Foggy Bottom Whomp Stompers

Date and Time for this Past Event

Saturday, Jul 15, 2023 12:01pm - 5pm

Location

Details

The noted band Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers will play in Dupont Circle park on Saturday, July 15th from 1:00-5:00 p.m. The Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers are a DC area prohibition-era jazz band playing music from the 1920s and ‘30s. In the Circle, the band will play and people will be encouraged to dance. Instructors from Gottaswing will be on site offering lessons to those willing to hoof a little from 2:00-2:30.

“We are so pleased to have the Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers play in our two-acre park,” said Bill McLeod, executive director. “This band plays period jazz from a bygone era, which is very popular with swingers, flappers, and dancers from around the region.”

The Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers formed in 2015 at a flash-band event playing “music in the public domain,” i.e., from before about 1925. Since then they’ve been stomping on like the Ship of Theseus with members coming and going, but always keeping the 1920s music flowing! Since the band’s formation, they’ve played at private parties and public events throughout the District, Virginia, Maryland, and even the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including the Kennedy Center, Woodrow Wilson House, Torpedo Factory Art Center, to the Dupont Circle hotel.

Swinging since 1994, Gottaswing has over 25 years of experience setting the bar for swing dance classes and social events. Tom Koerner and Debra Sternberg met in 1987 and soon became dance partners. They performed as featured dancers with Doc Scantlin’s Imperial Palms Orchestra at Joe and Mo’s Restaurant in Washington, DC, during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. Among their awards, they are the six-time Virginia State Lindy Hop and Jitterbug champions, 1994 United Kingdom Lindy Hop champions (Airsteps division), and 2010 inductees as National Living Legends of Swing.

This event was made possible by the Streets for People grant program under the DC Office of Planning. This program seeks to support economic recovery and celebrate DC’s diverse culture by attracting people to a vibrant area of activated blocks, sidewalks, streets, and parks. For more information, please visit https://publicinput.com/dcstreetsforpeople.

Dupont Circle is DC’s international heart, the destination neighborhood renowned as the city’s welcoming gathering place. The Dupont Circle Business Improvement District (BID) was formed in 2018 to elevate this iconic neighborhood through public space management, placemaking, activation, and economic development initiatives. To learn more about the BID’s mission and work, visit www.dupontcirclebid.org.