Nationally Recognized, Eco-Friendly, Lakeshore Art Festival Puts a Call Out For Exhibitor Registration!
Recognized earlier this year, as Sunshine Artist Magazine’s 200 Best, the Lakeshore Art Festival has opened registration for 2016 fine art and craft exhibitors as well as Children’s Lane exhibitors. Celebrating its fourth year, the Lakeshore Art Festival will take place July 1 and 2 in downtown Muskegon, Michigan. Online applications can be found at lakeshoreartfestival.org.
“We’re continuing to grow our exhibitor base while focusing on enhancing the quality of exhibitors and overall event offerings,” said Carla Flanders, Event Director. Each year, the event hosts more than 300 fine art and craft exhibitors, food vendors, interactive art opportunities, entertainers and children’s activities in Hackley Park and along the streets in Downtown Muskegon.
Exhibitors from across the country are thrilled about the Lakeshore Art Festival and look forward to coming back. “This was our first year here and we thought it was fabulous,” said a 2015 fibers exhibitor. “The flow of customers was steady and buyers were always interested. It’s a well-run, fun festival and we’d love to come back next year – it’s worth the trip up from Florida!”
In addition to being recognized nationally, the festival, in conjunction with the DTE Energy Foundation, made great strides in producing a zero waste event as part of its “Keepin’ It Green” program. Beyond general paper and plastic recycling, Lakeshore Art Festival encourages all food vendors to use biodegradable serving products and compost all of their organic waste.
In the last two years, the festival has recycled:
• 647 pounds of cardboard
• 354 pounds of plastic
• 400 pounds of organic waste
• 198 pounds of paper
• 1,599 total pounds diverted from the landfill
Additional efforts are being made for the 2016 festival which include enhancing the recycling program and increasing the use of post-consumer products and biodegradable serving options.
Jessica Loding, Schupan Recycling’s Event Coordinator commented, “It is a great success for a newly formed event recycling program. The Lakeshore Art Festival has one of the higher two-year diversion percentages of our events that are two years in to the development of their recycling program.”
With assistance from FIT4MOM Muskegon, the Children’s Lane will welcome a variety of new interactive and artful activities from painting to acrobatics! In an effort to provide a number of free activities for the 2016 Children’s Lane event, the Lakeshore Art Festival is having a fundraiser at Barnes & Noble of Muskegon on Saturday, December 12 from 1-4pm. There will be music from Gina Faino of Music Together, Kids’ Food Basket coloring project, an obstacle course and other interactive activities for kids.
The 2016 Lakeshore Art Festival will take place Friday, July 1 and Saturday, July 2. Registration for this signature event is now available to art and craft exhibitors through the web-based Zapplications. A link to the online application can be accessed through www.lakeshoreartfestival.org. The application deadline is March 1, 2016. There is a $35 registration fee for art/craft exhibitors and all entries are juried. Discounts are available for Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce and Muskegon Museum of Art members.
More details will be released in 2016 including registration for food vendors and volunteers. Look for more information as it becomes available on the Lakeshore Art Festival website: www.lakeshoreartfestival.org and Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LakeshoreArtFestival. For exhibitor and sponsorship inquires, please contact Carla Flanders at artfest@muskegon.org or 231-724-3176.