Salem Arts Festival Back In Full Force This Weekend

SALEM, MA — The Salem Arts Festival returns in full effect this weekend at a time when supporting artists, performers and creatives may be as important as ever.

The three years since Salem Main Streets and the Creative Collective last held a complete festival have been especially hard on those who relied on an audience, large gatherings and both municipal and community support of their talents because of COVID-19 restrictions.

But on Friday, one year removed from the end of the business and gathering restrictions across the state, the Festival will be back downtown with increased pay for artists and performers and a 50 percent increase in the size of the street fair because of immense demand.

"We've been very fortunate to have the support of grants from the city of Salem and the Mass Cultural Council that are targeted to deal with the increases in costs across the board," Salem Main Streets Director Kylie Sullivan told Patch on Thursday. "Our vendor fees have not changed. We are keeping those as low as possible while we are increasing the amount that's invested.

"We are almost to the point where we can pay people what they're worth, which has always been our goal."

The Salem Arts Festival was virtual in 2020 and scaled down and spread out last year in the days following a rather abrupt end to extensive gathering restrictions in the state. But this year organizers proceeded in the months leading up to the event with hopes it would be more like the 2019 Festival and its predecessors.

"It's funny," Sullivan said. "Three years is a surprisingly long time. The world's changed a lot. I keep thinking: 'How did we do this?' Then we'll find an old file of ours and figure it out.

"It is exciting to see everyone again and really exciting to have all the components of the festival back."

The Festival, in its 14th year, celebrates the arts, culture, creativity and community of Salem and the North Shore. It is designed as a family-friendly event that allows many ways to engage with a variety of art, music, dance and theater performances.

"One of my favorite parts of the Arts Festival is that we do try to connect with other festivals through this program," Sullivan said. "We have all these great festivals in the city that specialize in the best of the best in a specific field and what we do is highlight the breadth of what's here.

"We are always trying to find ways to use this as a showcase for the full year of the calendar."

The Festival takes place in the downtown area, including Derby Square, Front Street and Charlotte Forten Park. It runs Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. downtown and Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Charlotte Forten Park.

It concludes on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Among the attractions are musical performers, including rock, reggae and modern classical, with dancing in the street encouraged. There is also a "Mural Slam" with more than a dozen artists painting live murals downtown, the annual Community Art Making project and installation and the street fair throughout the Festival.

Sullivan said that despite increasing the vendor numbers by 50 percent, organizers still had to turn vendors away for this year's full return.

"People are ready to get out there and sell," Sullivan said.

A complete schedule of events and performers can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)