include a Colombian handmade jewelry store and organizations like the League of United Latin American Citizens. The deadline for becoming an exhibitor is Sunday, July 31, according to the online registration form.
An art exhibition for Latino artists in Arlington is also set. However, registration for it has yet to open, according to the event’s website.
The event will feature a number of activities catered to kids, including face painting, clowns, musical chairs and other games, according to the website. Food trucks selling cuisines from different countries are also expected. Registration for food vendors is still open.
CAF is a nonprofit working in D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia to provide housing counseling to low-income Latino and immigrant families, according to its website.
The Rosslyn Jazz Festival is scheduled to return in September with Cuban funk musician Cimafunk as the headliner.
Now in its 30th year, the festival is set to again be held at Gateway Park, at 1300 Lee Highway, between 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10.
The event is free to attend but registration is encouraged due to the park’s capacity limit. Registration is set to open on the festival’s Eventbrite page on Monday, Aug. 1 at noon, according to the event’s website.
Music magazine Billboard ranked headliner Cimafunk as one of 10 Latin Artists to Watch in 2019. The musician described his band’s style as a “mix of funk with Cuban music and African rhythms,” according to his website.
The festival this year is set to have “an emphasis on international influences” and the musicians it invited “blend African, Afro-American, and Latino traditions, rhythms and movement with conventional jazz expression,” according to the event’s news release.
The rest of the lineup includes:
- Harlem-based Mwenso and the Shakes, a jazz and blues band made of up immigrants from all around the world
- Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, a soul-and-jazz fusion band from Seattle originally
- Groove Orchestra, a jazz ensemble headed by D.C. multi-instrumentalist Samuel Prather.
Rosslyn Business Improvement District, the organizer of the event, has planned to include food trucks at the event, according to the news release. The BID is also planning on arranging lawn games and merchandise sales, as well as having community organizations set up tables at the venue, President Mary-Claire Burick told ARLnow.
Prior to the festival, Rosslyn is also set to host a week of jazz events like pop-up concerts, Burick said. More information on that will be released later this summer. The jazz festival was held last year, for the first time since before the pandemic., but this year’s event promises to be more full featured.
“As the gateway to the D.C. region, we’re proud to bring back this event to the neighborhood in a way that’s bigger than ever before,” Burick said.
A series of outdoor summer concerts is starting tonight (Friday) in Crystal City.
NaLa Fridays at the Park, formerly known as Fridays at the Fountain, is set to be held at Long Bridge Park (475 Long Bridge Drive). The concert series is set to run through October, according to the event’s website. One concert is scheduled for each Friday between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
This year is set to be the first time the concert series is being held at Long Bridge Park instead of Crystal City Water Park, its usual location. The organizer, the National Landing Business Improvement District, changed the venue because the water park is currently under construction, BID spokesperson Ashley Forrester told ARLnow.
Construction on the water park is expected to be completed in 2023.
The concerts are set to feature local bands and musicians, according to the event’s website. It is free to attend. Reesa Renee, a neo-soul and funk singer, is scheduled to perform at tonight’s series kickoff.
Applications for bands and musicians to perform are still open online. Performers are asked to play for 2.5 hours, according to the application survey.
The current lineup is listed below.
- June 17: Dunlap and Mabe, a bluegrass duo
- June 24: The Collective band, a cover band of music since the ’80s
- July 1: Crush Funk Brass, a brass band “embodying the brass tones of New Orleans,” according to its Facebook post
Unlike in previous years, no alcohol will be allowed in the concerts, said Forrester. Alcohol is prohibited at Arlington County parks.
Food trucks are still set to serve the crowds, however. Fine Dining to Go, which provides various types of cuisine from around the world, is set to run the food trucks this Friday, said BID marketing manager Colleen Rasa. Participants are welcome to bring their own food to the venue, according to the event’s website.
There is some seating at the venue and organizers say they will be giving out a limited number of picnic blankets each week to audience members. Attendees are also welcome to bring their own chairs.
The Lubber Run Amphitheater free summer concert series is back, with the first show set for this Friday.
A total of 29 performances are scheduled between now and Sunday, Aug. 14.
The amphitheater, located near the intersection of N. Columbus Street and 2nd Street N., is an outdoor, open-air space, run by Arlington County to provide family-friendly shows in the summer.
