The Plaza District will host the 2009 Plaza District Festival on Saturday, October 3rd from 3-11 p.m. The Festival is geared to highlight the wealth of diverse artistic, musical, vocal and performance talents from Oklahoma City and the state.
This year’s festival is a free community event open to the public, taking place on NW 16th Street between Indiana and Blackwelder Avenues. A grand stage becomes the center of the festival, hosting a variety of performing artists focusing on dance, drama and music. This year, festival performers will include singers and musicians from Lyric Theatre & Thelma Gaylord Academy, Chinese Dragon Dancers, Red Dirt Improv, Robert Reed Tap Dance, a Plaza Fashion Show and much more.
In the evening from 7-11 p.m., the festival will feature four spotlight bands from the city. The Hundred Somethings, Pretty Black Chains, Junebug Spade and New York Summer will all give visitors a chance to enjoy local talent in the relaxed atmosphere of a Plaza District evening.
To highlight the visual art community, the Plaza hosts fine artists booths featuring quality artwork from artists such as painter Bryan Boone, fused glass artists Rick & Tracey Bewley, photographer Samantha Lamb, plus many more. Each artist has been selected through a juried application process to ensure the quality of artwork displayed at the festival. Other booths will highlight Oklahoma City non-profits and local artist supported retail businesses.
An important component of the festival is the interactive “Art-in-Action” area and the Association provides a teaching stipend to these artists funded through an Oklahoma Arts Council grant. The art activities are not the general “make-it take-it” crafts, but rather creative education to let the participants gain an art experience.
This year artist Josh Buss will take children on a texture scavenger hunt, creating rubbings of various textures and returning to make a collage, there will be the teaching of salsa and flamenco to children and adults, animal subjects in art and line drawing, the Metro Library will host story times from 3-6 p.m., plus an art wall where children can do a painting that will be displayed in the Plaza District businesses. Then Sugar Free Allstars will play for the kiddos at 6 p.m.
There will also be children’s games, a moon bounce, face painting, henna artists and more children’s activities.
Hungry visitors will be covered, as local restaurant vendors such as Big Truck Tacos, Voodoo Cafe, Cuppies & Joe plus others will be serving delicious food, and the Plaza District Association will be serving locally brewed beer to raise funds.
For those who don’t want to miss the big game, the businesses at 1708 will offer their space so those football fans can keep up with the teams.
For more information about the event, visit www.plazadistrict.org.
