(Updated 1:30 p.m.) People taking their lunch break on the lawn in Dupont Circle earlier today could have thought for a moment that they’d traveled through time.

That’s because Dupont Festival, in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland, staged a combination Bloomsday and Yeats Day celebration packed with people in costumes from the early 1900s, storytellers and period musicians today from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Bloomsday — and similar holiday Yeats Day — were created to commemorate Irish literary legends James Joyce and William Butler Yeats.

The goal of today’s event, says Dupont Festival co-founder Aaron DeNu, was to recreate the atmosphere of 19th century Dublin, as is traditionally done on Bloomsday.

“[The Irish Embassy] has an incredible group of people that are going to do readings of Ulysses and musical performance today,” DeNu said. “They have some people that are going to dress up in 1900s traditional dress. It should be pretty fun.”

The event was free, and coincided with a vintage bike rally organized by BicycleSPACE.