This past Saturday afternoon, an estimated 60,000 people poured into the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to see the moment’s biggest band from Baltimore.

In the shadow of the Washington Monument, within view of the U.S. Capitol and within potential earshot of the White House, Turnstile took to an ad-hoc stage around 3 p.m., its panels painted in their signature rainbow palette.  

A distorted synth line hums out into the crowd as drummer Daniel Fang takes his seat, holds his sticks in the air, and smashes his first stroke of a solo riff. The rest of the band takes the stage, leader sing Brendan Yates closes his eyes and throws up his arms, and with a leap, the hardcore quartet launched into its rollicking anthem “Birds.”

A mosh pit swirls into formation and the entire crowd—teens and twentysomethings, old-head punks, parents with earmuffed kids on their shoulders—starts jumping along, all the way back to that 555-foot-tall obelisk, made of marble from Baltimore no less. (The same as our famous steps.) 

For the Baltimoreans in attendance—many identifiable by their Carpet Company gear, Orioles jerseys, and at least one Stavros Halkias tee—this was a familiar sensation. This day’s concert was wrapping Turnstile’s North American tour for their Grammy Award-winning 2025 fourth album, Never Enough, which they kicked off a year and change prior with a surprise show at the Wyman Park Dell in Charles Village.  

That free, all-ages gathering was also a benefit concert, with QR codes throughout the venue helping raise nearly $50,000 for local nonprofit Healthcare for the Homeless. This past weekend, the show was cohosted with Human Concern International, supporting humanitarian efforts in in Palestine, Lebanon, and Sudan. At last count, they’ve raised $270,000.  

A half hour in, Yates thanked the crowd, and the region. He and Fang grew up halfway between D.C. and Baltimore, attending their earliest concerts around the nation’s capital and were informed by its iconic punk scene.

The hardcore subgenre was born here in the late 1970s and early 1980s, by now legendary bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and Fugazi—which also performed in this same spot 31 years ago, at the time in protest against cuts to local social and welfare programs. In attendance at the Turnstile show was Ian MacKaye, frontman of those latter two bands and founder of seminal hardcore label Dischord Records—a sort of torch-bearing moment of music history. 

“We’re so grateful to have been raised by this scene, one that taught us that music not only reflects the artists making it, but the people, and the world, and the suffering, and the joy that surrounds it,” said Yates as the synth of “Sunshower” lilted around him. “Today, we’re here to gather around music, to celebrate humanity. But also to fight for it.”  

“So loud enough for the White House to hear,” he continued, his voice rising into a shout, “free Palestine, free Sudan, free Lebanon, and always, always keep it moving.”

Then the band launched into its song of the same name off their 2013 debut album, Step to Rhythm—just one of the many deep cuts they performed on their 19-song, 75-minute set. 

Turnstile’s Washington Monument show was a year in the making. In that time, they performed an NPR Tiny Desk, got nominated for five Grammys, performed live duets with Paramore’s Hayley Williams, incited massive mosh pits at Outside Lands and Lollapalooza, released a remix album featuring everyone from DJ Rod Lee and Dan Deacon to Slayyter and Elton John, and made their debut on Saturday Night Live.  

On this bluebird October day, Yates crowd surfed in the afternoon sun. Bassist Franz Lyons leapt across the stage and even at one point left it to dance with fans. Guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills shredded their hearts out.

There were other familiar faces: the Abdeldayem brothers of Carpet Company, Justice Tripp of Angel Du$t, famed skate photographer Atiba Jefferson (who shot our October 2025 cover). And what seemed like every photographer from Baltimore, for that matter.

At one point, National Park Service police officers on horseback entered a crowded area within the concert’s barricade, causing a brief commotion, knocking over a few concertgoers, and inciting a few middle fingers.  

Our favorite moment was when “Look Out For Me” shifted from its headbanging first half into an ambient Baltimore Club-inspired dance beat. A few lines from The Wire echoed out into the audience. The mosh pits shifted into a slow-motion swirl as the band briefly took off their instruments and soaked it all in.  

They wrapped with “T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection)” off their 2021 breakthrough album, Glow On. They gave high fives and threw guitar picks and drum sticks out to fans.

As a nearly full moon rose in the sky, just like that Wyman show, the crowd lingered, then slowly dispersed. 

Contributing photojournalist J.M. Giordano captured all of the energy—from the barricades to backstage—in his images below.

The four-year-old New/Next Film Festival at the Charles Theatre has become tradition for thousands of local cinephiles, with its expertly curated lineup of features, docs, and shorts followed by in-depth conversations with the filmmakers themselves.

And the after parties in Station North have become a requisite part of the entire experience. Because what better way is there to stretch your legs and let your brain process a day of fantastic filmmaking than by hitting the dancefloor with fellow fans?

