I've attended many concerts at the Annual Silver Spring Jazz Festival; but there are certain…read moreattendees that immediately come to mind: David Sandborn (saxophonist), Dianne Reeves(vocalist) and most recently Dee Dee Bridgewater with her all female quartet! There have been many artists that has participated but these stood out! Always recommend this event.

Amazing free all day jazz festival on the plaza. Last year I think it was the day before Father's…read moreDay. Also a great way to get people from all over the region and even some visitors like my dad to support the many amazing businesses in Downtown Silver Spring.

I have not seen anybody looking at the phone screen @ this festival which is a testament of things…read morebeing interesting and moving quickly. Entertainment was great: starting with the basic African drumming, continued with the dance and followed by steel drums music with a lot of good fillers between (African Zumba and South African country dance). The vendors offered very unique items to buy - from minerals to clothing and sandals and jewelry. Sales people were very kind and willing to explain the meaning of everything they were selling. It was a teaching moment for kids to see the works of art featuring Mandela. The venue was perfect, 7 story garage right at the venue, big parking lot nearby and street closed. The menu was interesting - a true African cuisine. My choice - it turned out very good - was a food vendor from Ivory Coast. Croaker fish was delicious and it offered a different experience just by virtue of having to pull the meat from the bone instead of eating it in a fish stick. The fish was wonderful, not fatty but flaky. The couscous was not North African but West African style and slightly sour. Plantains were divine (soft and sweet) and doughnuts different (consistency more like bread - a bit harder). Rice and greens met my expectation. I did not notice any North African country represented in the entertainment or in vending shop. Most northern products were from Ethiopia selling under premise of African art. This is a very convenient, very fast pace and fun festival with good food.

Great, fun, friendly, high-quality arts festival with live music and food stands. Artists…read moreexhibiting here come from all over the country and offer a wide variety of wares showing their talents in wood, fabrics, ceramics, metal, photography, painting, etc. The streets are blocked off and booths are set up so it's safe to walk including for children and pets! It's in a vibrant area with many other businesses so when you're done with the arts fest for the day, you can easily go on to other things. There is plentiful parking in a garage nearby and it's not too far a walk from the Bethesda Metro Station. The festival itself is walkable, as well, with a slight incline/ decline in elevation on the main street. There are bright red booths filled with helpful staff to guide you, give you maps, and encourage you along your way, too .... An all-around, highly enjoyable -- and highly recommended -- experience!

This was my first official Taste of Wheaton, which took place in Marian Fryer Town Plaza in the…read moreArts District of Wheaton. The event featured a combination of 40 restaurants, food vendors, representatives from local businesses, family activities (e.g., face painting, soccer, and dance exhibitions). I dunno, I thought there could have been more restaurants that participated in this year's event. From what I heard, previous years had more participating restaurant/food vendors. However, I understand that maybe some restaurants in the area probably did not think it was in their best interests to participate due to increased costs and uncertainty that it would generate new business. In terms of tasting, perhaps, it was not anything too special to me since I have dined at about 90% of the restaurants that participated in this year's festival. So, it was not like I had the opportunity to try out any new restaurants. I guess it was nice to have several of my regular restaurants together in the same couple of blocks. While I get that the vendors want to make a profit or make enough money to make it worth their while, I thought some of food prices were a bit high relative to the experience. If I'm going to pay close to $20 for tree tacos from a restaurant, I'd much rather just go to and eat at the restaurant...especially if when super hot outside with limited amount of shade. Although I (as a childless 40-yr old) probably will not block off my calendar to check out next year's event. I'll be more than willing to check it out if I'm in the area and/or have plans to hit up one of my local, nearby bars.

I've gone to the taste of Wheaton every year for the past several. This year's (2026) seems to…read morehave taken a sharp nosedive. Everything still seemed well organised and such, but the number of stalls, and the quality of the existing stalls, was noticeable less than previous years. Not only were they fewer, but a higher proportion of non "taste" ones, with random arts and crafts, dentists, someone selling compost kits.... No more wine bar area, either. It just seemed half hearted.

We use to really enjoy coming to this annual event but it's progressively gone downhill. A lot of…read moremarketing and seldom do the food vendors display the ticket costs until you ask. Fun with small children for maybe a couple hours. Huge increase in Latino and Asian foods, be careful a couple of the dishes were so bad we threw most away. Also the cost for what you get continues to climb. My 2 pics were 4 tickets each which converts to $8 apiece? Yikes.

