Central Pa. Festival of the Arts set to take over State College

With more than 300 juried sidewalk artist booths, a juried exhibition, multiple activity stations, eight entertainment stages, six locations to buy food and thousands of people milling about, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts is a lot to take in.

This year, organizers are making it easier for attendees to plan their visits with a new festival app, “CPFA-ArtsFestival,” available for both Apple and Android devices.

“We call it ‘the festival at your fingertips,’” said executive director Pamela Etters. “It will really help visitors, especially those coming from a distance.”

It contains a listing of featured artists, food vendors, activities and performances, along with maps of their locations. It will update in real time, including weather advisories.

“You can select all the things you want to do and see, and build your own custom festival schedule that you can come back to,” Etters said. “You don’t have to keep searching.”

The 57th annual festival is set to take over streets in downtown State College and portions of the Penn State University Park campus. Hours for the sidewalk sale and exhibition will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

At least 125,000 visitors are expected through the festival’s run, Etters said.

The sidewalk show and sale is “the core, signature piece of the festival,” Etters said, featuring artwork in 19 categories and artists from all over the northeastern United States.

This year’s food offerings are more varied than ever, she added.

“We like to have a variety of unique things and non-competing things, so you won’t find five hot dog vendors,” she said. “This year we have a lot of cultural variety, like Australian and Brazilian food.”

Entertainment will be free on four outdoor stages, and accessible with purchase of a $15 wristband for the four indoor locations. Wristbands will be sold at information and sales booths and at the indoor performance sites.

Indoor seating will be first-come, first-served. Children 12 and under enter free with a wristband-wearing adult.

Entertainment will include a gamut of musical styles from blues to zydeco along with improvisational comedy.

Preceding the main event, Wednesday will be Children & Youth Day, showcasing the talents of young artists and performers ages 8 to 18. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be a sidewalk show and sale, performances and activities, with a grand puppet procession to end the day.

Visitors can can choose a papier-mache puppet to carry in a march from Penn State’s Old Main Lawn to Sidney Friedman Park, accompanied by drummers and a pep band from State College Area High School. The procession will step off at 4 p.m.

“We want to promote the arts as a legitimate future for young people, one that can lead to a legitimate and lucrative career,” Etters said. “(Children & Youth Day) is a fantastic way to help preserve the future of the arts.”

For more information, including parking options and a complete performance schedule, visit arts-festival.com.