Salem Arts Festival Marks Fitting Rebirth For North Shore

SALEM, MA — It seems only fitting that a weekend of creativity, culture and community will mark the symbolic rebirth of the festival season in Salem after the coronavirus crisis caused more than a year of dampened, distanced and canceled programs.

The Salem Arts Festival, which begins on Friday and runs through Sunday, will be the first major North Shore event of its kind since the onset of the pandemic 15 months ago. With the state lifting all coronavirus-related business restrictions as of last week, that means a much more relaxed and interactive weekend than organizers were hoping for even just a few weeks ago.

"We did not expect it to be quite so open," Salem Main Streets Executive Director Kylie Sullivan told Patch on Thursday. "But we're happy it is."

Sullivan said this year's festival was planned to be more spread out throughout the downtown based on protocols earlier this spring and that much of that has not changed. Instead of one centralized location, visitors can find clusters of vendors and several "little galleries" set up in businesses.

Multiple outdoor performance areas, onsite art-making for all ages, local artisans and makers selling their creations, pop-up art exhibitions in businesses around town, a live mural slam on Artists Row and a temporary public art installation will dot the reinvigorated landscape.

"There will be lots of great activities and surprises that we'll have throughout the town that people can see," Sullivan said.

A collaboration of Salem Main Streets and Creative Collective, with help from more than 20 local sponsors, this year's festival was designed to highlight the importance of the creative workforce and how it contributes to and stabilizes the local economy.

That creative workforce, which was hit as hard as any group during the pandemic, will now kickoff a summer and fall where the Salem festival scene should look a lot more like the thriving one it had grown to be in recent years before 2020's punishing pause.

"It's been a roller coaster for sure," Sullivan said. "We wanted to make sure we did it right. We want to keep everyone safe. And we're a little rusty. We had to remember how to do things the right way and what needed to change this year.

"I am looking forward to seeing all the performers, all the vendors and so excited to see the community out and connected again."

Those coming to the festival should keep in mind that while they no longer have to wear facemasks outdoors, they are still required in some areas downtown. The city is keeping the mandate in municipal buildings, which includes public parking garages and the train station, while individual stores or other business may require masks for entry to shop, eat or view festival galleries.

"Businesses are setting their own policies as they feel they need them," Sullivan said. "People are recommended to keep their masks with them and respect all the policies that businesses have set up to keep their employees safe."

In 2019, the festival drew an estimated 6,000 visitors to Salem.

The hope this year is that the return of the festival will provide artists with a well-deserved spiritual and financial boost.

"Creating community has always been the underpinning purpose of the Salem Arts Festival, and our Salem community desperately needs to heal and build together again after the past year." John Andrews, Founder and CCO of Creative Collective, said. "The creative community has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic but throughout the crisis, this community of makers, artisans, performers and creators were integral in keeping our families and communities hopeful, entertained and inspired.

"As we start to come out of the crisis, we feel it is critically important to foster, support and amplify the creative workforce by providing them with paid opportunities."

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(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.)