Bad service and mediocre food. Disappointing, nothing homemade or special about it. Just average…read morechicken and French fries. I seriously think Popeyes is better

Shame on me for not consulting with Yelp before going to today's (5/8/22) Jamaica in Silver Spring…read moreEvent. I was looking for something interesting to take my mom and the some of my siblings to and this event looked interesting. I came across the following advertisement on EVENTBRITE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taste-of-jamaica-tickets-257838169907 And after reading it, I thought, "whoa, what a bargain and even better that proceeds were going to charity." So I purchased four so-called "early bird tickets" for $15, with a $2 service charge for each ticket. Now, I like to consider myself a semi-intelligent person and an even savvier shopper who usually reads the fine print. The main reason I purchased the Early Bird Eventbrite tickets was this section: "EARLY BIRD MENU PRICE OF $15 will be offered again for JERK CHICKEN, JERK PORK, JERK RIBS, CURRY CHICKEN AND BROWN STEW CHICKEN. VALID ONLY AT THE TASTE OF JAMAICA BOOTHE. REGULAR PRICE WILL BE $20----$25." So most "reasonable" folks buying this would assume that the $15 price would pay for any of the items listed in the description of the ticket..right? So imagine my surprise when we arrived around 1:30pm, showed our etickets and were flatly told that the $15 early bird ticket only allowed us ONE of the chicken items - which BTW were already priced at $15!!! So what did I pay the extra $2 service charge for, if the it would've been cheaper for me to just pay at the tent? And when I tried to show the "manager the text of the ticket which said my early bird ticket, he insisted that it did not cover either the Jerk Pork or Jerk Ribs" since those were extra. He kept reiterating he wasn't "responsible" for what "gets put on the website," however I see the review for 2018 has an eerily similar experience. What's worse, the group before my family stepped up to order, also got the early bird tickets, and they were able to split their entree orders (such as getting 1/2 curry chicken and 1/2 jerk chicken), while we were curtly told, "that wasn't allowed." Saay what? I don't want to speculate as to why my family received different treatment from the group before us...you'd have to ask the "manager" guy. As for the food - meh. The curry chicken was super oily and the only real flavor was salt and hardly any curry spice was detectable. And the jerk chicken was super dry and mostly bones (again, similar experience to the last reviewer 4 years ago) and had a very bland flavor profile. As one final "shady" item, when we got our food and were leaving, I asked some of the staff about the charitable contribution that the Eventbrite ticket listed: "THANKS FOR THE CONTINUED SUPPORT. WE ARE COLLECTING SCHOOL MATERIALS FOR OUR CHARITY ( JAMAICA EDUCATION FOR THE POOR FOUNDATION, 501(C) NON-PROFIT) The lady who portioned out our food had a bewildered look on her face and then once again referred me to the "manager" guy who said, "oh yeah, we are using 'some' of the proceeds today are going towards a charity." Not really a resounding vote of confidence there. BTW, there was also ZERO signage anywhere in his tent about proceeds benefiting any charity. In the future, if this business comes up again with Eventbrite, I say avoid, avoid, avoid.

Taste of Jamaica does not gather tens of thousands of people so the wait in the line for the food…read moreis only between 2 and 10 minutes. It has free nearby parking, no entrance fee, jamming reggae, a lot of food vendors. Hats were only $5. People are walking around, sipping coconut water from fresh cut coconut. Everybody is smiling or dancing. Vendors product are priced reasonable. I got a got a goat curry with the vegetable and it was great. Meat was just about to fall off the bones and goat meat had the texture of lamb meat. It was just mildly spicy and it was plenty. I tried fish with jerk seasonings and it was good too. Here is a small video that brings the atmosphere. https://vimeo.com/221112689 I would love to go again next year and try ox tails and dance more.

Annual Senegal Day festival was a festival that needed a long time to warm up. Fairly slow start…read morebut the ending was so much fun. People danced to addictive beat and everybody had a great time. My goat meat and rice was good but what was unique was the juice from the Baobab tree that "tastes like sunshine" and treats dysentery. Did not need to treat dysentery but I admired the tree and wanted to try something new. It was very tropical in nature and sweet. It was so nice to see yet another fabric of America in Senegalese diaspora and to learn something new about Senegal. Thank you for sharing your day with the rest of us!

It pains me to give two stars to any festival as the festivals are supposed to be celebratory and…read morehappy, great culinary experiences and sharing cultures and knowledge. The problem with the Nigerian Festival is that the Nigerians did not show up. Being late one hour does not mean anything when you are late for nothing. Music was going on, few vendors showed up. Three food vendors (Senegal, Congo and Nigeria) with limited food choices. I tried two dishes. One had a fake jollof rice as jollof rice should be red. One tasted like a subdued Indian spicy meal and the one with real (reddish) jollof rice was not amazing. The doughnuts were OK. Whoever organizes this carnival needs to care a bit more about it and get the crowd moving and get them excited about something. I cannot wait to tell my Nigerian friend at work how disappointed I was with the entire thing.