By Sara Gilgore

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Key story highlights:

• D.C.-based Halcyon is launching By the People, an international arts and dialogue festival, June 21-24 in D.C.
• About 100 events will feature more than 40 speakers, performers and artists across the city’s four quadrants.
• The festival will set out to mirror the impact of conferences like South by Southwest in Austin.

Despite Washington’s strong arts and innovation ecosystem, the region looks to Austin’s South by Southwest every year. So Halcyon, the nonprofit spinoff from D.C.-based S&R Foundation, wants to change that — by launching a giant festival in our own backyard.

By the People, the organization’s inaugural international arts and dialogue festival, debuts in D.C. June 21, with events featuring more than 40 speakers, performers and artists, across the city’s four quadrants over four days.

Halcyon’s 16-person team has been spearheading the effort for the past year, both to bring recognition to the local culture community, and to reach more people than its programs for social entrepreneurs, artists and scientists.

Though, marketing has been a challenge, said Halcyon CEO Kate Goodall. It’s placed ads on the backs of D.C. buses and signage at Nationals Park, and Goodall’s team has been working with Smithsonian and Destination D.C. to get the word out. It’s expected to bring about 10,000 participants per day, with roughly $1 million in economic impact, according to the D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, an event partner.

To put on the festival, Halcyon has a $1.6 million budget, with about $500,000 as in-kind donations from venues and other partners. The remaining funding has come through sponsorships from Kiddar Capital, Geico, Lyft, Events D.C., S&R CEO Dr. Sachiko Kuno and others.

The festival comprises more than 100 events, some free and some ticketed, throughout the District: video installations, musical interpretations, arts presentations, “common ground” discussions, an augmented reality experience from ArTecHouse and more. Five locations will host the main events — the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building (serving as the festival’s hub), Washington National Cathedral, Union Market, THEARC West and The Parks at Walter Reed — plus other activities spanning from the Anacostia Arts Center to U Street Music Hall.

Speakers, ranging from Palestine-born activist Yousef Bashir to Georgetown University’s Sonal Shah to Todd Hitt of Kiddar Capital, will speak on topics that include the wealth cap, Middle East relations, virtual relationships and the implications of discovering life beyond Earth.

If you’re thinking this four-day festival sounds ambitious, you’re right, Goodall acknowledges. “We’re coming out of the gate in a big way, and I recognize both the opportunity and the risk to that,” she said. 

South by Southwest didn’t start as the massive destination conference it is today; it kicked off in Austin in 1987, stemming from a small music event and discussion series about media and entertainment, namely the talent in its local music community. And from there, it grew.

The hope for the festival, Goodall said, is to have a similar story, while building community “at a time when divisiveness is pretty rampant,” she said. It could also help with branding D.C., to communicate “that anybody can come here and be successful in business; that the barriers to entry are lower here for capital, for networking, for inclusion generally, and similarly for art; that D.C. is a diverse city, it will remain a diverse city and it will remain committed to inclusion. That could be a great brand, and all the more important for us to reflect that.”