The annual Ann Arbor Art Fairs start next week (July 16-19). Does anyone plan to check them out or do you plan to leave town during that time?82 responses total.
I may visit the Art Fair to check out a friend's band. I'll be playing with the Mr. Largebeat band on Sat. July 19 at 3:00 pm at Liberty Plaza.
I won't be leaving the area, but I don't have any specific plans to attend.
I'm on vacation, for two weeks, starting this weekend. I'll be at the Fair each day. I love it. Great fun.
My office is in the midst of the Art Fairs, and I will be working that week.
I'll be getting back from vacation on Wednesday evening, and I'll end up biking down at least once or twice. Mostly for the people-watching.
I hide inside my house except for when I am at school. The car gets parked in front of the house on Tuesday night and doesn't get moved until it is all over. We live on South U near Washtenaw and have no driveway. I may walk down with STeve for a couple of hours for one day. Other than some of the music and the fun of the food court, the Art Fairs hold little interest for me. And I am uncomfortable in crowds.
I'm going for the first day!! Woo hoo - my first in like 10 years! Mary, if you'd like a lunch companion, please say so.
We'll certainly go.
My son would like to go. We'll be there at least one evening during the week. I just asked for the day off next Friday. We'll be there then.
I'll go. The bus lets me off right in the middle of it all. :-) And my favorite (one, the only one left) vendor is close by, so I'll have to check her out.
We go for a little while to look at people but I can't take the smoke for long.
Should we have the traditional Tuesday night Grex dinner gathering at a downtown restaurant?
We once bought a ceramic lamp at an Art Fair - years ago. Still works, too (if supplied with bulbs). Now we have a daughter that is an art major, and have no lack of art. Wouldn't dare buy any art at a Fair.
Re #12: Sure!
I might go on Friday but if the weather is really nice, I'll probably go to the lake instead.
Mr. Largebeat? Is that Largebeat Existance? I can't go. :(
I'll probably be working one of the non-profit booths at least one day. So I should be able to visit the new location. I may see other stuff, too. Jeremy Kittel will be fiddling on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I hear.
Is there a schedule somewhere for the live music?
I found it in a brochure that was delivered in the mail a few days back. I've not looked for on line, though.
Ann Arbor Street Art Fair ( www.artfair.org 734-994-5260) Art Fair Village ( www.a2southu.com/artfair.php 734-663-5300) State Street Area Art Fair ( www.a2state.com 734-663-6511) Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair ( www.michiganguild.org 734-662-3382) (information from http://www.arborweb.com/seasonal_events_index.html )
I'll be right in the thick of it. In addition to my 'regular' job at the UGLi
right on campus, i'm volunteering at information booths in the State Street
and Street ('Original', formerly 'South U', now North U/Washington area)
Fairs.
I'd be up for dinner Tuesday except I'm not exactly swimming in cash at the
moment. <suddenly remembers the largish check coming from SummerFest shortly
(hey, it's more money than *i've* ever made in two days before. . . .)>
yeah, i should be able to be there.
I'll come if there's plenty of corn pone pussy around
You won't just take regular pussy?
probably can't *get* regular pussy. . .
no I want CORN PONE PUSSY. Bitches with corn pone upbringing like it at least 5 times a day. Dcat regular pussy just gets worn out by my manhood
Ahh the joys of twit-filtration.
the Tuesday night dinner was enjoyable last year. I'd be up for doing it again. As for during the fairs: Most of my day will be spent working the parking lot at Angell Elementary School. I will be at the CTN booth (somewhere in front of Burton Tower ... no longer in front of the Liberty St. Post Office) for a few hours on Thursday afternoon. Music: If I can find out when/where/if George Bedard is playing, I'll try to show up there. I'm also going to try and catch Psychaetropia. (haven't heard them, but I've got a friend in the band ... not sure of times, but I believe they'll be playing from the front porch of a local business)
Hey, this is the first year with the extra art fair, isn't it?
Re:#16, These days it's just Mr. Largebeat, with mostly a new line-up. Just started playing again this year after a four-year hiatus.
hey "other" I wish the fuck you would ignore.You shitdick drama queen. Then I wouldn't have to listen to your crybaby bullshit.
Tuesday sounds great. I'll see if I can get there with my latest inspirational playthings. Any suggestions for the restaurant?
What does an "extra art fair" mean? Are they expanding? (I'm a bit out of the loop, you see.
