CRESTVIEW — The beauty of the visual, performance and automotive arts combine in one great afternoon in Downtown Crestview on Saturday, May 15, when the Main Street Crestview Association’s Arts Festival is joined by the Spanish Trail Cruisers Club’s Average Joe Car Show.
“It’s going to be a great day for all the senses,” Mayor JB Whitten said.
The Mayor’s Cultural Series is the driving force behind starting an arts festival in the historic district, a project that Main Street Crestview, always on the lookout for opportunities to draw folks downtown, eagerly embraced.
“Our downtown area really is a perfect venue for an arts festival,” Main Street acting director Josey Carroll said. “And now that the Spanish Trail Cruisers are joining us, there’s going to be eye candy for everybody in the family!”
To encourage student artists to exhibit their works and gain experience in art shows participation, an “up-and-coming” exhibition section will be available in which students from grade school through college can display with no exhibitors’ fees.
Toward that end, Whitten met with Northwest Florida State College art gallery Director J. Wren Supak, who is also an instructor in the college’s fine arts department as well as an accomplished visual artist. Supak agreed at the meeting to encourage the school’s student artists and faculty to exhibit at the Crestview Arts Festival.
“There is some really impressive creativity at work here!” Whitten said during his visit to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center galleries, which happened to coincide with the annual Arnie Hart Juried Student Exhibition and the Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition.
“I look forward to seeing these and other works of this quality exhibited at our arts festival in Crestview,” he said.
Live swing and big band music by Hashtag Swing will enliven the festival between 10 a.m. and noon.
The Crestview Arts Festival is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Courthouse Terrace, including the First Presbyterian Church parking lot. Food vendors will offer a variety of cuisine. Visit www.downtowncrestview.org to reserve one of the limited remaining booth spaces ($35 per arts and crafts vendors; $15 for exhibit-only artists). Only handmade artworks and crafts are permitted.
The Average Joe Car Show runs down Main Street from the courthouse to the railway tracks. Registration costs $25 per vehicle and is 8-11 a.m. with judging starting at 11 a.m.
Cap off this family-friendly day with the Family Movie Night at 8 p.m. in the amphitheatre at Spanish Trail Park, sponsored by CJLIM Enterprises. Admission is free; bring a folding chair and/or blanket, and please allow social distancing between groups.
Because the city’s licensing agreement won’t allow the name of the 2015 film to be published, visit the city’s website and social media to get the title of this stirring, inspiring story that shows how powerful a weapon prayer can be.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Arts festival, vintage car show to liven up Crestview Main Street