The 43rd annual Long’s Park Art Festival will return in full swing with 200 artists in tow after organizers were unable to hold the highly anticipated event in its usual form in 2020.
The festival runs from Sept. 3-5 and features 200 juried artists from 23 different states. Several artists in this year’s event are local.
On a given year, the art show draws in a grab bag of visitors, some local and some from out of state.
Here are five things you should know before you go to the Long’s Park Art Festival in 2021.
The Long’s Park Art Festival will be held in Long’s Park, at 1441 Harrisburg Pike. Parking is free. Admission costs $12 for a one-day pass, and $18 for a full weekend pass. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that unvaccinated people in crowded, outdoor spaces wear face masks.
Long’s Park is using the honor system, according to its website. “The Art Festival will not ask for proof of vaccination from our artists, volunteers or guests,” the website said.
Guests are welcome to wear masks if they choose. “Your choice to wear a mask within the festival grounds will be respected at all times,” the website said.
Come prepared with a mask, however, advised Rick Faulkner, art director for the festival.
“The individual artists are running their own businesses. I suspect some of them … will request that people be masked to come into their booth,” Faulkner said.
This year, there will be two separate dining areas: a traditional dining area featuring food from Harvey’s Main Street BBQ, Farm2Table and Lickity Split, as well as an area for food trucks. Some of the food trucks featured will be Mista Twista, Mad Dash and Nano Grill.
Additional food options may be available the day of, according to Bonnie St. John, operations director of the art festival.
This year, the festival will also feature three pubs, which will feature beer, wine and possibly adult slushies. The Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation will run the on-site pubs, Faulkner said.
More than 600 artists applied for vendor spots, according to Faulkner.
A jury of six people, which changes from year to year, picked the artists featured in the festival. They rate each of the applications and the ones that “rise to the top” are the artists that end up making it into the show, St. John said.
“There’s always something new and different,” Faulkner said.
In addition to the main lineup of artists at the festival, several “emerging artists” are chosen to take part in the event, Faulkner said.
These are artists who are either young and just starting out, or have recently changed their career path to take up art.
They are juried separately.
Profits from the Long’s Park Art Festival go toward funding the free summer concert series at Long’s Park, Faulkner said.
Admission fees, as well as artist fees, contribute toward the general funds for the Long’s Park Amphitheater Foundation, which puts on the summer concerts.
The art festival is likely the most significant means of fundraising for the concerts, Faulkner said.
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