The East Lansing Art Festival is this weekend, with live music starting tonight at 7:00.
Summer of Sol will be performing in the Ann Street plaza, which is the plaza right downtown under the clock tower.
With the construction of the Center City project underway, this year’s festival will take place further east than usual.
Michelle Carlson is director of the festival.
“Our new footprint’s a little more condensed, there’s not as much wide open space as we’ve had before so it’s been a little challenging fitting all our pieces in,” she says.
But Carlson says the number of artists is only about ten fewer than in years past. There were nearly 500 applications for about 170 spots.
There will also be some activities for kids and families. Carlson says the theme in the kids area is “artful insects.”
“We’re gonna have a community project of creating a large, life-sized puppet that everyone can work on and then there will be individual arts activities to do that are related to insects.”
Carlson says there is also a sensory tent in the children’s area for people who may feel overwhelmed with the noise and want to take a rest.
Parking is available at all the city ramps. The two large ramps on Division and Charles streets will have a $5 flat fee during festival hours and all other lots will be regular rates.
For those who ride bikes to the festival, there is also a free bike valet service available.
You can find more information about the festival schedule and see a map here.
