There won’t be a Taste of Annandale this year
The 2025 Taste of Annandale was a huge success, drawing thousands of people and hundreds of vendors for a community celebration hosted by the nonprofit Annandale-Mason Roundtable.
The Roundtable has made the difficult decision to not hold the event this fall. We are considering the possibility of resuming the Taste in 2027.
To the many 2025 vendors who have reached out about participating in the Taste of Annandale this year, we are sorry to disappoint you. We are saving your contact information and will let you know about the plans for next year.
Meanwhile, the Roundtable is working on distributing some of the funds raised by the 2025 event to worthy community-serving nonprofits. More details to come.
Related story: Proceeds from the Taste of Annandale help the 2Twenty Club provide meals for students
I’m so sorry to hear this. I love the Taste of Annandale. I hope it can come back next year!
So sorry to miss you this year. The Taste of Annandale was a delightful family event.
I’ve always enjoyed this event and the nice community vibe. It was fun and upbeat. Lord knows in this day and age, all brightness is welcomed.
Would like to know why there is no event this year. To break the continuity of this event doesn’t bode well for it to happen in the future. Please community organizers—bring it back!
I am also interested in the reason for canceling this year’s event. As indicated in the story, it was well attended last year, so what’s the reason for canceling?
Why?
Why??
Is there a WHY ?
In years past I recall them pleading for more volunteers to help organize and run. I guess they haven’t been able to find the help they are looking for and decided to cancel.
So if you want to make sure it comes back for next year, consider getting involved.
Outdoor Festivals are a mess. Annandale was never designed for them. Streets within a mile of festival sites are dangerous (e.g., Columbia Pike across from Giant Plaza). I am seriously considering moving from Annandale when my daughter leaves for college. FC Board of Supervisors doesn’t care. Only one who cared was Penny Gross, now retired. I won’t vote to re-elect Supervisor Jimenez. He’s the worst. Agree that FCPD has zero interest in going after reckless drivers in Mason District. What does FCPD actually do? Anyone know?
why would they go after RD when their favorite supervisor was caught doing 104 in a 70.
Look what’s occurred in Lincolnia. Small single family homes are now group homes for up to a dozen related and unrelated individuals. Reckless driving is so common as to be ordinary. Now we have to avoid unlicensed e-motorcycles. Police are never seen…anywhere. Time to elect a Supervisor with common sense, not re-elect the guy who wants Annandale to be another congested urbanized mess like Falls Church, Arlington, and Alexandria. Almost forgot vibrant urbanized Fairfax City.
Tastes of Anywhere have become messes. Look at the above photo. Parents are too financially stressed to buy their kids $3 ice cream cones, or anything else for sale. Another event to take the family, walk around, go home. Then there are the festivals where gangs attend, shots are fired, people are hurt and die, like in Manassas this weekend. How about keeping Annandale suburban?
No, Julie, local Media are the worst. Reporters and Editors see the deterioration in our Suburban quality of life and promote the agenda of the Pols that allow that to occur. I will vote for ANYONE who runs against Supervisor Jimenez, and I’m a Democrat. FCPD Police Chief and Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney should also be removed from office, ASAP.
Time to evaluate Community Festivals before more are planned for next year. Gang-related fighting occurred at the Arlington County Fair last month. A 16-year-old girl who was an innocent bystander was shot and killed in Manassas last Friday allegedly by a convicted felon with multiple felony convictions.
Yes, the festivals held on the 7000 block of the Pike cause a big traffic and pedestrian mess for a mile. Yes, Pike and Bailey’s were allowed to deteriorate when Penny Gross was Supervisor, few exceptions like Barcroft Plaza, now Supervisor Jimenez has apparently invited Developers to in-fill redevelop to make Annandale into another Fairfax City. What is needed is to elect a Supervisor with common sense to plan suburban, nor urban, redevelopment of Annandale.
I also want to know what FCPD actually does because I never see them patrolling, nor stopping vehicles for reckless driving, and see a couple FCPD officers and cruisers near the massively crowded weekend festivals on the Pike.
Agree, time to end decades of one-party rule in Mason District. How about someone run as an Independent candidate for Supervisor against “Speedy” Jimenez?
My understanding is vendors weren’t earning enough to justify returning. Event became a place for people to hang out without spending anything. A reporter from a local news outlet could investigate.
As for Annandale redevelopment, legacy strip plazas could be replaced by new strip plazas with the same density.
Advice to the Taste’s Sponsor(s): Next Taste keep the event totally about food, with no entertainment. Friend was a vendor at several community festivals and sold gourmet chili. People came for the entertainment didn’t buy anything from him. Another vendor sold small stuffed bears, sold a couple, parents didn’t buy anything, were there for the entertainment, clowns, face painting, etc.
OMG, you grumpa-lumpas are too much!
I’ve enjoyed Taste of Annandale every year and hope the folks in charge will give it another try. I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone to come together, share talents, grab a nosh, and have a little fun. There’s nothing wrong with that!
Yes. Keep food events about food, arts and crafts fairs about arts and crafts. Yes. The weekend festivals on the 7000 block of the Pike are a mile-wide mess, traffic, parking and pedestrians.
I bought into, and am paying a lot to live, a suburban residential lifestyle. Opposite is occurring in Annandale, whether up to a dozen related and unrelated persons living in small single family Lincolnia homes, or the modernist monstrosity under construction on John Marr Drive.
Anyone who is for preserving our suburban quality of life is called disparaging names. I have disparaging names (can’t be stated here) for developers who live in Great Falls mansions and who grow rich by imposing costs and consequences of their urbanism on my suburban community. Same for the Pols who want to micromanage every aspect of out lives according to their party’s ideology.
I drove through the Asian food event by John Marr the other day. There were people aimlessly jaywalking everywhere and cars were speeding around making illegal turns and u-turns to avoid the pedestrians.
We already know that police aren’t pulling drivers over like they used to, and judges continue to release violent criminals accused of heinous crimes.
It’s a matter of time before someone is run over and killed (like the 13 year old boy yesterday in Fairfax) or shot and killed (like the 16 year old girl in Manassas on Friday) at one of these events.
A lot has changed for the worse in the last ten years. We are not well-behaved enough nor set up for these types of events. I wonder who thinks these events are worth one person’s life. Disturbingly, in Manassas, the mayor (who recently resigned) is totally ok with continuing block parties despite the murder of the 16 year old girl.
I agree with Kerri. I value traditional suburban life over apartment buildings and lawless street celebrations.
Where is FCPD? Please do a feature. Reckless driving and riding licensed and unlicensed vehicles is common on the Pike and Rt 7. Lately I’ve been seeing drivers of noisy vehicles with blackened windows running red traffic lights. Very dangerous behaviors.