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Photo: Plot Spoiler, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
America's largest free festival dedicated to the arts is held every July in Mount Vernon. You'll have the opportunity to experience and purchase arts and crafts produced by Baltimore artisans and tailors, as well as concerts by both local and national talent.
Artscape is an annual art festival held in Baltimore, Maryland. Previously held in the vicinity of Maryland Institute College of Art in July, Artscape was moved to Downtown and Memorial Day weekend as of 2025. Since its first annual event in 1982, Artscape has become the largest free arts festival in America. It has boasted acts such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin in the past, attracting over 350,000 people from the city, and surrounding areas. Film programming during Artscape is provided by Maryland Film Festival. There are artists in a variety of visual and performing media. Events are free and open to the public.
Bolton Hill is a beautiful neighborhood, but probably the single most impressionable and beautiful section is the square immediately around this huge memorial of the composer of the U.S. National Anthem. Key, cast in bronze, stands in a boat returning from captivity on an English ship along with a soldier, presenting a manuscript of what would become the Star Spangled Banner to a figure of "Columbia," who stands tall atop a marble temple, raising the flag to the sky. The enormous domed church on the square is a Masonic building, home to the "Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland," and is not open to the public.
At the turn of the 19th century, Baltimorians lobbied for a monument dedicated to the United States' first president, and in 1829 Washington's first monument finished construction. It was designed by architect Robert Mills who later designed that other Washington Monument in D.C. It is now the focal point of the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. Visitors can climb to the top (more than 160 feet high) with admission to see a panoramic view of the city.
An excellent museum donated to the city by father-and-son railroad tycoons William and Henry Walter, fervent collectors who purchased much of its massive and diverse collection as well as the buildings that host it. It is best known for its collection of 19th century European masterpieces (top floor), however, the ancient and medieval collections are excellent as well. Be sure to enter or exit from its Charles Street entrance, where you'll pass through a magnificent indoor courtyard modeled after the Palazzo Baldi in Genoa.
An elegant late-classical-era home built in 1850, it was donated to the city of Baltimore by its last owners, Willard and Lillian Hackerman, in 1984. The city renamed the house in their honor and took advantage of its location to expand the adjacent Walters Art Museum. It now hosts the Walters' collection of Asian Art, but is open only on the weekend, and can only be accessed from within the museum. From the front rooms on the third floors you can sneak a bird's-eye view of the monument plaza.
Where you can see the manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner" among other things related to Maryland history.
The city's home for swing/blues/lindy hop dancing. Come single or in pairs, and expect to be dancing. Lessons are offered at all levels, and are usual followed by social dancing. Music is often live.