LYNN — The city’s first Summer Arts Festival will feature local artists showing and selling their creations, town walks with a local historian, lots of refreshments and even free ice cream served by the local politicians.
It’s all scheduled to get underway July 23, and the most recent developments to it were discussed at the Cultural Council Meeting Wednesday.
The festival this year will take place at three locations, but for the following years the organizers hope that it will become a city-wide annual event. The event is sponsored by the Lynn Cultural Council, who gave $1,100, and by Creative Country Initiative of Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) that contributed $5,000.
“It started off with an idea among Goldfish Pond members,” said Sunil Gulab from Lynn Cultural Council. “We have been talking about it for a few years and the idea behind it was to have an opportunity for local artisans, painters, potters, photographers, someone who builds arts and crafts.”
Gulab said that this year the event will include three locations – Goldfish Pond, the Galleries at Lynn Arts (GALA), and Bent Water Brewing – the only small-scale artisanal brewery in Lynn, said Gulab. The Salem Trolley will bring the visitors from one station to another for free, and along the way the passengers are going to have a tour of the murals in downtown Lynn.
“We are working with ‘Beyond Walls’ on what is the best route going from one location to the next through the downtown area,” said Gulab.
Gulab said that the organizers hope that someone from “Beyond Walls” will tell the visitors about the murals along the way, and there will be live music in the trolley itself. The Goldfish Pond will be the main location of this year’s festival, and it is where the artisans will set up their shops.
“Each one will be a local artisan, either painter, sculptor, photographer, craftsman — anything and everything related to the art, and they will be selling what they make,” said Gulab.
Local bands are going to perform live music from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a stage for the local dance performers will be set up. The event is intended to be family friendly, with lots of activities planned for the kids too.
“We are going to have face painting, there will be a gentleman offering arts and crafts class, and we will also have a balloon artist,” said Gulab.
Local politicians will be scooping out free ice cream, and “everyone who wants ice cream will have it for free,” said Gulab. For the grown-ups, Bent Water Brewing might have a beer garden — a mobile bar with taps to sell their beer, and Lucille Wine Shop will have its table too.
Around the GALA location, the visitors will have a chance to speak with the local painters and watch how they work, with a map pointing out the position of each artist. A local historian, Michelle Guzman, is also organizing free hour-long walks to tell the visitors the history of Lynn, said Gulab.
“The third part is still a work in progress,” he said.
Bent Water Brewing has a big parking lot, said Gulab. He said that they can do a brewery walk and beer tasting, and that they will also have live music and a variety of games for the kids.
Along with serving free ice cream and lots of beer and wine, the organizers plan on engaging local restaurants too. With an estimate of 2,000 visitors walking through, the organizers want to have them have lunch in one of Lynn restaurants so they can benefit as well.
“July 23, come on out, it’s going to be amazing!” said Gulab.
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
