Yahoo Movies Main Street Arts Festival, Fort Worth Art Fair to share downtown for second year
The Fort Worth Art Fair will return to Sundance Square Plaza this year, coinciding with the Main Street Arts Festival, to exclusively focus on local artists.
Both the Fort Worth Art Fair and the Main Street Arts Festival will run April 20-23.
The inaugural year for the Fort Worth Art Fair took place in 2022 and was created to showcase local artists and galleries in Fort Worth.
“Last year the response was overwhelming and very positive and so many compliments on Fort Worth artists having a presence,” Sundance Square spokesperson Bryan Eppstein said. “We had a lot of people asking us to bring it back, so they are.”
Most of the work shown at the fair last year consisted of Fort Worth-based art, along with national artists from a gallery based out of Fort Worth.
Similar to last year, the fair will have white tents set up for artist booths in Sundance Square Plaza along with musical performers during the day. Most artists will be local with some of the galleries including touring Texas artists, Eppstein said.
“Mostly the cause and the reason for the Fort Worth Art Fair is just to give local artists a presence in the Main Street Arts Festival,” he said.
Up to 100 visual artists will showcase their works at the Fort Worth Art Fair between 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The fair will have five musical artists each day performing from the Sundance Square stage for an hour and 45 minute sets between 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. On April 21 and 22, DJ Danny West will take the stage between 10 p.m. to midnight.
What’s the difference between the events?
Although both art festivities happen during the same days, Fort Worth Art Fair and the Main Street Arts Festival are run by different groups.
Fort Worth Art Fair is held by Sundance Square and the Main Streets Art Festival is presented by Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc. in partnership with PNC Bank.
This year will mark 36 years of the Main Street Arts Festival which has lined artist booths, food vendors, live music and more along Main Street from the Fort Worth Convention Center to the Tarrant County Courthouse.
Until 2022, the Main Street Arts Festival used Sundance Square Plaza, situated in the middle of Main Street, as a location for around 50 artist booths.
While the Main Street Arts Festival includes an Emerging Artists category for Fort Worth-based artists, the legacy festival also makes room for national and regional art; the Fort Worth Art Fair solely focuses on local art.
Last year, the Fort Worth Art Fair had late night performers and offered VIP packages for guests. This year, Eppstein said the fair will not offer VIP packages and instead aim for a more seamless flow between the two simultaneous art festivities.
“One focuses predominately on national, touring artists and Fort Worth Art Fair focusing predominately on Fort Worth artists,” he said.
