Washington D.C. Culture

There are two Washingtons. The federal city empties at weekends and turns over with each administration. The other is a city of long-standing neighbourhoods, historically Black-majority and the source of a culture that has nothing to do with government.

Go-go — a percussion-heavy funk built for live performance — was invented here in the 1970s and is the official music of the District. It is played in venues that visitors mostly do not find.

Washington has the largest Ethiopian community in the world outside Ethiopia, concentrated around Ninth Street and Shaw, and the restaurants are a genuine part of the city rather than a novelty.

The absence of congressional voting representation is a constant civic theme, printed on the licence plates and not intended as a joke.