Another Successful Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival This Year

Another Successful Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival This YearOn May 13, 2017, Washington, DC was alive with the sounds of strings. Guitars, banjos, cellos, fiddles – you name it, and you could hear it, drifting across the Anacostia River. It was the annual Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival, an event which helps support the Living Classrooms Foundation. It may have been a bit muddier this year, but that didn’t stop folk and bluegrass fans from across country from traveling to the nation’s capital to enjoy a family-friendly day of great music and local cuisine

Paulson & Nace, PLLC is a proud supporter of the Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival and of the Living Classrooms Foundation. This was the 8th year of the festival, which features all-local music and is attended by more than 10,000 people each year. We encourage you to check out the photos of the festival.

Kingman Island and the Living Classrooms Foundation

Kingman Island is a man-made island that sits in the middle of the Anacostia River. Though it is federal land, the island is maintained by Living Classrooms, a non-profit educational organization based here in Washington, DC. Since 2001, they have taken “a multi-generational approach that includes targeted educational programming, customized job-training and placement, effective health and fitness opportunities, and a wide range of supportive services. [Living Classrooms] place[s] a special emphasis on serving youth and families in poverty, adjudicated youth, and adult ex-offenders.” The group serves about 25,000 people each year, largely in Wards 6, 7, and 8, and in the outlying Prince George’s County area.

Living Classrooms focuses on the impact we all have on our environment, and the “green” theme of the festival furthers their mission to increase awareness of how we interact with the world around us. This year’s zero-waste program was supported by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), and attendees were asked to bring only reusable and compostable items. Vendors were required to provide only compostable or recyclable containers, too.

If you couldn’t make this year’s festival, we hope to see you next year!