The sound of dhol could be heard before the gates of the Pakistan Embassy came into view, cutting through the usual quiet of International Drive as thousands of visitors poured into Washington’s diplomatic enclave on Saturday for the annual Passport DC “Around the World Embassy Tour.”
By noon, the street had the bustle of a fairground. Families with children, students with souvenir passports, Pakistani-Americans, tourists and Washington residents moved from one mission to another, collecting stamps, tasting unfamiliar food and stopping for photographs wherever colour, music or costume offered a frame.
At the Pakistan Embassy, officials said more than 6,000 visitors passed through during the day-long open house. The mission presented truck art, textiles, gemstones, perfumery, handicrafts, henna, Urdu calligraphy, Pakistani cuisine and live music, turning the embassy grounds into one of the busier stops on the route.
Visitors queued near food counters where samosas and jalebis disappeared quickly, while others gathered around mehndi artists and calligraphers writing names in Urdu. The most photographed corners were those with truck art and brightly decorated rickshaws, where guests posed for pictures, laughed, adjusted dupattas and waited their turn as if the embassy had briefly become a street scene from Lahore or Karachi.
The musical performances ran through the afternoon, with tabla, harmonium, bansuri, dhol and vocals giving the space a rhythm that could be heard from the road. Children watched the instruments closely. Older visitors asked questions about the script, the fabric, the food and the painted rickshaws. Many appeared to be encountering Pakistan outside the familiar frames of politics, conflict and crisis.
It was not only an embassy open house. For a few hours, it felt as if countries themselves had opened small public windows in Washington.
Nearby, the Embassy of Malaysia also drew visitors on International Court, while the Bangladesh Embassy presented traditional music, dance, handwoven textiles, jamdani fabrics, crafts and food. The Nigerian Embassy showcased fashion, Afrobeats and contemporary cultural expression. The Ukrainian Embassy also returned to the festivities this year, marking its first public event since Russo-Ukrainian war.
Events DC said this year’s Around the World Embassy Tour featured 68 embassies The programme ran from 9:30am to 5pm and was free to the public, with visitors encouraged to pick up souvenir passports and have them stamped at participating embassies. Volunteers in Passport DC shirts guided visitors, distributed programmes and helped manage lines at information hubs.
This year’s tour was also tied to America’s 250th anniversary, with participating embassies asked to highlight their countries’ relations with the United States along with food, art, dance, fashion and music.
“Passport DC, one of the District’s most anticipated programs, offers everyone a unique opportunity to explore the vibrant culture of the nation’s capital,” Events DC President and CEO Angie M. Gates said before the event, adding that participants could experience “food, art, music, and dance from around the world.”
Passport DC is being held throughout May. Events DC said last year’s programme attracted more than 369,000 visits from the region and abroad, while this year more than 80 embassies and cultural organisations are participating in different events.
The next major segment will be the European Union Open House on May 9, when 27 EU embassies are scheduled to open their doors with exhibits, performances and tastings.
By late afternoon on Saturday, visitors were still moving between embassies with painted hands, stamped passports, food boxes, crafts and phone galleries filled with music and colour. International Drive slowly returned to its diplomatic quiet, but only after a day in which Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria and dozens of other countries had briefly made Washington look less like a capital of guarded compounds and more like a public square.