First-ever Mason Art Festival comes to Annandale

By James Albright, chair of the Mason District Arts Advisory Council 

In a season busy with festivals here in Annandale, a new event has come to town. For the first time ever, artists, performers, and art-lovers in Mason District will have their own festival. We hope it will be the first of many to come.  

The Mason District Art Festival – an art event for our community by our community – will be on Saturday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Eileen Garnett Civic Space, 7200 Columbia Pike in Annandale.  

The festival is free to attend and will be held rain or shine. We are encouraging seniors to visit from 10 to 11 a.m. to enjoy a less crowded environment.

Organized by the Mason District Arts Advisory Council, the Art Festival has been in the works for over a year.

This event will join the great line-up of festivals already in place, including the Taste of Annandale, which was held on Sept. 20; the upcoming KORUS Festival on Oct. 4-5; the monthly Asiantique and Thai Festivals; and the many other wonderful events here in Annandale.

The Mason District Art Festival will be different: It focuses exclusively on artists and performers.

The Art Festival will feature works from 29 local artists. There will also be a performance stage with music, poetry, and dance.

Participating artists are from the Lake Barcroft Art League, ArtLords, the VietPlace Collective, and MosaicArts. Many of the artists have had their works featured in the most recent Artomatic show in D.C.

Painters, photographers, sculptors, jewelers, fabric artists, digital artists, and ceramicists will be represented.

All works will be for sale, and there will be a wide range of prices to make the event fun for everyone.

There was such great initial interest in the Art Festival that all projected booth spaces were taken up within the first week of availability; we’ll have to add some more next year!

Performers scheduled so far include Fairfax County Poet Laureate Angelique Palmer (a teacher at the Westminster School), Sopranessence, the Parklawn Ramblers, Justice High School drama students, the Raging Grannies, Timbre Trio, and Sumona Apsara Parii. More will be added in the coming weeks.

We are excited about the quality and diversity of the performance programming – we know you will enjoy it.

The festival will offer ample sustenance, as well, including food trucks, coffee from Beanetics Coffee Roasters, and baked goods from Annandale High School’s culinary students.

Related story: ArtsFairfax survey identifies artists’ needs

The idea for the event arose out of the work of the Mason Arts Advisory Council in 2024. Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez was interested in doing something to promote the arts, so the council suggested an art festival in Annandale.

Excited by the idea, a number of sponsors have signed up, including the supervisor’s office, ArtsFairfax, Celebrate Fairfax, the Providence Players, the Office of Community Revitalization, Beanetics, and former Mason Supervisor Penny Gross.

Planning the Arts Festival was entirely carried out by volunteers, with the goal of creating an exciting space for the arts right here in Mason District. We hope to see you on Oct. 11!