Ready, Set ... 5th Annual Atlanta Arts Festival

Here comes the rich layer of icing on the cake of summer festivals: the 5th annual Atlanta Arts Festival, this Saturday and Sunday in .

Early reports indicate the weather is in the mood to cooperate. If it does, festival-goers — some 20,000 are expected — can stroll through the park, gaze upon a wide range of artistic creations, enjoy live music and food, and even test their own creativity in arts activity areas.

Artists are rolling into Midtown as we speak. Some 200 were selected from an applicant field of close to 700. The artists invited to show and sell their works this weekend represent 32 different states, although just a small scattering from far-off parts of the country. With the price of gas and other economic woes, 79 percent of artists booths will be occupied by artists from the Southeast region. There are 58 Georgia artists in this fine-arts festival.

For the juried competition, the artists who will show (and sell) have been split into a dozen categories such as clay, glass, metal, drawing/graphics/printmaking, jewelry, photography, fiber/leather and two categories for mixed media — one for two-dimensional and another for three-dimensional creations.

A number of top Atlanta organizations will have displays at the fest including the Woodruff Arts Center and the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University.

Midtown Patch had a chat with Tracy and Julie Tepp, the Mableton-based  husband-and-wife team who produce the festival. Tracy is a technological specialist, so he handles the tech needs, equipment and other logistics such as mapping it all out. Julie has longtime experience in festival work, including a nine-year stint as event manager for the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. She coordinates myriad festival components. But they also said “we both sort of do everything,” which includes handling the needs of their two children, ages 2 and 4.

The Tepps have rounded up about 120 volunteers to help run this weekend’s festival, including a slew of Tracy’s relatives coming in from as far as California.

Here are highlights from our conversation with Tracy and Julie Tepp:

Patch: So what’s new and exciting for this year’s festival?

Julie: This is the first year we’ll have one “best of overall show” prize, so we think that’s exciting. There’s a $7,500 “purse,” so to speak, with $500 going to the artist selected as best in that category, and $1,500 going to the best of show.

Tracy: We’ve also amped up the music and moved the music stage near the Greystone building, which was the old pool house. The music will start out in the mornings with some low-key acoustics and solo artists, and the lineup gets hotter throughout the day. The closing bands on each day are going to be great. On Saturday, we’ve got the A1A band, which is the official Jimmy Buffet cover band (6-7:30pm). And on Sunday we’ll close with the The Whiskey Gentry (5-6:30pm), which plays everything from bluegrass to punk to gospel. They defy categorization because they blend so many styles.

Patch: Can you tell us about the hands-on activities?

Julie: This is something we’ve put a lot of thought and care into. There’s a Creation Station, where five different artists demonstrate a specific process each day, and there will also be some hands-on activities. Also, we have brought back an organization called Canvas By U that will feature a professional art teacher to lead you through the painting of an entire image (learn to paint tulips, for example, or abstract wine bottles; $20 fee per class). We also now have the Lil’ Artist Alley geared for ages preschool to about 10. Kids can look forward to everything from face painting to balloon twisting and much more.

Patch: So, any major concerns at this point?

Julie: The weather!

Tracy: That’s the biggest issue. The weather can make or break big events like this one.

Patch: Parting thoughts?

Tracy: With this being our fifth year, we have put in some extra efforts. We are hoping this is going to be our breakout year. That’s what we’ve been working feverishly towards. We really are just hoping people will come out and enjoy the experience.

If you go: Atlanta Arts Festival is set for 10am-7pm Saturday and 10am-6pm Sunday, Piedmont Park. Admission is free. There are fees for some Lil’ Artist Alley activities and it costs $20 to take a professional arts class (three oper day) run by Canvas By U.

Find the schedule of classes online, as well as the musical lineup and directions/parking information. Organizers encourage people to take MARTA.

Also check the festival's Facebook and Twitter pages.