They don't have a great selection as they claim. Deceptive advertising, they had hardly any selection and most of it was bad, all the good drinks ran out after an hour. (endless supply of the crap though) They don't provide water? For the hundreds of people at this event, they don't provide water, you have to buy it at outrageous prices, not to mention it is warm. Massive lines at the tap and the entry point, make this event not worth it at all. Save your 50$ and go to a real drinking event/ bar crawl. This is definitely not it. read more

I attended two separate events with Drink the District this past weekend, the Cherry Blossom Beer and Wine Festival (6-9 pm session) and the Taste on Wheels (11am-6pm). Both events were extremely well-organized with regard to ticket taking, ID checking, etc. prior to entrance. The Cherry Blossom beer and wine was more chaotic crowd-wise while the Taste on Wheels had a more chill, laid-back atmosphere. For the Saturday evening event, I paid $35 (groupon discount) for unlimited beer/wine samples, and I definitely feel as though I received my fair share for what I paid. They had quite a few local breweries (Old Ox, Atlas, DC Brau, Heritage, 3 Stars, Port City,etc.) and a few from the Charlottesville area (Champion, Starr Hill) that I had been wanting to scout out for my upcoming trip there. It was all craft beer so I was happy to try some brews that I had never heard of that I will be seeking out in the future. They had a good amount of wine tastings as well. No table I went to was out of anything, and all vendors came well-prepared. The band (Dan McGuire Group) was stellar, playing a wide range of covers-everything from ToTo to BlackStreet to Lorde, and it all sounded great! The games (Jenga specifically, were fun to play). My criticisms of this event: 1. a printed map would have been helpful to locate where specific breweries/wineries were set up and 2. It became a bit of a shitshow at the end, but that's what happens when you have inexperienced individuals not pacing themselves and actually tasting what they are consuming, instead choosing to get drunk off their rockers. They had a lot of food trucks plus booths set up with food for purchase. The Taste on Wheels was more chill and relaxed. I had a drink lovers ticket ($15 with groupon) and had a very hard time using all $25 worth of tickets as there were significantly fewer breweries/wineries at this event than the one the previous night. I liked the games set up by Drink the District at the Taste on Wheels, and since there were less people, I had the opportunity to play not only jenga, but also giant connect four and cornhole. The music was pretty terrible at Taste on Wheels-bluegrass mixed with country. There were significantly fewer food trucks than at the beer/wine fest, and it was disappointing not every truck had a smaller tasting item for sale in addition to their full menu. However, this was my preferred event because it was less crowded and we were more able to walk around and take our time than feeling rushed with the 3 hour time period. Overall, I enjoyed both events, and I plan on going to Drink the District events in the future. read more

Went to the 50 shades of Rosé 6pm-9pm event last night. Promised: unlimited tastings of 100+ wines at the French embassy, cooking demo, live entertainment, artisan gift shopping, and lingerie fashion show. Delivered: unlimited lines, unlimited crowds, no cooking demo, no live entertainment, food served from warming dishes (no demos) that you had to pay for, coat check that you also had to pay for, a few good shopping booths (hand crafted leather goods, cocktail bitters, jewelry), bottled water $2, hand soap in bathrooms watered down making a HUGE mess of the counter tops, and if you went to a particular wine station more than once the servers rolled their eyes and barely poured a splash. If there was a lingerie fashion show, it happened after we left. Between the crowds and lines, we were out of there by 715 (after waiting in yet another line to retrieve our coats). Save your money, and look into Things To Do D.C. events instead (which are always well planned and worth the entry fee). read more

To echo everyone else's review on this page, Drink the District's organizers are horrifically organized and simply unresponsive. I am just writing to vouch for every review here that I've read so far. It's all true. You may want to pregame elsewhere (heavily) just to make the chaos on the day of the events bearable. Buyer beware. read more

I have attended a handful of beer festivals and tastings in the area and these events are by far the best organized. Drink the District has worked hard to provide a diverse selection of beers and a huge selection of ciders as well. The vendors range from big, small, local and out of state brewer's. Not only are the beers great, but the atmosphere as a whole is wonderful! The setting of the festival is never the same and the food trucks are always exactly what you need after a long day of drinking. I will definitely be attending more events in the future. read more

Changed their event to another weekend due to weather, I didn't receive an email about event change, customer service was terrible, and they refused to refund even though I bought tickets for out of town guests :( read more

