Fort Worth’s dueling art festivals are this weekend. Here’s what to expect
.JPG "Sundance Square Plaza had always been part of the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival since it opened in 2013. This year it will host its own event.")
Two arts festivals will be competing for attention in downtown Fort Worth this week.
Sundance Square Plaza, which had been a part of the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival since it opened in November 2013, will host the separate Fort Worth Arts Fair after a disagreement between its management and organizers of Main Street over support of local artists. Some are excited for the two festivals, while others said the competing festivals will confuse the public.
The festivals are scheduled for Thursday through Sunday.
The Main Street Fort Worth Art Festival has been running from the courthouse to the convention center for the past 35 years. It attracts tens of thousands of visitorsand can generate upwards of $27 million in economic impact.
In February, Main Street said it would create a seamless experience for patrons going to both festivals, but Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., said the choice by Sundance Square management to hold its festival at the same place and time will be confusing.
“A much more thoughtful approach — obviously better for all parties involved — would be to have the events on two separate weekends,” Taft wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram. “Sundance’s reasoning to have the event on the MAIN ST. dates has a lot of people scratching their heads.”
Downtown Fort Worth Inc. is a business advocacy nonprofit that organizes the yearly festival along with the Fort Worth Parade of Lights. It also manages a special downtown taxing district on behalf of the city of Fort Worth.
Sundance Square is a 37-square-block business and entertainment district in downtown Fort Worth owned by Ed and Sasha Bass.
In addition to showcasing local artists, Sundance’s Fort Worth Arts Fair will include musical performances by Clint Black, Ledisi, Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, and Lara Latin. Twenty local musicians and bands will also perform on the plaza stage between noon and 7 p.m. during the fair.
Main Street will also have musical acts on stages at the courthouse, First Street, Seventh Street and the convention center. Both local and international musicians will perform on Main Street’s stages, including local hip-hop artist Lou CharLe$ and South African Grammy-nominated jazz guitarist Jonathan Butler.
Cary O’Keefe Meiners, a Sundance Square business owner and participant in its festival, said the two events will give visitors the best of both worlds.
Main Street will be able to have its national artist approach, and Sundance will be able to showcase local artists, Meiners said.
Meiners participated in the first Main Street Fort Worth Art festival in 1986, but said it has been difficult in the years since for local artists to get a space in the downtown festival.
Main Street is more of a circuit festival geared toward artists who travel the country showing their work, said Jay Downie, events director for Downtown Fort Worth, in February.
“But that’s not at the expense of local artists. It’s all part of the matrix,” Downie said at the time. He pointed to the festival’s emerging artist category, where Fort Worth artists can dip their toes into the festival circuit.
Sundance controls the right-of-way across the plaza that divides Main Street between Third and Fourth streets. It acquired the land in 2009, and opened the plaza in November 2013, creating a town square for people to congregate.
Unless the plaza is at capacity, it will be open for pedestrian traffic between the events, Sundance Square spokesperson Bryan Eppstein wrote in an email Monday.
It’s not clear how the festivals will coordinate. Taft said there’s been little communication between the two events until very recently.
Eppstein responded in an email the two events have been coordinating with the city and, “are working cooperatively, not competitively.”
If Sundance does block off the plaza, patrons will have to go around on either Houston or Commerce Street, Downie wrote in an email Monday.
“On the positive side, Downtown will certainly be filled with people and we are looking forward to bringing thousands back Downtown,” he wrote.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
.jpg)