Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks

Hot Ticket: VinoFest @ Union Market, 6/28/14

A lot of great specialty festivals are taking place around DC these days. Music festivals, beer festivals, food festivals, and others are giving us more and more options every weekend this summer.

How can it get any better? Perhaps with VinoFest, this Saturday, June 28, at Union Market, which combines two festivals into one with a festival of wine and a festival of music!

VinoFest promises chart-topping musicians, art exhibitions and a big selection of wine in a curated experience that includes local and imported wines, food vendors and music concerts.

Tickets are still available!

For general admission at $75, gain access to wine tasting and music concerts

For VIP access at $125, gain premier access to the concerts, wine tasting and an exclusive VIP lounge with Belvedere Vodka-sponsored open bar w/ catered apps and deserts.

For a concert pass at $50, enjoy the full concert lineup without the wine tasting. Food and beer vendors also are on site for those looking for an a la carte bite or drink!

The wine tasting includes a to complementary glass of sparkling wine as well as a four-hour session of wine tasting from 2-6pm.

Music acts include:

  • Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation
  • Jesse Boykins III
  • See-I
  • Jetty
  • DJ Spinser Tracy
  • Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes
  • Body Language
  • Bonnie Rash

VinoFest is presented by VinoLovers, a DC-based startup that has launched a new wine subscription club that personalizes wine selections to the taste of each member. A portion of proceeds benefit two national charities:

  • Bike2TheBeach, a nonprofit that promotes the benefits of bike riding
  • Dreams for Kids DC, a nonprofit that creates opportunities for at-risk youth through service, leadership and social activities

VinoFest’s stated mission is to “blend philanthropy, entrepreneurs, tech, art, music, and food all in one explosive summer party!”

Tickets available online.

VinoFest
Union Market
1309 5th St. NE
Washington, DC 20002
Saturday, June 28
Wine tasting: 2-6pm
Concerts: 2-10pm
21+

Music, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: Flume, Lovelife @ U Street Music Hall — 4/3/13

Flume (courtesy Pitch Perfect PR)

Flume (courtesy Pitch Perfect PR)

Wunderkind DJ Flume brought some good energy and urbane smoothness to a packed U Street Music Hall Wednesday night, pleasing the crowd with R&B-tinged trance-like mixes that got everyone dancing, particularly when mixed up with some effectively frenetic beat-matching to add some spark to the mix.

A good selection of songs put everyone in the mood to relax and shimmy along. Flume wisely chose songs that complement his own, favoring his full-length self-titled debut released last fall. He put the crowd at ease with the very down-tempo “Get Free” by Major Lazer before he cleverly slid into his own “Insane,” featuring a dreamy vocal by Moon Holiday. “Insane” is a pleasing slow jam that opens with some effective minimalism and builds up to a steady pulsating groove, effortlessly putting you at ease despite it’s perhaps threatening refrain of “go insane.”

Continue reading

Fun & Games, Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, Technology, The Features

DJ ReOffender: A Beat Refinery DJ

Pictured: Shea "DJ ReOffender" Mulcahy // Photo by Rachel Levitin

While a lot of us were off at the beach, visiting family, or at weddings this Memorial Day Weekend, Shea “DJ ReOffender” Mulcahy was busy turning a hobby into a professional freelance career.

ReOffender is a self-proclaimed “Man of Music.” When he’s not at his day job, he finds himself singing or at the keyboard writing songs. And him and his iPod? Well forget about it! If you saw him, you’d think they were permanently attached.

“Basically, music is my life. I love that anybody could express themselves through music,” he said. That’s what got him hooked on learning to DJ. Continue reading

Entertainment, Music, Night Life

New Venue: U Street Music Hall

photo by Sam Vasfi.

Two of the hardest working DJs in DC, Will Eastman and Jesse Tittsworth, are about to drop a bomb on U Street in the form of their new 300-capacity nightclub, U Street Music Hall. Destined to become one of DC’s best dance destinations, U Street Music Hall is located at 1115 U Street NW in the very cool, basement space vacated by Cue Bar.

Eastman and Tittsworth have taken over the space and cleared everything out to make room for a massive, 60-foot long, wooden dance floor (built over cork for extra bounce and comfort), a gigantic DJ booth that is “larger than some venues in DC”, and a 40,000 Watt sound-system that is designed to “physically compel you to dance”.
Continue reading

Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Music, Special Events, The District, We Love Arts, WMATA

We Love Arts: Cherry Blast

I think we can all agree that one of the reasons “we love DC” is the arrival of spring each year when our city is transformed from a bleak, gray land of zombies into a cheery land of fresh-faced partiers.  The harsh winter weather is behind us, the cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, girls swap their jeans for skirts, and it’s time to start planning how you’ll enjoy every waking minute before the sweltering heat invades our city.

What better way to celebrate the disappearance of winter than checking out the National Cherry Blossom Festival?  While it officially started on March 28th, it runs until April 12th and is packed full of fun things to do, ranging from blossom tours to photo safaris to wicked awesome Japanese-themed art fashion anime parties.  Say what?  That’s right, on Friday the Pink Line Project kicks into gear again to throw a party that is sure to be the highlight of this year’s festival.  Enter stage left: Cherry Blast.

Continue reading