As in previous years, contributing photojournalist J.M. Giordano stayed out late to capture all of the post-screening fun at Metro Baltimore and Baltimore Improv Group with his Olympus Stylus—on film, of course.

Before the NFL’s international matchup between the Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday—the first regular season game to ever be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—a reporter asked Lamar Jackson whether the Cowboys, America’s Team, would have the crowd in Rio.

Jackson smiled and said, “Yes, but this is America. That’s Brazil. So we’ll see.”

Brazil answered him in purple. The Ravens Flock—our grassroots hometown crew that built the fanbase long before the league ever did—showed up in force, including fans who flew in from all over the world.

I was inside the Maracanã with a camera, up in the stands with the fans, shooting the crowd of more than 72,000 as much as the game itself. For those three hours, everyone was on the edge of their seat. In true Rio spirit, the energy felt more like that of a Brazilian football match than an NFL game—the kind the Maracanã bowl was built for, with nonstop chanting, booing, and going at each other across the aisles.

Every Derrick Henry carry, the place erupted. Every time Jackson pulled it down and ran, it came apart. Baltimore would score, and you could feel the roar coming off the concrete in your chest. Then Dallas would answer, and the whole thing flipped again.

It continued until the last second. Dallas tied it 31-31 with seven seconds on the clock. Then, second-year Ravens kicker Tyler Loop lined up from 56 yards to secure the win. When it went through, the stadium detonated. Helmets off, the guys stormed the field to hype Loop up.

And then, the off-the-field moment I keep coming back to: Jackson ran into the tunnel and hugged the Maracanã’s own staff. The stadium workers standing back there doing their jobs—every single one of them. Then, he ran back out to the crowd.

As you can see in my shots below, Ravens Brazil did not just show up for The Flock. They were The Flock.

Among the countless reasons why we love living in Baltimore is its proximity to the Maryland Renaissance Festival (running weekends through Oct. 25), just about 25 miles south in Crownsville—which is continuously lauded as one of the best in the United States. When the summer winds down, hundreds of thousands of visitors stitch up their corsets, dust off their flower crowns, and make their way to Revel Grove—the 27-acre village of King Henry VIII and his royal company.

Stepping through the front gates sends attendees on a fully immersive trip back to the 16th century, with period-specific shops, artisans, performers (everything from song and dance to juggling and comedy), and sustenance (including the famous turkey legs, eats on a stick, and steins of mead) around every corner.

And fair-goers from near and far seem to be craving that kind of rare escape. As the festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, it’s more popular than ever—with tickets selling out as fast as the horses that rush around the jousting arena, which prompted a wait-list policy for the first time this year.  

Contributing photographer and Maryland Renaissance Festival regular Lauren Castellana—pictured below, donning a hand-made jester costume that she worked on all year in anticipation of the fest—strolled around the village to capture the fun, food, performance, and pure joy of opening weekend.

This past weekend, fans of Baltimore’s boisterous underground music scene bounced back and forth between neighboring North Howard Street venues Le Mondo and Current Space for Subscape—the city’s ever-evolving DIY music fest that features a lineup of more than 60 area punk, alternative, and metal bands across three days.

Though the shows are all free to attend, in keeping with the event’s DIY spirit, organizers turned to crowdfunding (with rewards like VIP perks and locally designed merch) to make sure all talent got paid and production costs were covered. They raised more than double their goal.

“Our city has one of the best music scenes on the planet, and it deserves to be championed by everyone who lives here,” organizers Michael Habif of Baltimore Showplace, Andy Phillips of Wax Atlas, and Kim Te of the band Natural Velvet, wrote on their Indiegogo page. “In a time when it’s harder than ever to find community in the non-virtual world, the DIY music scene is a refuge for countless people to connect and support each other. ”

Amen to that. Browse the gallery below to get a sense of the energy of the third-annual Subscape weekend, captured through the lens of contributing photographer Josh Sisk.

Thousands lined the paths of Druid Hill Park this past weekend to celebrate Baltimore’s many Caribbean communities at the Baltimore Washington One Carnival, which has been a local staple for more than four decades.

Now a three-day event, the fest features authentic food, live music, and non-stop activities for all ages. But its crown jewel continues to be its parade—a three-mile, heart-thumping procession of dancers, musicians, stilt walkers, and revelers (often covered with mud, clay, or paint to align with the ancient mud mas tradition) showing off stunning cultural attire.

Sporadic downpours and excessive heat didn’t even come close to putting a damper on the party this year. Here’s a look at all of the color, costumes, and culture through the lens of contributing photojournalist J.M. Giordano’s 20-year-old Nikon D200.