Downtown
Festival
Downtown Festival
Maps & Directions
Find out where it is and how to get there, by MARTA, car and bike!
Forms
Download the forms you need to take part in the Festival.
Artist's Market
All you need to know about the 2008 show, including information on the jury and prizes! Also, application form.
Festival Entertainment
About festival entertainment -- bands, solo artists, dance groups, etc. Also, application form.
Children's Area
Since its start, the Festival has included a Children's Area, where kids can have fun doing creative craft projects and enjoying live entertainment.
Festival Flyer
Download PDF (2.2 MB)
Festival Photo Galleries
Browse through pictures from past Festivals.
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The Atlanta Downtown Festival will take place Saturday and Sunday,
May 16-17, 2009, in the historic Fairlie-Poplar district. The festival
is free and open to the public and will operate simultaneously with
the Downtown Tour. Both events are sponsored by the Atlanta
Downtown Neighborhood Association.
The Festival includes live entertainment, an artist market, children's area, and a wide variety of food and beverages. The purpose
of the Festival to showcase
living in the Downtown neighborhood to families and individuals interested
in living in the Downtown district.
Festival hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. on Saturday ,and 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday.
The Festival is produced and managed by Downtown residents who volunteer
their time to the event. In the past ADNA has received generous sponsorship
from big companies like Target and The Container Store as well as
smaller local businesses like Sidebar and Sweet Water Brewing Company.
The Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association (ADNA) is a non-profit
civic association representing several thousand households in Downtown
Atlanta. ADNA is committed to helping develop a better quality of
life for Downtown residents and businesses.
"The Downtown Neighborhood Festival is a grassroots community
effort and we are excited to show-off our exciting neighborhood,” said
Maria Balais, multi-year Chairperson for the Festival and a
long-time Downtown resident. "It's very important for any metropolitan
city to have a thriving center, and we are grateful for the
work that CAP and ADID, developers and local businesses have
done to ensure our urban development. An organized civic association
and a neighborhood festival, produced by residents, is a really
good sign that investment in Downtown is increasingly successful."
Festival History
Following the demise of the Arts Festival of Atlanta
in 1998, Central Atlanta
Progress, Inc. (CAP) created a new
arts festival for Downtown, called ArtScape.
The first festival took place in October 1999 and included
over 100 artists, live entertainment, children’s activities
and food and beverage. ArtScape ran for three years; the
last event occurred in October 2001. Following the 2001 event,
CAP realized that they could no longer sponsor ArtScape and
they began looking for a new owner of the festival. In March
2002, ADNA elected to produce the Atlanta Downtown Festival
to celebrate their community in the spirit of past Downtown
festivals. The Festival has been going strong ever since,
now combined with the Downtown Tour, which ADNA
took over from CAP.
| Event Timeline |
| 2002 |
Year one was quite a success. We had 50 vendors/artists
and raised over $1,500 for the ADNA. |
| 2003 |
Our second year saw us double in size and revenue! We
had over 120 volunteers participate. |
| 2004 |
Year three was the first to officially incorporate the Tour into our Festival. We raised our attendance levels, raised the number (and quality) of our vendors and artists, and we raised the level of sponsorships. |
| 2005 |
This year was bigger and more demanding than ever! We
were completely in charge of EVERYTHING. the Festival,
the Tour, fundraising, permitting, vendor bidding etc.
We had a great team and were very successful!
|
| 2006 |
The artist's market becomes a juried show and we get some great artists. Also, the festival as a whole has the best weather yet! |
| 2007 |
Great weather again and a very successful Tour. |
| 2008 |
We're working to make this year the best yet. |
Downtown Atlanta Today
Downtown,the proud commercial and social
center of the New South, is undergoing a tremendous renaissance.
The area has seen hundreds of million of dollars in new investment.
This includes a host of public and private improvements, building
renovations, new construction and the opening of dozens of
new businesses including restaurants and entertainment venues.
Most importantly, Downtown is again becoming a place where
people live. Since 1990, thousand of housing units have been
built or converted from non-residential uses in the heart of
Downtown.
The Fairlie-Poplar Historic District, where the Festival takes place,
is located between Centennial Olympic Park and Woodruff Park.
Fairlie-Poplar is home to a wide variety of organizations,
including Theatrical Outfit, one of Atlanta’s
oldest theater companies. The district's historic buildings
create a pedestrian-oriented ambiance unique in the City of
Atlanta. Nowhere else in Atlanta can one find such a great
variety of architectural style, scale and materials intermingled
in a charming pedestrian-scaled environment. The Fairlie-Poplar
district is a visual illustration of Atlanta’s transition from
Victorian to the modern era and exudes a distinct sense of
time and place. |
