Festivals!! YAY!! (Baltimore, Columbia, Gaithersburg: neighborhoods, live, best)

[jenni4]

I don't know about Maryland. But in Indiana, every other town had some sort of annual festival. strawberry festival, blueberry festival, mellon fest, feast of the hunters moon, and our town had the apple-popcorn festival in honor of our local orchard and we produce popcorn that is grown especially for Orval Redenbacher popcorn.

I LOVE festivals!!! What kind, where, and when are Maryland's festivals.

[WanderingCajun]

I hope something has changed since I lived in Maryland. When I was there quite a few of the "festivals" had rules against taking babies in back carriers or using even a small stroller. This was in the Laurel area, Greenbelt, up towards Balt too. It ruined it for the families IMO. I was told it was to "protect" seniors attending. I thought it was just a bunch of hogwash. This was in the early 90's.

[kjg1963]

Laurel has the Main Street Festival in May and the Riverfest festival in the Fall. Neither one prohibits strollers or back carriers. You can even bring your dog! There is also a summer festival at Montpelier Mansion and at Laurel Lakes. Greenbelt has one in the summer also. Of course, there is always the Fire Works on the 4th at Laurel Lakes and Greenbelt.

Like seafood? Go to Sandy Point for the Seafood Festival! Strawberry festivals are everywhere. Craft festivals too. If you like to get Medeival, go to the Renaissance Festival. Ever ate squid legs (yuck! suction cups and all) go to the Italian Festival. Like beer, go to Oktoberfest at Blobs Park (oops it closed last year, dang!). We got 'em all here in Maryland.

[newhart]

Baltimore has ethnic festivals most weekends from June through October. Columbia has the Festival of the Arts in June which has outdoor events on the lakefront in addition to first-class performances at various indoor sites.

[jonjj]

Baltimore has tons of festivals. Some are: Art Fest, The Book Festival, Fells Point Fun Fest, Kinetic Race Festival, Hon Fest, Preakness events, the new Jazz Festival, Latino Fest, Gay Pride, Polish and Greek Festivals, MLK Parade, Irish Parade, Maryland Film Festival, 4th of July, New Years Fireworks, Little Italy Open Air Festival, Thanksgiving Parade, Lighted Boat Parade, Parade of Lanterns, etc. Those were just off the top of my head. Most neighborhoods have a festival at some point during the year and there are many more ethnic festivals. Check the City Paper in advance to see when and where they are going to occur. Also, one event the state has is the annual walk across the bridge which I love. I am sure Maryland also has a ton along with neighboring DC.

[fishfister]

Something I don't like about any festival or other celebration of any type in the DC metropolitan area is it is usually the only event going on in the entire area for that weekend and the entire area gloms onto it and it loses its flair.
It becomes the "DC metropolitan get together" with too many people and little idea of what is going on.

There are several of you who know of what I speak.

[jessy0780]

A lot of them go one for longer than one day, like the Seafood festival, which is 3 days, and The Renn Fest, which is several months long. I love to go to different Halloween festivals- there's a great one at Butler's Orchard in Gaithersburg, most of them go through October. They've got the best honey crisp apples and apple cider!