If you've had the first Sunday in October marked for MPAartfest since sometime in the 2010s, look at your calendar again. The listing might still say MPAartfest. The event does not.
This year the juried art show at McLean Central Park is called McLean Artfest. For eighteen years, McLean Project for the Arts ran the festival on its own, from artist applications through the day-of logistics. Starting with this year's edition on Sunday, October 4, McLean Community Center steps in as the event's producer, with MPA staying on to manage the jury process and artist relations. It is the first time in the festival's history that the two organizations have split the job this way.
What Actually Changed at the Park
McLean Artfest, the 19th annual edition of what was MPAartfest, runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at McLean Central Park on Dolley Madison Boulevard. Admission is free. More than 30 local and regional visual artists will set up under the festival's usual juried format, alongside a Children's Art Walk, food trucks, a beer and wine garden, and live music, the same mix that has anchored the event for years.
What's different is the org chart, not the layout. McLean Community Center now handles production, while McLean Project for the Arts continues to run the artist applications and jury selection it has always overseen. Last year's festival, still produced by MPA alone, returned to the park after a pause tied to park renovations. This year MPA is, in its own words, welcoming the Center into an expanded producer role for the first time.
That is a meaningful handoff for a festival that has run the same way since 2008. It is also not an isolated move.
The Center's 50th Anniversary Year
McLean Community Center spent all of 2025 marking its 50th year, and it did not do so quietly. The celebration ran from a January kickoff at the Alden Theatre through a commemorative tree planting at Spring Fest, an expanded Independence Day fireworks show, a community mural dedication at the Old Firehouse Center's block party, and a full anniversary bash that October. By the time that yearlong celebration wrapped, the Center had spent twelve months visibly widening its footprint across McLean's civic calendar.
The producer change follows the Center's yearlong 50th-anniversary celebration.
The Rest of the Fall Calendar Is Already MCC's
McLean Artfest is not the only thing on the Center's plate this month. Harvest Happenings runs Saturday, September 26, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Center itself, a free indoor-outdoor fall event with crafts, games, live entertainment, and a petting zoo. And the Alden Theatre, which operates as a division of the Community Center inside the same Ingleside Avenue building, already has its early fall season on sale.
Ballet Hispánico brings "Mujeres: Women in Motion" to the Alden on Friday, October 2. A live-action stage adaptation of "Treasure Island" plays Tuesday, October 13, aimed at families. And pianist Margarita Loukachkina and violinist Nikita Borisevich return with their son for an afternoon chamber music program on Sunday, October 25. None of this is new territory for the Alden, which has been part of the Center's original 1970 concept for half a century. What's notable is that the same institution now running its own theater season and its own harvest festival, after completing its 50th anniversary calendar, has also become the entity signing off on the town's flagship art show.
Here is how the fall calendar lines up:
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest Happenings | Sat., Sept. 26, 10 a.m.–noon | McLean Community Center |
| McLean Artfest (formerly MPAartfest) | Sun., Oct. 4, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | McLean Central Park |
| Ballet Hispánico: "Mujeres" | Fri., Oct. 2, 7 p.m. | The Alden Theatre |
| "Treasure Island" | Tue., Oct. 13, 7 p.m. | The Alden Theatre |
| Chamber music matinee | Sun., Oct. 25, 2 p.m. | The Alden Theatre |
| MPA Fall Solo Exhibitions | Through Nov. 14 | Berlage Center for Arts & Education |
| McLean Farmers Market | Fridays through Oct. 30, 8 a.m.–noon | Lewinsville Park |
Two Things Still Running Independently
It would be a stretch to say McLean Community Center has absorbed the town's whole cultural calendar this fall, and two of the season's better offerings prove the point.
East City Art reports that McLean Project for the Arts opened its own Fall Solo Exhibitions on September 17 at the Berlage Center for Arts and Education on Fleetwood Road, entirely on its own steam. The show pairs three artists working in very different registers: Freya Grand's landscape series "Forest," Ian Husting's "Afterlight," and Sally Veach's "Hubris and the Sublime." It runs through November 14, so there's no need to rush it into the same weekend as Artfest.
The McLean Farmers Market at Lewinsville Park is run by the Fairfax County Park Authority, not the Community Center, and it operates on its own separate track entirely. According to Patch, this is the market's last stretch before its season closes on October 30, and it has two new vendors worth planning a Friday morning around: Siesta Gozleme, which specializes in Turkish and Kurdish cooking, and Sicilian Mom, selling handmade arancini from scratch. The market also tightened its tent weight rules this season, requiring 30 pounds per tent, and expanded its food scrap collection program, part of a countywide effort that pulled in more than 75 tons of scraps across all ten Fairfax markets last season. Shoppers using SNAP benefits can take advantage of a matching program for fruits and vegetables while the season lasts.
What This Means for the Next Six Weeks
None of this requires a special plan. Harvest Happenings and Artfest fall on back-to-back weekends, both free, both walkable if you're already near downtown McLean. The farmers market keeps its usual Friday morning slot through the end of October, so there's no reason to treat this as your last chance until the final week. The Alden's fall shows go on sale ahead of each date, so if the Ballet Hispánico program interests you, buying early is worth it in a 383-seat house.
The one thing worth carrying into next year is the pattern itself. A festival that ran the same way for 18 years just changed hands for the first time. Watch whether that expanded producer role sticks with next year's Artfest, or whether it was a one-time handoff. Either way, this is the year it happened, and it will be worth watching what comes next.
If you're weighing a move into McLean or just want a clearer read on what daily life here actually looks like, the McLean neighborhood guide is a good next stop. And if you'd rather talk it through directly, Katrina Funkhouser is glad to help. Let's Connect.
