DeLand art festival marks 20th year

PHOTO COURTESY JANICE MCLEOD
Coming home — The band Seven Nations is among featured entertainers at the Fall Festival of the Arts Nov. 17-18 in Downtown DeLand.

By Sarahrose Ministeri
Beacon staff writer

posted Nov 16, 2012 - 1:45:25pm

Downtown DeLand hosts some big events, but the annual Fall Festival of the Arts is arguably the biggest, and is certainly one of the oldest of them all.

Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17-18, will mark the juried art festival’s 20th year of turning Woodland Boulevard into a sea of white tents filled with one-of-a-kind art objects ranging from metalworks to photography, paintings and sculpture.

This year, 165 visual artists are coming to town, and the two-day schedule includes more than 40 performance artists, including dancers and musicians.

Festival hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and Woodland Boulevard will be closed between Howry and Wisconsin avenues from 5 a.m. Saturday through 8 p.m. Sunday. New York, Indiana and Rich avenues, along with Church Street, also will be closed for a block on either side of the Boulevard, and West Georgia Avenue will be closed.

Fall Festival President Mary Beth Harris has been volunteering with the festival for 12 years. She said she is proud to be part of the incredible team of volunteers, many of whom have been with the Fall Festival of the Arts for all of its two decades.

“I really believe in this festival; it says a lot about our community,” Harris said.

In addition to the volunteers, the festival’s patrons also make the mammoth event possible.

Patrons donate varying monetary amounts to the festival, and the patrons receive all but $100 back in patron dollars to spend on art. The festival uses $100 from each patron to help pay the event costs. This year, there are 85 patrons; the program has been growing each year.

The assurance of patron money helps draw top artists to the DeLand event, Harris explained. And, the quality and strength of the festival help assure DeLand’s reputation as the Athens of Florida.

“We are a cultural destination, and that is really important to the strength of our community,” Harris said.

Those working on the Fall Festival expect more than 30,000 visitors to the show this year. In addition to the art exhibits, live entertainment, and youth art programs, those visitors will be invited to shop Downtown DeLand’s stores and sample its variety of restaurants.

— sarahrose@beacononlinenews.com

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