Серия концертов в парке Форт Дюпон прекратилась после 54 лет работы из-за нехватки ресурсов

After 54 years, the National Park Service’s acclaimed concert series in Southeast’s Fort Dupont Park has quietly come to an end—at least for now, according to an NPS spokesperson.  In response to an email query from City Paper, an NPS spokesperson said the “National Park Service has been proud to present the Fort Dupont Summer Concert Series for decades. However, NPS will not produce the series this year.”  When asked for clarification, the spokesperson—who declined to provide a name—responded, “[t]he decision not to continue the Fort Dupont Series was not taken lightly. After evaluating Fort Dupont programs and activities based on a number of factors, including current priorities, available resources, and public attendance and participation, the NPS determined not to continue the series.” Asked whether the event would return next year, the spokesperson wrote, “No decisions have been made regarding a Fort Dupont Park concert series in 2027.” In the years after it started in 1972, the NPS Fort Dupont Park concert series often featured national acts every weekend of the summer. “That was a magical time for music,” says D.C. art teacher and photographer Grover Massenburg, who used to live near the park. “We used to picnic there all the time.” The series began as part of NPS’ Summer in the Parks program, created in 1968 in response to the uprising that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. As the Washington Post reports, the program was aimed at drawing young people out of the streets: For years, shows were staged at federal parks around town including Malcolm X Park, Carter Barron, Anacostia Park, and Fort Reno Park. Over the decades, the shows whittled down to fewer locations. But from the 1980s until recently, NPS sponsored a lesser but still sizable amount of shows each summer at Fort Dupont. In those decades, NPS, using hired concert promoters, have brought a who’s who of jazz and R&B artists including such luminaries as Roy Ayers, the Dramatics, S.O.S. Band, Sun Ra, Mother’s Finest, Bobby Bland, Dexter Gordon, and Con Funk Shun to Fort Dupont’s large stage located at the bottom of a long sloping grass hill. Ayers even wrote a song about the location called “Ft. Dupont Park” for his 2004 album, Mahogany Vibe. Local bands were often selected to open the shows. Audiences stood or sat on blankets and lawn chairs, many brought picnics. But in recent years, there have been fewer shows and national acts, and NPS has seemingly struggled to find promoters and to start the season in early summer as it once did. Both the 2023 and 2024 seasons only featured three shows a piece and both took place in the fall. In 2025, the NPS presented just two shows, an R&B event with Syleena Johnson, and a separate old-school rap gig with KRS-One, both in August. But Fort Dupont Park has not been completely quiet this summer. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation hosted Chuck Brown Day there on Aug. 22, and local R&B/funk group the Cruddy Crankerz have been hosting (and performing at) monthly concerts with other local acts since June. Their final show is Sept. 19. While the Go-Go Museum, Sycamore & Oak, and Events D.C. occasionally present local bands in Southeast, the musical options in this quadrant remain very limited. The once-heralded Summer in the Parks series is now largely gone. Fort Reno’s July shows were funded in large part through donations, and the recent three-night pop-up concerts on a temporary stage at Carter Barron relied on donations, and the efforts of three nonprofit organizations: the Rock Creek Conservancy, the Washington Project for the Arts, and DC JazzFest. The structurally unsound permanent stage at Carter Barron has sat unfixed for a decade. At the end of fiscal year 2025, NPS, whose staff was cut by nearly 25 percent under Elon Musk’s DOGE, estimated that it needs $24 billion for repair work nationwide. The Trump administration, per the Atlantic, is using NPS funds largely for the President’s local pet projects in Northwest D.C. As for Fort Dupont Park, the NPS spokesperson added, “NPS welcomes opportunities to work with partners and community organizations interested in bringing performances and other appropriate programming to Fort Dupont Park.”