200,000 People Expected This Weekend for Arts Festival

Organizers expect more than 200,000 people to hit Main Street this weekend as the 24^th Annual Manayunk Art Festival gets underway on Saturday. 

More than 300 artists from 29 states and Canada will be on hand to sell their art from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

“We have something for everyone,” said Caitlin Maloney the Marketing and Events Coordinator for the Manayunk Development Corporation which organize the event every year.  “We have art ranging from $10 to fine art pieces that cost $5,000,” Maloney said.

The Arts Festival is a juried art show, so vendors are hand selected for the show based on the quality of their work. 

“We get a lot of applications for just 290 spots,” Maloney said.  “We try to get a mix of different kinds of artists.”

This year, the festival will feature artists in six different categories: fiber, glass and ceramics, jewelry, mixed media, painting and drawing, photography and wood and sculpture.

“We close Main Street all the way from Green Lane to Shurs Lane,” Maloney said.  “We have artists going up and down both sides of Main Street.”

Maloney recommended that visitors to the festival either take SEPTA or one of the two shuttle buses because all access to Main Street and the lots on Main Street will be inaccessible.

The shuttle bus will depart from the Ivy Ridge train station and a parking lot at 555 City Ave.  The shuttle will run all day in a loop. 

The shuttle costs $3 and all proceeds benefit the North Light Community Center.

“All the money we raise from the show goes to benefit the MDC,” Maloney said.  “We use the money to help put on our events for the rest of the year.