I attended an event the end of last year before Christmas and considered going again since they go to different locations, until I remembered...I placed an order through a wine vendor there - District Still - for a number of bottles. It was odd that they didn't plug all my order details into their register/computer. Long story short though my order was input, but I didn't receive contact afterward to coordinate delivery, as they said I would. I sent an e-mail, got an automated reply saying they'd be in touch but again, they NEVER DID and I NEVER RECEIVED THE ORDER which was for the holiday! After a few more days I saw that the charge had been reversed the same day it was applied! What legit company does that?? I was able to get in touch with a Dtd organizer, and guess what: District Still = Drink the district. Reputable wine vendors? Hardly. Unless you want to question the existence of a company based on not being contacted & erroneous refund to have the outcome I had, don't set you sights on ANY Drink the Dist. event. Waaaaaay too suspect. They have the nerve to say this on their website: "We create popup experiences that are unique, well executed, hassle free, and affordable". read more

Rock the Core was such a waste of money. 20 min line to get in the door, 10-15 min lines at all tables, many tastings were for beer and not labeled as such (at a cider festival), and way way too many big commercial breweries. Definitely will not do another Drink the District event. So clearly not worth the money. read more

I've attended a previous drink the district event 2 years ago, a cider event, and it was awesome, you could taste until your heart was content. This review is for the Cherry Blossom Beer and Wine event... which is glad I purchased a discounted ticket for because if I had paid full price I would've been upset. I attended session 2 on 4/1/18 The full pours of wine spritzer taste horrible. I don't know what they mixed the spritzer with but I sipped it and gagged. The 10 drink tickets you get to taste the wine, beer and ciders available at the event were a joke. Some of the places barely gave you a full pour and you were out a drink ticket. Lastly I didn't have one great tasting wine while out there. My husband who is a cider drinker agreed that the choices related to cider were poor to say the least. We gave our remaining tickets away because the choices were so bad. I would prefer to pay full price for a great drink. If you were a beer drinker or if you just came to drink anything.. this was the event for you. However if you were interested in really trying some great wines... look elsewhere. read more

Used to be awesome - short lines, unlimited samples. Now, long lines/wait to get drinks (20 minutes just to get in, then 15+ minutes for each "sample") - they had 2 or 3 tents for all of the beer instead of spreading it out. You get 20 tickets but if you wanted a 4oz pour (the standard sample size) you had to give them 2 tickets so in reality you're only getting 10 samples of wine or beer. The unlimited pours is for light beer and even those lines were crazy long. The other beer festivals in DC are much better. Disappointing to see Drink the District become so bad. read more

I went to this event with the LivingSocial deal for the Saturday 6-10 PM session. My friends and I arrived around 6 PM to get in line to get in. We printed out our vouchers as instructed and we generally got through the line pretty fast, even though it seemed intimidatingly long at first. As we entered the fest, it was well spread out across a field with a number of breweries, wineries, food trucks and vendors all available! All beer and wine was unlimited tastings until taps closed at 9:30 PM for last call. There were breweries and wineries from across the country - some of my favorites including Rogue, Redhook, and Ace Cider! The only detraction from this event was how muddy it was - the ice buckets and excess liquids made a number of puddles throughout the event making it challenging to navigate, especially given the summer shoeware most attendees were sporting. Finally, there were an ample number of port-a-potties available - the lines moved pretty quick (5-10 minute wait), even at the end of the night when it seemed like everyone had their calling from mother nature. Overall, this event was a pretty good one and I'd definitely go again. Rumor has it they are returning at the end of July! read more

Bought tickets for Rock the Core yesterday and will never be back to ANY event put on by this company. Long lines, incredibly rude waitstaff (my friends were literally shoved out at 4:02 pm despite being told time and time again that we "could stay for the Taste of DC afterwards"). I was trying to use the restroom at 4:00 pm (event was 1-4) and a male staff member literally stood in front of the door (I got his name in case it matters, but I'll be shocked if anyone even responds to this.) Waited in exorbitantly long lines to get in (despite having pre-purchased a ticket), lines to check bags, and then lines AGAIN to load money onto our wristbands to purchase food. At that point, I was ready to leave and we hadn't even made it to the cider tasting event. Once we were in, we could barely move. They DEFINITELY exceeded the capacity for the room, so it was impossible to move around and taste the ciders and virtually every single person staffing the event was unhelpful. Do NOT waste your money. read more

Save your money. We went to the 50 Shades of Rose event at the French Embassy on Feb 18. Terrible. Horrible. False advertising. Way too crowded - lines were very long (20-30 people deep) long and when we finally got to one of the tasting tables, we received tablespoon size tastings of very cheap, bad wine with no description of the wine or wine education at all. Advertised as "100's of wines" with "roaming sommeliers". Only a few tables of wines, so I doubt there were hundreds and not a "roaming sommelier" to be found. No "culinary stage" either. Executive Chef teaching you how to cook & sip was not to be found. We didn't find any oysters, either. And the musical "stage" was really just microphones set up on the floor with no band to be found (at least until 2:15, when we left). Piped in music over loud speakers. No dance floor. Never saw any burlesque dancers. The complimentary "wine glass" was a cheap plastic cup. Do not go to these events. A money-making rip-off. Take your money and go to a nice wine bar for real wine tasting. read more