March Love Letter

March is always way chillier in Washington than we want it to be, especially considering that the month that ushers in spring brings with it a heady lineup of outdoor events. Among the first is the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade (dcstpatsparade.com), which goes on, rain or shine or windy-cold, the Sunday before March 17. Guinness-fortified, greenly attired spectators line Constitution Avenue (no chance of even a wee snort along this stone-faced stretch of bar-less road, sorry to say) to cheer on the marching bands and the bare-legged, redheaded lasses from local schools, dressed in full Gaelic regalia, Riverdancing down the avenue.

Many celebrants will have started their carousing the day before at the Shamrock Fest (shamrockfest.com) held across town at RFK Stadium: 50 Irish-leaning and other bands, from Flogging Molly to Scythian, take over 11 stages at this all-day St. Patrickpalooza.

Meanwhile, tour buses and tourists proliferate on city streets and around the National Mall, as March strides toward its denouement, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival (nationalcherryblossomfestival.org), the capital’s most famous non-political occasion. A mere million spring vacationers descend upon DC to enthuse over the nearly 4,000 blooming cherry trees circling the Tidal Basin, and to paint the town cherry-red.

For we who prefer to join in the spirit of the season without necessarily attending official events, DC amply provides. If you like the hard-driving blues singer Lucinda Williams, mark March 3, the 9:30 Club (930.com), on your calendar.

Chocoholics might head to Equinox (equinoxrestaurant.com) for one of the restaurant’s final three Chocolate Happy Hours, on March 6, 13, and 20. And if “green” causes trump green beer for you, try to catch a screening of one of the 136 films showing at this year’s 17th annual DC Environmental Film Festival (dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org), March 11–22.

Elise Ford