Update 6/21: The Portside in Old Town festival has been canceled for Saturday due to extreme heat
Here’s a roundup of all the events, live music, and entertainment happening around Alexandria this weekend, Thursday, June 6, through Sunday, June 9, 2024.
Old Town gift and apparel shop The Happy Place is getting a little bigger.
Stella Koukides, one of the owners of The Happy Place, said the store at 105 S. Union Street has opened up into neighboring 107 S. Union Street, formerly The Gentlemen’s Quarters, which closed in March.
Koukides said the new expanded area of the shop is currently open and features a new curated collection with a focus on vacation-wear.
“Our expanded haven curates a collection that captures the carefree essence of vacation ready,” Koukides wrote. “From beach cover ups to leisure wear you will be in vacation mode. Get ready to brighten up your day with our curated selection of fun and vibrant jewelry, apparel, gifts, and self-care products!”
The shop offers a wide variety of goods, from sweet treats and self-care items to clothing and party goods.
At a recent City Council meeting, Council member John Chapman pushed back against critics of the city’s new rainbow crosswalks in Old Town celebrating the LGBTQ community.
The crosswalks, a project City Council member Kirk McPike helped spearhead, debuted this year in time for Pride Month. The crosswalks at the intersection of King and Royal streets are a permanent new addition to the city’s streetscape.
Nine new townhomes and four semi-detached dwellings are being proposed for a half-acre property used for an office building and warehouse in the Old Town Historic District.
The Alexandria Planning Commission will be presented with the proposal to build on the two parcels at 107 and 125 N. West Street. The location is about a half-block from King Street, and is near Jefferson Houston Elementary School and the King St. Metro station.
An undisclosed amount of liquor was stolen from an Old Town restaurant after a suspect used a brick to smash a glass door, according to staff.
Workers at the restaurant said that at some point overnight a suspect smashed a side door to Mae’s Market & Cafe at 277 S. Washington Street and stole liquor from the bar.
A stalled development project in Old Town, called The Heritage, could be getting a boost from the city’s housing authority to get it over the finish line.
The City Council is docketed to consider a resolution “authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) for the Heritage at Old Town Redevelopment Project.”
There are more than 1,600 Old Town residents experiencing a power outage, and the Alexandria Police Department is directing traffic in Old Town North.
The outage comes after excessive rainfall earlier this afternoon.
Get your snifters, tumblers and martini glasses ready, because the long-awaited opening of a Virginia ABC store on S. Washington Street in Old Town is happening on Wednesday.
Virginia ABC has been looking to open its eighth store in Alexandria for more than a year.
An amendment to the Business Improvement District (BID) guidelines that could make it easier to pass is headed to City Council for review next week.
The idea behind a BID is that it would be an organization that could advocate and host programs and events that would draw people to the relevant area as well as providing other services.
Can Del Ray businesses defend their title against Old Town in the annual softball battle on Thursday?
Mayor Justin Wilson will throw the first pitch at Eugene Simpson Park (426 E. Monroe Avenue) at 6 p.m. The five-inning game will include food trucks and ice cream. The businesses even got permission from the city to serve draft beer from Port City Brewing Company.
Good Friday morning, Alexandria!
🌦️ Today’s weather: Expect a slight chance of showers after 2pm with a partly sunny sky and a high near 75. The east wind will blow at 3 to 7 mph, with a 20 percent chance of precipitation. Friday night, showers will be mainly after 2am with a low around 59 and a southeast wind at 5 to 7 mph. There’s an 80 percent chance of precipitation and new precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch are possible.
