Annual Events & Festivals - Annual Events
Baltimore is a happening place. From family backyard crab feasts to Artscape (our yearly arts and crafts fair that draws crowds of more than one million), we have fun wherever and whenever we can. The attract locals and tourists and contribute to the 80,000 jobs that are associated with area tourism and $1 billion in taxes.
This list provides highlights of some of the more popular and some of the unusual annual events. It is by no means a complete list of every happening. Check the City Paper, the city’s most-widely distributed free paper. About one-quarter of its pages list what’s scheduled. Baltimore magazine does likewise on a monthly basis. Or, if you have a particular interest, check the Web site of the particular event organization and ask to be placed on its e-mail distribution list.
Three Web sites offer relatively up-to-the-minute information about area events and attractions; the Baltimore Office of Promotion serves as our city’s party planners, and it maintains a comprehensive calendar of Baltimore events at www.promotionandarts.org. The Maryland Office of Tourism has a statewide calendar that highlights activities throughout Maryland at www.visitmaryland.org. Finally, Visit Baltimore keeps a list of happenings at www.baltimore.org.
Most festival and event locations are user friendly; therefore, they are wheelchair accessible and bathrooms of some sort are on-site. If an event does not have a bathroom, the listing should indicate that. Although some listings may indicate an event is free, some will have a fee that is current as of this writing.
Some events, including the Friday night series, run weekly for months. Rather than list each event for every week it’s scheduled, the listing will say “continues through . . . .”
1. Fridays After Five
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 576-3800
Description: Come and party with the fishes every Friday night from mid-September through early March. Admission is only $8 after 5 p.m. and maybe you can find your ichthyologist soul mate.
2. Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Celebration
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 396-7932
Description: Throughout the entire weekend closest to Poe’s January 19 birthday, Poe House sponsors a celebration in honor of the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Events vary from year to year and may include theatrical presentations of Poe’s stories, musical renditions of his poems, a bagpipe tribute, and a graveside toast—after dark, of course. More than 1,000 people attend the celebration.
3. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Parade
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Baltimoreans love a good parade, so the city takes to the streets in honor of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Many of Baltimore’s own living legends participate in the parade, including past civil rights activists and prominent community and political figures. Floats, marching bands, choirs, and dancers add to the festive commemoration.
4. Black Heritage Art Show
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 521-0660
Address: 1 West Pratt St.
Description: February is Black History Month and it’s celebrated with numerous events including an exhibit of the country’s best African-American visual and performing artists. Held the second weekend of the month, the African American Visual Arts Association brings together lecturers, jazz and gospel singers, and poets for a showcase of contemporary arts and crafts. Admission is free.
5. The Acc Craft Fair Of Baltimore
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 583-5401, (800) 836-3470
Address: 1 West Pratt St.
Description: When you visit and shop at this juried craft fair sponsored by the American Craft Council, you will be meeting face-to-face with the artists (700 plus) because they are required to be there. Exhibitors are selected from applicants from across the country. All items must have been made in the United States. Choose from ceramics, glass, wood, metal, jewelry, fiber, and leather. The ACC Craft Fair is usually held over a weekend in late February but sometimes meanders into early March, so call for exact dates. Admission is $14 for adults, and there is a two-day pass that can be purchased for $20. Children younger than age 12 get in free.
6. St. Patrick’S Day Parade And 5-K Run
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: The Sunday closest to the annual Irish holiday includes a parade and a 5-K Shamrock Run through Downtown. The 5-K starts at 1:35 p.m. and concludes with a party, prizes, and awards. The parade forms in Mount Vernon at the Washington Monument and steps off around 2 p.m., heading south on Charles Street. Thirty Irish organizations, 20 marching bands, pipe and drum corps, and politicians wind their way through the city heading east on Pratt Street and disbanding at Market Place. Pre-registration is required for the racewith entry fees starting at $25 depending on how early you register. Watching the parade and the race is free.
7. Maryland Day
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 889-4488
Address: 201 West Monument St.
Description: Whether or not your birthday falls on March 25 or somewhere near there, you can join state and city officials who celebrate the anniversary of the state’s founding.
8. Lunch With The Elephants
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 685-6169
Address: 400 West Lexington St.
Description: One of Baltimore’s most exciting annual events, “Lunch with the Elephants,” takes place in Lexington Market’s south parking lot on Wednesday when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey elephants dine on the world’s largest stand-up vegetarian buffet of 1,100 apples, 2,000 bananas, 1,000 carrots, 30 loaves of fresh Italian bread, and big juicy watermelons. Baltimore is the only city in the country to host this annual event annually.
9. Johns Hopkins University Spring Fair
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 516-7692
Description: The Spring Fair is a three-day event planned, organized, and run exclusively by Johns Hopkins students, and it attracts members of the student body and community members from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The fair features food, music, art vendors, carnival rides, children’s shows, and activities.
10. Flower Mart
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 323-0022
Description: Put on your nicest hat (you know, the one with all the flowers—there’s a contest) and head down to the Washington Monument for a day of flowers, lemon sticks, crab cakes, and the sounds of children singing. The Flower Mart closes a section of Charles Street the first weekend in May and fills the area with 200 tables laden with crafters’ wares, bedding plants sold by local charities, and lots of other garden goodies. Concerts by local schoolchildren are held throughout the celebration.
11. Almost Famous Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Since 2001, kinetic sculptures (and their owners/constructors/operators) from across the eastern United States have convened at the American Visionary Art Museum for the East Coast Championship race. A kinetic sculpture is an amphibious, human-powered work of art custom built for the eight-hour race that covers about 15 miles across pavement, the Bay, and through mud and sand. This “race” provides a year’s entertainment after what’s probably taken at least a year to assemble the craft.
12. Maryland Film Festival
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 752-8083
Description: This four-day festival is Maryland’s own Sundance, bringing world-renowned filmmakers and movies to Baltimore, usually the first weekend in May. The festival presents more than 120 foreign and domestic feature films and shorts. Admission to one film is $10, a three-show pass is $20, and an all-access pass for the entire event is $175 to $250, depending on how early you buy the pass.
13. The Preakness Parade And Preakness Week
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (877) BALTIMORE, (410) 837-303
Description: The Preakness Parade (held the Saturday before the Preakness) begins Preakness Week, a celebration in early to mid-May that often includes a hot-air balloon ascension, outdoor concerts, schooner races, benefit galas, fireworks, and more, and culminates in the running of the Preakness Stakes
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 5201 Park Heights Ave.
15. Balticon: Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention
City: Baltimore, MD
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (410) 563-2737
Description: Authors, publishers, editors, artists, scientists, musicians, and other sci-fi and fantasy stars gather for this four-day event that has more than 300 hours of multi-track programming. See the art show, dealer’s room, concerts, dances, and more. Ticket prices vary by when you purchase them, ranging from $48 (by February) to $60 at the door.