Nightlife Agenda Pick of the Week

The Capitol City Carnival is a new beer-and-music festival that's trying to capture the spirit of the now-cancelled Old Dominion Beer Fest, and looking at the lineup, it might even better it. Fifty breweries are bringing pairs of beers to taste, and the lineup includes a lot of smaller labels to explore -- Penn, Bluegrass, Lancaster, Southhampton, Great Divide -- as well as heavy hitters like Bell's, Delirium, Bear Republic, Dogfish Head and Clipper City. Then there's the music, which features the legendary George Clinton and P-Funk, California skate-funkers Fishbone (listen) and Southern Culture on the Skids (listen). The "carnival" part of the name comes from the sideshow artists and burlesque dancers who are also performing all weekend. If you're heading out to Bull Run Saturday to see P-Funk and Fishbone, your best bet is to take the Party DC/On Tap bus. That way you can have as many beers as you want! Buses leave Clarendon Grill at 1 and should get back after 11. The $49.99 ticket includes festival admission, transportation and four beer samples. Act fast, because space is limited.

This is one of the events featured in Thursday's Nightlife Agenda column, which also has details of Afropop at the Eighteenth Street Lounge, Ryan Zimmerman's end-of-the-season party, a reunion of influential local punks Government Issue, anniversaries for the Bliss and Dirty Bombs DJs nights and much more.