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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Under a sunny noon sky and 92-degree heat, city officials, tall ship captains and several hundred onlookers gathered at Waterfront Park on Friday to open Sails on the Potomac, the free three-day festival that brings the region's largest tall ship fleet to the Alexandria waterfront as part of the nation's 250th-anniversary commemoration.
The ceremony opened with the George Mason Patriots fife and drum corps and a proclamation from Alexandria town crier Ben Fiore-Walker, who welcomed visitors with a rhyming tribute to the city's role in the country's founding. He traced Alexandria's history from "a sleepy tobacco port town in 1749" to the diverse city it is today, before closing the event hours later with a traditional three-huzzah cheer.
Gretchen Bulova, director of Historic Alexandria, said the event is produced in partnership with the Office of Historic Alexandria, RPCA's Office of the Arts and the events team, and Visit Alexandria. She noted that Alexandria is one of 10 Virginia affiliate harbors taking part in the larger Sail 250 program. Joining the city's own Tall Ship Providence on the waterfront are three visiting vessels: the Kalmar Nyckel, the Sultana and the Gazela.
A mayor's welcome
Mayor Alyia Gaskins, elected in November 2024 as the city's first female Black mayor, told the crowd the festival would offer an experience "unlike anything else." She promised visitors that boarding each ship would transport them back in history to learn the vessel's story and Alexandria's connection to the nation's founding, and she encouraged guests to extend their visit to the city's shops and restaurants. Gaskins recognized Councilman Canek Aguirre and City Manager James Parajon among those in attendance.
'America was made in Virginia'
The keynote came from Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO who now leads the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and serves as honorary chair of the Virginia 250th Commission. Fiorina tied the gathering to the date, noting that June 12 marks 250 years since George Mason penned the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document she said became a model for Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and, later, the Bill of Rights. "America was made in Virginia," she told the crowd, arguing that without Virginia's political and economic weight the revolutionary army "would never have gotten off the ground."
Fiorina urged the audience to remember the full breadth of the founding generation, citing enslaved figures such as Gowan Pamphlet and James Lafayette and indigenous leaders including Powhatan and Pocahontas. She said the Virginia 250 Commission's goals are to educate by telling the entire story, to engage every community and to inspire "a season of civic renewal."
Ryan Belmore
Four ships on the water
Kathy Seifert, executive director of the Tall Ship Providence Foundation, introduced the four ship captains: Dylan Coppersmith of the Providence, David Goldman of the Gazela, Horace Richards of the Sultana and Jim Fitzgerald of the Kalmar Nyckel. She invited guests to escape the heat at the pier bar.
Each vessel carries its own history. The Providence, Alexandria's home ship, anchors the fleet along the City Marina, joined by the Kalmar Nyckel, a full-scale reproduction of the ship that carried Swedish colonists to what became Delaware in 1638; the Gazela, an original Portuguese vessel with records dating to 1901 that fished the Grand Banks off Newfoundland until 1969; and the Sultana, a reproduction of a Royal Navy schooner that enforced British trade laws along the American coast in the years before the revolution. The ships line the waterfront from the pier outside Founders Park down to Robinson Landing.
Three days of music
Running alongside the ships is the 48th annual ALX Jazz Fest, managed by the city's Office of the Arts and carrying a distinct theme each day. Friday's Americana Roots lineup at Old Waterfront Park featured the Silver Tones, the Irish Breakfast Band, the Decades Band and Jason Masi. Saturday turns to American jazz and poetry from noon to 9 p.m., with performers including Eric Byrd, Improviso Jazz and Madz Johnson alongside readings from Alexandria's poet laureate and ACPS students. Sunday closes with Future Sounds of America, featuring Jordan Curls, Orquesta Manplesa and DJ One Luv, who also serves as the day's emcee. Jazz broadcaster Keanna Faircloth hosts Saturday's program, and announcer Marc Goldman opens the festival Friday.
Bulova encouraged visitors to walk the full festival campus, from the Kalmar Nyckel near Founders Park to the Gazela at Robinson Landing, and to visit two history villages featuring more than 30 booths from Northern Virginia museums. A barge-launched fireworks display caps the longer Saturday schedule at 9 p.m.
Beating the heat
With temperatures climbing, organizers pointed to two DASH cooling buses stationed on the festival grounds and sunscreen available at information booths. Sails on the Potomac runs through Sunday at Waterfront Park.
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