MegaFest at Sandlot Anacostia
Last summer, the team behind Black-owned craft beer Soul Mega launched MegaFest, a beer festival with a block party vibe: crowds sampling beers from a half-dozen breweries while grooving to DJs who’ve spun in hot D.C. clubs, posing for selfies and hitting up vendors and food trucks. For the second edition, MegaFest is moving from Walter Reed to Sandlot Anacostia, with a lineup that includes Black-owned beer brands Black Beauty, Joyhound, Liquid Intrusion, Sankofa and Urban Garden, plus Anxo Cider, Daring Kombucha, Michael Lavelle Wines and Kiko bottled sake cocktails. DJs Jahsonic, Nativesun, Geena Marie, Shindig and Pae Me provide the soundtrack. It’s tough to find a better combination of tunes and drinks in D.C. this weekend. Basic tickets include unlimited four-ounce pours; VIP adds skybox access and additional open bar. 3 to 8 p.m. $50-$85.
Maryland Renaissance Festival
Hear ye! Maryland’s annual renaissance fair kicks off nine weekends of medieval celebrations, welcoming rogues, monks, maidens and wenches to step back to a time when owning a sword was cool. The “village” is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., leaving plenty of time to enjoy live entertainment, like archery demonstrations and comedy shows, and shop for art, costumes and more at artisan booths throughout the village. Joust don’t leave without trying mead and a turkey leg. Through Oct. 22. Single day passes $24-$30 for adults, $12-$15 for children from 7 to 15, free for children under 7.
Around the World Cultural Food Festival at Oronoco Bay Park
Yes, this long-running Alexandria event is a food festival, with 16 countries from Cambodia to Vietnam represented by local restaurants and food trucks. But there’s much more, with cultural groups performing music and dance from a dozen countries, including Brazil, Egypt, Scotland and Indonesia, and vendors selling art, clothing and crafts from even more. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
BBQ and Barrels at Nationals Park
Nationals Park has regularly played host to big (and often boring) beer festivals when the baseball team is out of town, but it’s trying something new this weekend. BBQ and Barrels brings bourbon, rye and American single-malt whiskeys from near and far: Catoctin Creek, KO and Republic Restoratives are the home team, while well-regarded visitors include Willett, Barrell Craft Spirits, Bardstown and New Riff. While this experience won’t have as many rare and high-end offerings as, say, Jack Rose’s Premier Drams festival, it does have a long list of spirits to sample. The juice is paired with barbecue from Money Muscle, Smoke Stack’s House of BBQ and other vendors. Other attractions include live music, a cocktail competition and, for an extra fee, tasting classes. 4 to 7 p.m. $75, which includes samples of 12 whiskeys and one barbecue; VIP sessions $25-$38.
That’s So Vintage market at AutoShop
More than a dozen local vintage vendors are coming together to sell curated collections of size- and gender-inclusive clothes and vinyl records at the Union Market outpost. To avoid the overcrowding of the last That’s So Vintage event — where the line to enter stretched and curled around the area’s other local shops — the organizers decided to offer timed passes. Those passes have all been reserved, but there’s a line where non-ticket holders can wait for admission; entry is not guaranteed, however. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Tight Five Pub first anniversary party
If you want to watch rugby in D.C. — whether it’s this fall’s Rugby World Cup or the Six Nations early next year — Tight Five Pub has quickly become the place to go. But it’s much more than that, with early-morning women’s World Cup viewing parties, comedy nights, card tournaments and live music showing up on the schedule. This weekend is the Adams Morgan sports bar’s first anniversary, which means a taste of everything: Summer Nations Series rugby internationals in the morning, with $5 off pitchers of beer from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; team spelling bee (2 p.m.) and trivia (4 p.m.) tournaments; a happy hour with buy-one-get-one-free draft beers and rail drinks from 5 to 8 p.m., plus a free appetizer buffet; live music by funk band Roses After Dark; and a DJ from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. (Whew.) The weekend also includes an all-day happy hour on Friday and a Sunday drag brunch. Times vary; free admission.
Ari Voxx and the Sad Lads album release show at Songbyrd
Ari Voxx, the artistic persona of musician Ariana Harbin, has performed in D.C. for years — including during a four-week residency at DC9 that started in January. But her “dreamy cotton candy aesthetic” has yet to be as fully on display in singles as it appears in new album “I’m Okay, Please Stop Asking.” She’s joined by the Sad Lads (Jegug Ih, Ryan Boshart and Ben Tufts) on songs like the playful, fluttering “Flamingo” that put her history as a jazz vocalist on full display. At Songbyrd Music House, she’ll play her first album, released last week, in its entirety. 7 p.m. $15-$18.