Location

On Saturday September 25, 2010, the Barracks Row Fall Festival on Capitol Hill will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. hosted by Barracks Row Main Street. This urban street fair is held annually on Washington, DC’s oldest commercial corridor, 8th Street, SE, known as Barracks Row, between E Street, SE, and I Street, SE, one block from the Eastern Market Metro Plaza. Right away you will be reminded of classic hometown American street fairs. There will be a midway with cotton candy; a petting zoo with llamas, lambs and rabbits; games for kids and magic shows; as well as antique cars and artists’ booths. Fair-goers can also grab a table at one of Barrack’s Row’s 30+ restaurants and watch this unique fair unfold!

A stage will be set up at the corner of 8th and G Streets, SE. Bands will play fair music all day long and dancing is encouraged at the intersection. You will see Chesty XIII, the official mascot of the United States Marine Corps. An English bulldog, Chesty will be escorted by her trainer on walks all afternoon to greet local fans, pose for photos, and meet skydivers who’ve just announced they will drop in.

New Orleans Chef Paul Prudhomme will sign cookbooks at the Military Chef’s Cook-Off area 10-11 a.m. The Cook-Off will feature a black box contest where military and White House chefs open their boxes of ingredients and create a culinary masterpiece in tents complete with field ovens, right in front of your eyes on the midway. The winning team will take home the Military Top Chef Award, presented at 4:45 p.m. by the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Conway.

Joining General Conway to make the awards presentations will be the fabulous Redskins Cheerleaders, the Redskinettes. See www.barracksrow.org for schedules of cheerleaders, skydivers, and bands.

For a touch of military-past, ten historic uniforms will be worn by Marines who will tell you the dates of the uniforms and which war they fought in. Be on the lookout for great boots, epaulets, plumes and capes.

Beyond the Cook-Off tents there is a row of handsome turn-of-the-century brick buildings. These buildings are home of the officers serving at Marine Barracks Washington, the oldest post in the Marine Corps where the famous sunset parades are held every Friday throughout the summer months. The barracks will be open during the festival for docent-lead tours.

Additionally, five docent-lead tours of the stately Home of the Commandants are scheduled during the Barracks Row Fall Festival on Capitol Hill. Closing right after the festival for a year of renovations, this home is full of magnificent period furniture and celebrates the lives of the thirty four Commandants of the Marine Corps who have lived there from 1806 to the present. This is one of the most popular attractions of the festival.