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H Street Festival in DC
posted September 12, 2011 7:34 AM   RSS | iCal | +googleCal

Sat September 17 at 12:00 PM, H Street
1100 H St NE, Washington, DC, USA (Map & Directions)
Come and enjoy the H Street Festival: as a special bonus, a largely MeFite-built, human-powered, trolley-track riding art float will debut!
The float was the subject of an AskMe. Some pictures of the construction of the float can be seen here (this pxpdc site is in early stages as we focus on the actual construction).
posted by exogenous to Etc (19 comments total)

I'll be there, and will be sure to stop by and say "Hi". (And, all you DC folks should get down here too! The H St Festival is probably DC's best street fair)
posted by schmod at 7:40 AM on September 14, 2011


I'll be there and say hi as well.
posted by oneironaut at 8:49 AM on September 14, 2011


We ran a test of the contraption tonight on the trolley tracks, and it works!
posted by exogenous at 9:21 PM on September 14, 2011


Y'all meeting somewhere? Or should I just follow the trolley tracks if I go? :)
posted by zennie at 2:17 PM on September 15, 2011


Last I heard, we would be running back and forth along the full length (the festival extends along the 800 to 1300 blocks), but one of our crew guessed that might be too disruptive and that we would be confined to a smaller area. I hope and expect we get the full length - it's a real pain to turn the vehicle around and there is no reverse gear. They are leaving the area along one of the two tracks (either north or south side of H street, I don't know which but it'll be clear on Saturday) open as a fire lane for emergency vehicle access. I reckon pedestrians will walk there, but it will be free of vendor tables and the like.

It should be pretty easy to find the contraption in the fire lane. Some folks are making a big Atlas sculpture (in recognition of H Street as the Atlas District) to be mounted on the front of the thing, which I reckon will reach ten feet off the ground, plus the vehicle itself is big and gold. And we have a super loud boom box that should be playing spacey tunes.
posted by exogenous at 4:41 PM on September 15, 2011


Sounds awesome. See you there!
posted by zennie at 6:26 AM on September 16, 2011


Well, it's good to see those tracks being used for something.
posted by schmod at 11:02 AM on September 16, 2011


I can only hope that this leads to the creation of Capital Railbikeshare.
posted by schmod at 11:03 AM on September 16, 2011


One more thing... time frame?
posted by zennie at 5:33 PM on September 16, 2011


We plan to get rolling at 1 pm and continue all day. Everything is in order now apart from possibly some decorations, so I don't think we'll be very late if it all. I hate to commit to a definite time, but 2pm or 2:30 should be safe.
posted by exogenous at 5:58 PM on September 16, 2011


I'm very, very sad to say that I won't be there, but it really will be epic. I helped drive the figurehead from Fairfax to DC this evening, and it is.....sweet.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:22 PM on September 16, 2011


Make that....sweet.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:24 PM on September 16, 2011


I've been asked how folks will know which float is ours.

There is only one float. If you see a float, it's ours. If you see a 12-foot-tall gold-painted sculpture of Atlas, on a gold-painted, bicycle-powered float--that's us.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:27 PM on September 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


A little update: we are planning to meet at 8th & H St NE at 1pm and roll by 2pm (it takes some doing to convert it from road wheels to trolley wheels).
posted by exogenous at 8:06 AM on September 17, 2011


I think it was a great success! The first time we rolled through, you could see people's minds being blow. It was like going through paparazzi - pretty cool.

Some pictures of us I found on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelytimedc/6156752811/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelytimedc/6157295616/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/6156568999/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/6157095472/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muckraker/6156689633/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rukasu1/6157798254/

Our local councilman Tommy Wells tweeted us, too
https://twitter.com/tommywells/status/115112884106825728
posted by exogenous at 5:50 AM on September 18, 2011


You guys looked great out there! Love the pics. :)
posted by zennie at 6:15 PM on September 18, 2011


I don't think I spotted any MeFites, but ohmygod, that thing was epic.

Looked like something that Humma Kavula would drive...
posted by schmod at 7:19 PM on September 18, 2011


Haha, thanks zennie and schmod! It's too bad MrMoonPie couldn't attend, as he was a big contributor towards making it happen.

We are looking for inexpensive storage for the contraption if anyone has any leads. Outdoors is OK.
posted by exogenous at 7:48 AM on September 19, 2011


On TBD.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:24 AM on September 19, 2011



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