The can’t-miss concerts and music festivals hitting D.C. this April

As the calendar turns to April, we’re faced with longer days, heavier rain and the beginning of music festival season. For happy campers in the D.C. area, it won’t take two weekends in the Coachella Valley to experience varied bills, often in the fresh air.

While festivities began on the first day of April, Words Beats & Life Festival saved some heavyweights for the first weekend of the month. The D.C. nonprofit’s annual celebration of hip-hop culture features a conversation and performance with rapper, poet and political firebrand Saul Williams and a free Franklin Park jam headlined by jazz-rap pioneers Digable Planets. (April 5-7 at multiple locations. wblinc.org. Free to $30.)