Art on the Avenue

This is my second visit to this annual event held in the Del Rey area of Alexandria. Mt Vernon Avenue is shut down for several blocks and lined with booths offering very nice, unique arts and crafts including art, photographs, jewelry, clothing, kitchen and home accessories, woodworking, and pet items. Several of the booths offer food and drinks. There were also food trucks, and many of the restaurants and stores along Mt Vernon Avenue catered to the visitors. Parking in the area can be difficult. We took advantage of the regular shuttle service between the festival and the Braddock Road Metro stop. I’d recommend this function to those that like arts and crafts festivals. It only happens once per year in October.

One of the awesomest things about Del Ray. I defy any hardened shopper not to find a gift, an accessory or something nice for your home here. Amazing array of juried artisans. Crafts for the kids. Local music that doesn’t suck. And great food, both along the route and also in tents next to the recreation center. Park in the general vicinity and stroll in, just like the neighbors do. You can make this a fall tradition with your family and friends. Rain or shine.

Why didn’t I venture to Art on the Avenue until now? What a great event… it’s sad that it occurs just once a year! As I just moved to the area a few weeks ago from Old Town, it was the perfect ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ event for me to attend. Sheri G, her hubbie and wonder dog Sadie were my partners in crime for the day and we had a blast. SO much to see and do and buy and eat!
I will start with the scene: Mount Vernon Ave shuts down to traffic and tons of artisans set up tents all along the street. Pedestrians show up in throngs to meander and view all the wares available for purchase. Local food purveyors pop up along the Avenue, the smell drawing you in and telling you – eat me, eat me! The baseball field at Mount Vernon Rec Center fills up with additional food vendors as well as lots of kid friendly activities like pumpkin decorating and face painting.
We started off looking for food and heard that Evening Star Café had a beer garden open with the obvious as well as food and music. It seemed a bit pricey at $ 6 for a beer plus $ 4 or $ 5 for either a bbq sandwich, brat or mac and cheese, but maybe I’m just being cheap. The food was just ok. I had the brat which itself was good, but the roll they served it in was so dry, it crumbled. The mac and cheese was pretty tasty, however. Creamy and satisfying. I have to say the scene alone made the price worth it. We sat in front in the space that the doggy shop used to occupy and relaxed with our beers and brats. In back a band was playing and drunk parents were dancing with their toddler children. That’s what I’m talking about. Even Sadie enjoyed all the people watching from her space under the table!
Then we ventured on to check out the vendor tents. The sheer number of vendors was overwhelming, but I rarely saw a repeat. Everyone was offering something different and for people of all different tastes. I came away with an awesome cutting board in the shape of a pig that I saw when walking my dogs during set up earlier that day. I also scored a bunch of cute baby wares for my cousin’s upcoming baby shower. I could have treated myself to lots of cool jewelry, but decided to restrain myself. And of course, there is so much art to be had! Photographs, oil paintings, water colors… you could fill an entire house with purchases from AOTA.
The weather ended up being perfect that day despite some rain threatening around lunch time, which I think scared some people away. It was crowded, but not mobbed by any means, so this crowd fearing lady was very happy! I can’t wait until next year!

I look forward to this show every year!
Fabulous!

Near-​overwhelming amount of art and jewelry vendors, plus local food offerings and multiple live music stages. You will be exhausted. Quality, unique stuff — including Mongolian artwork from a local artist also featured at the Freer Sackler Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art’s gift shop. Not the crap you see at all NYC pop-​up street fairs. Annual event.

I had a lot of fun here. There were many sights to see and lots of products that were offered. Unfortunately it started raining the day I came but it would be unfair to dock any stars to Art on the Avenue for that. Will definitely return and look forward to this event next year.

Went here because of Unilocal and it was an awesome experience. this place went for four blocks it was never ending. It had a lot of different selections of arts. However, I didn’t like the food selection and how it was in a field. It was raining and everyone’s shoes got really muddy. But overall, awesome event.

Art on the Avenue has to be one of my all-​time, absolute, favorite things to do in Alexandria. Unfortunately it only happens once a year, so I spend the other 364 days ripping loops off my paper chain.
For one day every October, Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray shuts completely down to vehicle traffic and hundreds upon hundreds of artisans and artists descend with their white, pop-​up tents. They come from as nearby as Alexandria to as far away as the Northeast and the Carolinas. They come bearing oil paintings, hand-​crafted jewelry, hand-​sewn clothing, pottery and vases and plates, lathe-​turned bowls and objets d’art, garden ornaments, Christmas ornaments, baby clothes, decorative arts, handmade stationery… I could go on, and on, and on. And you could spend hours, and hours, and hours wandering up and down Mount Vernon eying the amazing wares on display.
You can buy anything from a $ 5 birthday card to a $ 5,000 watercolor of Chincoteague. Every year I come, I drop way too much money — but my home is now hung and decorated with so many beautiful, unique items that my guests ooh and ahh over… Where’d you find that beautiful pottery soap dispenser in the guest bath? Art on the Avenue. I’d love a photo triptych of the Lincoln Memorial like the one in your den, where’d you get it? Art on the Avenue. Where’d you score that hand-​stitched quilt on your bed? Art on the Avenue. I’d say half my jewelry has been collected at Art on the Avenue over the years, and people are always commenting on the unique pieces I wear. Really, there’s nothing AOTA CAN’T do!
Adding to the sheer delight and enjoyment are the food vendors. Yes, when you have worked up a major appetite shopping — or window shopping — you can stop and grab a bite from the Los Tios, or Evening Star, or Bombay Curry booths. Or you can try BBQ. Or Chinese. Or Australian meat pies. Or frozen banana on a stick. You name it, AOTA most likely serves it.
Did I mention the live entertainment, from singers, to the TC Williams Orchestra, to magicians? Yeah, there’s that, too.
AOTA is one of THE best ways I can think of to pass a weekend day. When the weather is nice, this place is a MOB SCENE of people, but well worth braving the crowd. When the weather isn’t so nice this place is still a mob scene, but a bit less so. Hard to know what to wish for: the beautiful weather that makes AOTA that much more enjoyable to stroll, or the thinner crowd that makes AOTA that much more enjoyable to stroll…