Washington’s annual Around the World Embassy Tour returns May 2, opening 68 embassies to the public for a free day of food, music, art and performances from 9:30 AM to 5 PM. Fourteen of the stops will be clustered at the UDC Student Center in Van Ness, making it possible to move from one country’s culture to the next without leaving the city.
That concentration is part of what makes embassy day dc such a draw for locals and visitors alike: a single Saturday with enough programming to fill the day. Souvenir passports will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at Dupont Circle, the Mexican Cultural Institute and the UDC Student Center, and the Events DC app will provide real-time updates throughout the event.
This year also brings Cuba onto the tour for the first time. At the UDC Student Center, visitors can sample ropa vieja and moros y cristianos and pose for photos in front of a backdrop of Havana’s Capitolio building. Egypt’s stop will mix replicas of Pharaonic treasures with live music, while children can take part in arts and crafts and taste traditional Egyptian snacks.
Elsewhere, the Ethiopian embassy is inviting visitors to watch a traditional coffee ceremony that includes roasting and serving coffee, along with live music, cultural dance performances and food such as injera. The Korean Cultural Center will lean into film with movie-inspired performances, choreography and a sing-along, and visitors can make keychains inspired by gat hats. At the Ambassador’s Residence, workshops on Arabic calligraphy will run alongside tours of the embassy’s permanent art collection, with a Qanoon performance at 11 AM, poetry at 12:30 PM and a children’s chorus at 2:30 PM. An ID is required for entry.
Other stops are built around food and performance. The Embassy of the Republic of Maldives will highlight island culture with traditional seafood snacks and Boduberu drum and dance performances, and visitors can scan QR codes to take recipes home. The Mexican Cultural Institute will feature folkloric ballet, traditional Mariachi performances and guided tours, while also showcasing the work of DC-based Mexican artist Paloma Vianey and selling a range of Mexican handicrafts. One embassy will display a real Arabian horse in the parking lot, with dancing and henna painting inside, while another’s “Garden City” stop will offer arts and crafts and dishes from the country’s famous street food culture.
There are also stops focused on music, travel and hands-on activities. One embassy will feature musical genres such as Wilders and Cadre, along with traditional foods from the dual-island nation, and raffle prizes at that stop include flights to the islands. Visitors can enjoy activities at both the Thai House and the Thai garden, where a Thai massage, traditional dance and Muay Thai martial arts demonstrations are on the schedule. Another embassy is working with World Central Kitchen, with an 11 AM talk on aid work on the ground in Ukraine, plus borscht and a photo exhibition about the group’s work there.
The tour is one of the signature events of Passport DC, the month-long festival that turns the capital into a one-day passport to dozens of countries. For anyone willing to line up early and keep moving, May 2 offers a rare chance to sample the world across Washington in a single afternoon.