The first show in the lineup is a concert from Mark G. Meadows, a jazz musician, and his band The Movement, along with singer Kanysha Williams. It is set to take place this Friday at 8 p.m. They are expected to feature songs “Moon River” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
The series has scheduled jazz, blues and rock performances, as well as theater, orchestra, a marching band and a puppet show. No shows are currently scheduled for Sunday, June 19, as the amphitheater is closed for Juneteenth.
The shows are open to all members of the family. Audience members are welcome to picnic at the venue, although alcohol is not allowed and smoking discouraged, according to a press release.
Unless otherwise specified, the concerts are set to take place at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. on Sundays. Bad weather may cancel shows, in which case information will be posted on Arlington Arts’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. Concertgoers can visit the venue’s website or call 703-228-1850 for more information about the schedule of the day.
This summer’s scheduled shows are below.
- Friday, June 10: Mark G. Meadows and The Movement, Kanysha Williams
- Saturday, June 11: Aaron Myers
- Sunday, June 12: Dan and Claudia Zanes
- Friday, June 17: Stacy Brooks
- Saturday, June 18: Bumper Jacksons
- Friday, June 24: David Chappell and Friends
- Saturday, June 25: The 19th Street Band
- Sunday, June 26: Tale Wise: “Pirates Lost at Sea!”
- Sunday, June 26: Arlington Philharmonic (4 p.m.)
- Friday, July 1: Griefcat
- Saturday, July 2: Elikeh
- Sunday, July 3: Mr. Gabe & Holly
- Friday, July 8: The Fuss
- Saturday, July 9: Joe Keyes & The Late Bloomer Band
- Sunday, July 10: Cody Clark Magic: “Railroad Submarine!”
- Friday, July 15: Desanguashington
- Saturday, July 16: King Soul
- Sunday, July 17: Happenstance Theater: “Pinot & Augustine”
- Friday, July 22: Wicked Sycamore
- Saturday, July 23: Soul Crackers
- Sunday, July 24: Rainbow Rock Band
- Friday, July 29: Carly Harvey
- Saturday, July 30: Veronneau presents Blue Tapestry
- Sunday, July 31: Encore Stage & Studio presents “A Sidewalk Stroll!”
- Friday, August 5: Avant Bard Theatre, Encore Stage & Studio, Dominion Stage and The Arlington Players
- Saturday, August 6: Avant Bard Theatre, Encore Stage & Studio, Dominion Stage and The Arlington Players
- Sunday, August 7: Avant Bard Theatre, Encore Stage & Studio, Dominion Stage and The Arlington Players. (6 p.m.)
- Thursday, August 11: The 257th Army Band, The Band of the Nation’s Capital. (8 p.m.)
- Friday, August 12: National Chamber Ensemble
- Saturday, August 13: Karen Jonas
- Sunday, August 14: Blue Sky Puppets: “The Three Not So Little Pigs”
The live music scene in Arlington — Clarendon, more specifically — lives on.
The closure of long-time music venues Clarendon Grill and Iota Club between 2017 and 2018 left a void in the local live music scene. That has since been filled by a new generation of venues: The Renegade and the recently-opened B Live, both in Clarendon.
The latter was premised on the need for more performance venues in a place like Arlington.
“Clarendon, historically, has had several live music venues and we saw a few of them fall away,” B Live co-owner Mike Bramson told ARLnow in an interview that published yesterday. “The only remaining live music venue was the Renegade. They do a fantastic job and that’s a great venue, but we felt that historically there was always more than just one live music venue… there should be more than one option for live music as most towns and cities have.”
Of course, our larger neighbor just across the river has a much wider variety of music venues, from the 9:30 Club to Echostage to U Street Music Hall to Pearl Street Warehouse — and plenty more. It’s certainly nice to stay in Arlington for a night out, but whatever we lack here is available in D.C. within a reasonable Uber or Metro ride.
Nonetheless, Arlington continues to grow and has a large population of younger adults who value experiences like live music. And Clarendon is a regional draw — Northern Virginia’s most prominent bar district — so it’s not just Arlington residents that such venues attract.
Today we’re asking whether readers think the pair of live music venues we have now is enough, or whether more are needed.
