New booth layout for Festival of the Arts

Call it a new twist on an old favorite.

This year, organizers of the 33rd annual Festival of the Arts came up with a new layout for the booths located on Electric Avenue.

In past years, the booths have lined the edges of the street, with most foot traffic going down the middle of the road.

For this year’s festival, which will take place Aug. 6 and 7, the booths will form quadrants that will be positioned in the middle of the street, making Electric Avenue businesses more accessible to festival-goers. 

“We’re excited to see how well it works,” said Bruce Solberg, the executive director of the Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce.

The new design is the result of suggestions from downtown merchants who thought the traditional setup deterred visitors from entering their businesses.

“This (the new layout) is part of an ongoing effort to make the festival good for everyone in Bigfork,” Solberg said.

The festival will also have new hours of operation this year — from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. instead of the traditional 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“That gives us the opportunity to have the streets cleared in time for the downtown evening activities with the restaurants and the theater,” Solberg said.

This year’s festival will feature 150 vendors, all chosen by a jury of Bigfork businesspeople and artisans.

“They (jury members) try to make sure there’s a wide variety of different products that all meet the qualification of being handmade by the artisans,” Solberg said. “We’ll have anything from wooden furniture to paintings.”

As they make their selections, jury members are also careful to balance the types of products being sold.

“They make sure we have the right amount of each product so there’s not too much of any one thing,” Solberg said, adding that there will be several new vendors at this year’s festival.

There will also be plenty of food options and live entertainment, Solberg said.

Entertainers include LeftOver Biscuits, Jae Hatt, Craig Barton and the Dream Dancers.

About 50 volunteers have signed up to help with parking and information booths.

There is no admission charge for the festival. Funds raised from booth fees go toward the chamber’s advertising budget.

Parking

Both Grand Drive and Electric Avenue will be closed to motor traffic during festival hours, but parking will be available at Bethany Lutheran Church on Montana Highway 35, Potozny Park on Holt Drive and Bigfork High School on Commerce Street.

Shuttles will be available to transport people to and from those locations throughout the day, beginning at 6 a.m. for the vendors and running through about 5 p.m.