The DC Lineup for this weekend: festivals and — finally — May flowers

After four straight weekends of April showers, the first weekend of May brings us flowers in the form of two major garden markets. From May 3 to 5, there are also festivals celebrating artisanal chocolate, bluegrass and folk music, art, murals, mathematics, and the many embassies in DC. A few events also cater to specific audiences: DC seniors can compete in the 36th annual Washington DC Senior Games, chihuahuas can race in a Cinco de Mayo celebration, and military families can watch a free performance of an excerpt from The Sleeping Beauty, presented by The Washington Ballet.

Unfortunately, the weather never got the memo about the arrival of May. The forecast calls for exactly what we experienced in April: rain for much of the weekend, with afternoon thunderstorms on Saturday and showers on Sunday. The temperatures, however, will warm up, with a range of 56 to 80 degrees.

1. Art: A curated group of local street artists joins select national and international artists for the fourth annual POW! WOW! DC Mural Festival, which opens this weekend in NoMa. This year’s visiting artists are from Massachusetts, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, France, Canada and England. This 10-day event is designed for the muralists to beautify NoMa with new street art. It kicks off Saturday with a party at Wunder Garten, 1101 1st St. NE, from noon to 6 p.m. A tour of the mural sites will start at 3 p.m. outside the beer garden, with additional tours throughout the week on Monday at 6 p.m. at 100 K St. NE and next Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m. outside of Wunder Garten. The festival is a partnership between the NoMa Business Improvement District and the local chapter of POW! WOW!, a global network of artists whose mission is to “beautify, educate and bring people together through the power of art,” according to the group’s website. … The fifth annual Catharsis on the Mall is also this weekend, from noon on Friday to noon on Sunday. This art event on the National Mall is free and open to all ages. It is an inclusive, creative space for healing and expression held on the Washington Monument grounds near Constitution Avenue and 15th Street NW. The attractions include large-scale art, workshops, speakers, music and dancing on Saturday night until sunrise.

2. Food & Drink: The fourth annual DC Chocolate Festival is on Saturday at the Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Road NW, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Much more than just tastings, the event is designed to teach visitors about artisanal chocolate and cacao. Featured speakers include Mark Christian, the founder of the C-Spot, a website with a guide to different types of chocolate plus chocolate reviews and news; and Megan Giller, who wrote Bean to Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, the Makers, and the Mind-Blowing Flavors. Adams Morgan’s own artisanal chocolate shop The Chocolate House established and hosts the festival. Tickets cost $20.

3. Sports: The 36th annual DC Senior Games starts with an opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday at Kenilworth Recreation Center, 4321 Ord St. NE. The featured contests include billiards, bowling, horseshoes, pickleball, table tennis, track and field, basketball and softball. The event is for DC residents 50 and older. Last year, 300 senior athletes participated. Hosted by the DC Department of Parks and Recreation and the National Senior Games Association, the District’s senior games will conclude with a closing ceremony on May 20 at 10 a.m. at the Howard Theater. Medals are awarded to winners, and top-qualifying seniors will be eligible to compete against more than 10,000 athletes at the biennial National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

4. Spring Festival: The All Hallows’ Guild has supported the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral since 1939 with a Flower Mart. This year’s theme is Pollinator Power to highlight the importance of bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Mayor Muriel Bowser, the festival’s honorary chair, cut the ribbon Friday morning to open the seasonal festival at the Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW. The mart will stay open until 6 p.m. on Friday and reopen on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The schedule offers a mix of ticketed and free activities, including two puppet shows — “Animal Tales” on Friday and “The Frog Prince” on Saturday — and rides on an antique carousel built around 1890. The festival grounds host more than 70 boutique booths full of spring flowers and merchandise, as well as games, carnival rides, an international floral display, food vendors, and performances by singers, dancers, musicians and choral groups. Visitors can also explore the cathedral, climb more than 300 steps to the top of its towers and have lunch on the seventh floor of one of the towers. Donations are welcome to support the Flower Mart.

5. Holiday Festival: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with DC’s eighth annual Running of the Chihuahuas on District Pier at The Wharf, 101 District Square SW. The event is from 1 to 5 p.m. and includes a pet costume contest, a parade of adoptable dogs, a broadcast of the race on a 17-foot video wall, and a beer garden. It is free to attend and $30 to register a chihuahua for the race. All proceeds go to Rural Dog Rescue, which helps shelter dogs find homes in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

6. Music: The 10th annual Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival is on Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. on the Anacostia River’s Kingman Island near RFK Memorial Stadium. The goal of the fest is to raise awareness of Kingman and Heritage islands as a public park and help support educational programming provided by Living Classrooms of the National Capital Region. In 2018, the festival won the Washington City Paper’s “Best of DC” award in the music festival category. This year’s musical lineup includes Dustbowl Revival, The Ballroom Thieves, Hackensaw Boys and Che Apalache. Tickets cost $35.

7. Dance: This is the last weekend to catch The Washington Ballet’s Dance for All program, a slate of 50 free events in neighborhoods throughout the District that kicked off April 8 and continues through Wednesday. On Saturday, a Dance for All event from 11 a.m. to noon in the officers’ club at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling will be open to military families and others with access to the base. The performance will showcase an excerpt from The Sleeping Beauty and include a discussion with members of the dance company. The selected portion of the production is the third act, which features the wedding celebration of Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré, with well-known guests like Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf and Puss in Boots. Dance for All events will continue Sunday with Meet a Ballet Dancer, a free lecture and demonstration, at 3:30 p.m. at the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Two dancers from The Washington Ballet will share their journeys plus teach basic ballet and how to tell stories through movement. The event is open to ages 2 and older.

8. Culture: Experience food, art, dance, fashion and music from cultures all over the world at Cultural Tourism DC’s  Around the World Embassy Tour on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. More than 50 countries — from Afghanistan and Albania to Uganda and Uzbekistan — will open their embassy doors to visitors. Activities include face painting, shopping for goods from different countries, a raffle for a free round-trip flight and 10-day stay in Albania, a raffle of five free trips to Barbados, photos with Argentinian polo players and horses, henna tattooing and much more. The embassies are primarily along Embassy Row and International Drive NW. The event is free. (The countries of the European Union will showcase their embassies with an Open House next Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

9. Education: The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Institution for Advanced Study and National Museum of Mathematics present the National Math Festival this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW. The free event is designed to expose visitors to mathematics so they can see how it relates to their everyday lives. The schedule includes activities for all ages, including presentations from mathematicians, films, puzzles, games, art and competitions.

10. Nature: On Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., all eight DC-area Ace Hardware locations are hosting free parties that are open to the public. They include 20 percent discounts on gardening supplies plus gardening workshops, tips from local gardening experts, pop-up markets featuring work from local makers, and giveaways. The participating stores are Logan Hardware, Glover Park Hardware, Tenleytown Ace, Old Takoma Ace, Woodley Park Ace, Adams Morgan Ace, Old Town Ace and Frager’s Hardware.

This post has been updated to include Sunday’s Ace Hardware event, which was inadvertently omitted.