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The Georgetown neighborhood’s Art All Night activation, an event that hosts artists and businesses across 19 locations along Wisconsin Avenue, had several cancellations due to rain Sept. 29.
Art All Night — an event inspired by a similar festival in Paris, France — debuted in Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood in 2011 after the event’s executive director, Alexander Padro, decided to bring the concept to the city, growing the celebration city-wide. The most recent edition planned to feature various performances, including musicians and a marching band from the Duke Ellington School of Arts; however, the 2.64 inches of rain in D.C. prevented that from happening.
According to Rachel Shank — executive director of Georgetown Main Street, a non-profit that supports Georgetown neighborhood small businesses — approximately 8,000 people attended the event this year despite the weather, a 25% decrease from the previous year.
Talia Zamir (CAS ’26), who attended the event, said her experience at Art All Night fell short of expectations.
“We went there and found only one gallery open,” Zamir told The Hoya. “We were looking at the map, but nothing was open where it said it was.”
Shank said many of the events were either canceled or modified at the last minute due to the rain, prompting plans to revise the event’s organization for future occurrences.
“We had to make changes so close to the event date that if we had had more time to really push out, ‘Hey, here are the changes to the plan,’ it would have been more ideal,” Shank told The Hoya. “I think that there are learnings for next year to figure out how to better highlight which locations are participating.”
Shank said the rain also prevented a planned feature of live street musicians, which typically enhances the event’s atmosphere and encourages exploration between venues.
“That kind of connecting the different nodes which connected folks from one activation to the next activation and inspired them to keep walking up the street to keep exploring different things, that was largely missing this year because we had to move everything inside,” Shank said.
Shank said planning these events are difficult because they are outdoors.
“We’ll have backup plans and potentially have waterproof speakers that can still kind of create that energy outside,” Shank said. “So I do think that this event — however good of a job we do anticipating rain — the event is always going to be intended to be an outside event.”
Zoe Griffin (SFS ’28) said her experience at Art All Night was mixed, appreciating the open venues but feeling the event did not bring the festival-like atmosphere she had originally anticipated.
“For what was open, it was sweet,” Griffin told The Hoya. “A lot of the business owners are really passionate about what they do and the art they have. However, they made it seem like it was a festival, and it wasn’t. They had small signs outside shops and they weren’t really noticeable and everything was really hard to find.”
Griffin said the galleries they attended on Wisconsin Avenue and P Street featured art from different styles, eras and parts of the world.
“We went to an art gallery on Wisconsin; it was really cool,” Griffin said. “The gallery owner is really passionate about what he does, and he travels the world collecting art and brings them back to his shop to sell them.”
Kira Casler (SFS ’27) said the event succeeded in bringing together diverse communities and families despite the rain.
“It was so great seeing so many families out and about,” Casler told The Hoya. “It was a great way to bring the different neighborhoods of D.C. together even in the rain.”
Shank said her goal for Art All Night is to establish it as a community-centered event that becomes a staple in Georgetown’s identity, especially for future installments.
“I really want folks to think about Art All Night when they think about Georgetown,” Shank said. “There’s this event that they do every year when all of these businesses are open, and it’s just such a welcoming place where everyone can come and find something that tickles their brain.”
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