The Elmwood Village ArtFest will return for the second year to Elmwood Village on Aug. 24 and 25, the Elmwood Village Association has announced.
The festival will spotlight local artists’ work as well as music, spoken word and dance performers.
Food vendors will be present, and the Elmwood Extreme Eats competition and Kids’ Zone also return. The festival hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 24 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 25. Performances will last two hours after the closing time on both days.
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The second annual Elmwood Village ArtFest returns Aug. 24 and 25.
James Cichocki, executive director of EVA, said the inaugural festival was a “success.”
“Last year was our very first year, so we learned as we went along,” Cichocki said. “We will definitely be polishing it up and streamlining it this year.”
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The inaugural ArtFest was organized last year after the longtime staple Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts was shuttered by festival organizers. The nonprofit Elmwood Village Association, which also hosts the Porchfest in Elmwood Village, responded with an event that has similar qualities but is unaffiliated with the previous arts festival.
Elmwood Village ArtFest faced criticism ahead of its debut because festival organizers told musicians and performers that they would not be paid. Local restaurant Jack Rabbit and some partners then decided to pay performers. This year, stipends will be paid to each performer chosen for the festival lineup, according to the online sign-up form.
“The mission of the EVA has always been to promote the local arts community and add vibrancy to the Elmwood Village, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to do so with this new ArtFest,” Therese Deutschlander, EVA board of directors’ president, said in a statement. “The Elmwood Village ArtFest supports local artists, musicians, performers, businesses and the community as a whole.”
The festival activities will happen on Elmwood Avenue sidewalks and parking lots. Bidwell Parkway will have a main stage for performances, food trucks and the Extreme Eats competition. Spoken word and acoustic performances will happen on a smaller stage. The Kids Zone will be at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 875 Elmwood Ave.
Elmwood Avenue and nearby streets will be open throughout the festival again this year, a choice that Cichocki said allows for local businesses to still get shoppers instead of being blocked off by tents.
“I think it was win-win for everybody. People reacted really well to it, and the small business owners on Elmwood were so busy that weekend,” Cichocki said.
More than 150 artists have applied to participate in the festival, and registration has not closed yet, Cichocki said. He estimates thousands of people attended the festival last year.
“It was wonderful just to stand back and soak it all in,” Cichocki said.