Here Comes the Piedmont Park Arts Festival

There's a new festival coming to Midtown.

The Piedmont Park Arts Festival, slated for next weekend, August 20-21, in Midtown’s (and Atlanta’s) most prominent green space, provides yet another opportunity for strolling, browsing, shopping, and of course, chowing down.

Organized by the nonprofit organization Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, the festival is giving 150 local artists and crafters a long-awaited opportunity to offer their goods in .

"Local, local, local," said Randall Fox, vice president of AFFPS. "This festival is all about artists and craftspeople from our own ’hood who get to showcase in their own backyard."

Longtime festivals in Piedmont Park, such as the Atlanta Arts Festival and the Dogwood Festival, invite only a small selection of local artists to participate. Reportedly, only about 30 of the 400 or so artists who set up for the springtime Dogwood Festival live in Georgia.

Rob Simmons, a Grant Park-based photographer who specializes in atmospheric images of Atlanta locales, did not make the cut this year to have a booth in those aforementioned Piedmont Park festivals. Simmons is grateful that he’ll occupy one of the upcoming booths under the shade in Piedmont Park Arts Festival.

"I’m really looking forward to this," Simmons said. "It’s very challenging for local artists to get a foot in the door — especially when it comes to Piedmont Park."

It’s quite the fit for Simmons, because the park itself is one of his central subjects. Simmons has been documenting the changing seasons in Atlanta’s most famous park. He has a number of images of Piedmont Park in the winter and spring, and is now starting to focus on summer scenes there.

"I do long-exposure night shots, so I get to experience Piedmont Park in a way that most people don’t, and that’s reflected in my images. I like being able to show a side of the city that people might not see otherwise."

Another artist thrilled to have her first chance to set up shop in Piedmont Park is Robyn Canady of Midtown, who makes delicate jewelry using fine precious metal and semi-precious stones. (Some of her pieces are available at Boogaloo’s Boutique, with locations in Decatur and Brookhaven).

"I live nearby and I’ve been hoping and waiting for an opportunity to offer my work right here and be amongst so many other local artists as well," Canady said.

Randall Fox and Patrick Dennis launched AFFPS five years ago, chiefly to provide outdoor activity for metro area artists and the public. They started out with “just a handful of artists,” Fox said, but by now have several hundred artists and crafters in their database. The organization has birthed a number of neighborhood artists’ markets and is also behind several other area festivals, including the Buckhead Arts Festival (May), the Festival on Ponce that debuted in July, and the Chastain Park Arts Festival coming up November 5-6.

Fox describes the inaugural Piedmont Park Festival as “Inman Park Festival meets Yellow Daisy Festival (the 43rd annual is Sept. 8-11 in Stone Mountain), meets indie craft, meets Buckhead Arts Festival.”

Vendors will offer everything from soaps and stained glassware to fine art, handmade pet products, leather goods, photography, jewelry and pottery.

"And there will be plenty that’s affordable," Fox said.

There will also be children’s games and activities in the park’s lower meadow area near 10th Street and Monroe Drive. As for chow,  vendors and food trucks are to include Honeysuckle Gelato, Tex’s Tacos, Yumbii, Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, the Fry Guy, and S&J’s Woodfired Pizza.

If you go: Piedmont Park Arts Festival, 10am-7pm Saturday, Aug. 20, and 11am-6pm Sunday, Aug. 21. Enter at 10th Street and Charles Allen Drive. Free to attend. www.piedmontparkartsfestival.com