Unstoppable art
Cherry Creek Arts Festival returns on a new date and slightly different location
After 30 years as the biggest visual arts event on Denver’s calendar, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival has made an undeniable impact on the city. The massive street fair has served as a welcome to the world of art buying for new collectors as well as an economic driver for artists themselves.
In a good-weather year, sales can top $4 million. That’s tens of millions of dollars over the decades for painters, ceramicists, jewelry-makers, photographers and other creatives.
On a more popular level, the fair has solidified itself as an anchor for activities on the weekend surrounding the Fourth of July. A trip to this annual combo of art, cold beer and a sunny stroll through Cherry Creek’s low-rise commercial district is as customary as grilling hot dogs and gathering for fireworks to celebrate Independence Day.
And it’s taken a force as large as the global coronavirus pandemic to upend this tradition: Last year, the event was canceled; this year, it was postponed as organizers scrambled to avoid bringing people together during periods when the virus peaked.
The new date makes sense: the three-day weekend surrounding Labor Day, another American holiday
when folks have free time on their hands and a hankering to be outdoors. Mark your 2021 calendar for Sept. 4-6.
This year’s fair will be familiar, though not exactly the same, with scores of artists showing their wares. There will be food, kidstuff and live music, and a newly added attraction: a chalk art fair within the larger fair where artists create drawings live as the public watches.
But the event shifts to a different location, a large parking lot on the creekside area of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, directly across First Avenue from its usual home. The site is known for hosting a weekly farmers market during the warmweather months.
The open-air spot offers breathing room, but also a chance for some human traffic control. It will be fenced off with just a few gates, and the fair is asking visitors to register online for timed entry.
If folks show up without a res, the fair will direct them to a website where, space-permitting, they can register on the spot, using their mobile devices.
“We really don’t want there to be barriers, so we’ll make it as easy as possible,” promises Tara Brickell, who directs Cherry Arts, the event’s nonprofit organizer.
How the changes — and individual concerns over attending group events — will affect attendance remains to be seen.
The three-day fair usually draws about 150,000 people, according to Brickell. This year, capacity will be limited to 27,000 attendees at any given time. But if they spread themselves out over the long weekend, the crowd count could end up close to normal.
Masks aren’t required, though Brickell expects people to use common sense and follow local heath guidelines. Interpret that this way: If you are not vaccinated, it’s wise to mask up.
Visitors with special health concerns might opt for attending during a new early hour, which has been added from 9-10 a.m. each day for seniors and others with accessibility issues.
A few other accommodations for 2021 include a reduced number of artists, down from 265 to 215, and the absence of a printed program. Instead, folks can download one by scanning a QR code on-site.
That guide may be less convenient for some, but it will be more comprehensive than usual with additional background info on the participants. “There’s a great section about each artist and links that go directly to each of their websites,” said Brickell.
The fair is also slimming down its “Creation Station” area for kids’ art activities, replacing a large, open tent with smaller pods where families can do projects together. There will be to-go art kits for those who prefer to further reduce their on-site mingling.
All that said, the core experience of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival shouldn’t be all that different. There will be live music from a long roster of performers, including headliners Los Mocochetes on Saturday and Chase N the Dream on Sunday, both set up around grassy areas not far from the artists’ booths.
Plus, there’s plenty of opportunity to wander, chat with sculptors, glass blowers, wood workers and others, and do a little shopping.
The festival, which is juried, invited all of the artists who were accepted for the canceled 2020 fair to show this year without reapplying. Most are coming, though the date change — Labor Day is a popular time for art fairs across the country — meant some had to pass.
The fair also coincides with the annual Taste of Colorado, which has long held its event downtown on Labor Day. Brickell said the two fests met and decided they could support and market each other, rather than compete. Truth is, no one wants a crush of attendees during the pandemic — a slow year would be a good year in 2021 — so two fairs will allow visitors more options, more space for fun in the sun (or rain, but probably better not to think about that).
The other major partnership this year is with the Denver Chalk Art Festival, another local, annual event that has had to contend with pandemic-induced cancellations. The chalk artists usually set up in Lodo’s Larimer Square, but this year, they will bring all of their energy to Cherry Creek.
More than 100 artists are expected to draw in 75 separate squares over the three days — an added bonus for fair-goers and one that’s in synch with the current desire to experience culture outdoors.
The changes to the upcoming Cherry Creek Arts Festival — some necessary, some just part of its natural evolution — do overshadow what would otherwise be the current headline about the event: The fair is turning 30 this year, and that’s worth noting. Three decades of growing popularity is an accomplishment for any cultural endeavor, particularly for this one.
The fair has adapted over the years, using its power to push the community forward in novel ways. It’s a 365-day operation now with smaller events over the year and thriving education programs that, among other things, teach kids how to be good arts consumers. It’s been good for the city and a bonus for its neighborhoods — the fair is supported by merchants in Cherry Creek because it serves as a marketing tool for them, bringing in real customers, enhancing the district’s reputation as an energetic hub for the city, and adding to everyone’s bottom line.
The fair always has understood that art and commerce can be good partners. That art groups can give tangible benefits to their communities, that they can be players and not just beggars in the art ecosystem. It’s a strategy that keeps it stable, and able to survive twists and turns, as predictable as bad weather, as unexpected as a health crisis.
Next year, hopefully, it’s back to the streets of North Cherry Creek and Independence Day. This year, it is a necessary, and welcome, diversion.
“People are excited to get back to gather,” said Brickell. “We all need it after what we’ve been through.”