I think the one on S University is moving and another one is going to be on South U
There has been some drama between the South University fair and the local merchants, such that thisyear the original South U fair is moving and the local merchants are putting on their own fair. In recent years there has been a smaller merchant-sponsored fair on one of the side streets.
i hate the art fair crowds.
this is the third or fourth year for the new fair, though it's greatly expanded this year. In past years, it's just been the portion of Church St below South U and was called "Art Fair Village". This year, the Original Street Art Fair moves to the other side of campus, so the new one is expanding to the whole of the South U fair area, and changing it's name to (i think) "Ann Arbor's South University Art Fair" or something, although I still think of The Original as the south U fair.
Who gives a shit?,,,except maybe a few artsie fartsie faggots.
>plonk!<
Local merchants do, which is why I know a bit about the South U one. The problem is that the fair on South U didn't bring in any money for the South U merchants association, unlike the State St and Main St ones and their associations. That's why South U doesn't get extra police patrols, and thus has the gang banger problem the other areas lack -- they couldn't pay for extra coverage. So the South U merchants ousted the existing fair and decided to start their own.
The distinctions between Art Fairs are pretty much irrelevant, even for the interested patron. That doesn't stop the Ann Arbor News from following the soap opera like the Paparazzi chasing after Princess Diana, though.
I wish you would do a real >plonk< on me. I shall do the same to you. You say nothing of merit anyway. So >PLONK!< I also "!shit" you biotch. When I come to MI ..I'm gonna whip that ass.
In fairness, while I have long enjoyed sniping at the art fair hype, it's not at all a bad event, and it's not like local media don't hype other local events that I actually like. I still think Ann Arbor gets a bit too much of an inflated view about itself, but things like Art Fair just don't happen everywhere. And downtown is easy to avoid. Traffic hangups aren't as bad as football exit traffic, either, and I don't exactly complain about that. :) So what was I saying? Oh, yeah, all my whining about art fair was unfair.
I've made a reservation for 8ish, for the Parthenon, 5:30 p.m., this coming Tuesday, the eve of Art Fair. If you know you're joining let me know, here or in mail, so we end up not too over (or under) the reservation. Thanks.
I'll be there. (But you knew that.)
(I've also put an announcement of this august event in the motd.)
Jan, Valerie, Arlo, and Kendra expect to come. That's 4ish right there.
Cool. I'll up the number tomorrow as I know a few more are planning to attend.
I'll come for a bit, but I'm going to 7 Samurai at the MT at 630.
I think we're up to 13 people who've said they are coming to dinner. So I'll increase the reservation to 16. Oompah! And see you there.
Rats, I missed the warning about this, and it's too late for me this year.
The company and the food were good. Nice to put a face to the dcat loginid.
I agree. It was nice to meet your wife too. Everyone's food looked good. Even Arlo's grilled cheese. I was hungry. ;-)
No complaints about the fried calamari, but Grizzly Peak does it better.
Chicken/lamb meatballs were good. Good also to put a few more faces to names, although (kip) is another grexer whom i believe i've met before (didn't you do the OS X lecture for LUGWash last year?).
Sounds like i should have tried to leave work early to be there ... maybe next year.
(other) & I had to leave early to make the Seven Samurai showing at 630 at the MT. Good movie, if a (eensy) bit long. :)
I'd love to see it sometime-- supposedly, Liam Niesen studied it for his role in "Phantom Menace".
Today I was touring Art Fair with STeve from about 2 until closing. Grexers sighted: ea bicycling up behind us on South U, and Rob Argy over by the spinning cube sculpture while we were having dinner. We mostly concentrated on the Original Street Art Fair in its new digs around Burton Tower. My initial reactions to the new site are very positive. It's *spacious* with lots of shady spots, and the location should handle Saturday's crowds well. The absence of the merchants -- the new location is entirely? on the UM Campus -- makes it feel more open and less pressured, and I was having flashes on the Carbondale Mountain Fair in Colorado, held in a city park. There is the Neptune Fountain for a new centerpiece; there is the Michigan League for air-conditioned retreat; we heard a carillon concert. What did everyone else think?
I just biked around the periphery, or at least tried to. I got onto the Diag through the east side somewhere, then realized I was sort of trapped by Art Fairs on almost every side. I finally managed to escape through the corner of State & South U, taking the long way around to Ashley.
I agree with you, Ken, the new location is better. It reminds me of my favorite fair held in State College, PA, home of Penn State. Their fair is much smaller than ours but with some incredible art. It's held on a long wide pedestrian way lined with huge old oak trees. Lots of shade, no firepits with sausages or violinists playing muzak at the limits of their speaker's volume. Maybe it's age, maybe it's the new larger size, but our fair looks tacky to me this year.
Yeah, I like the new location of the Original Fair - I just don't like it's contents so much. It has the lowest density of stuff I like of all the fairs I've visited. (Which isn't that many of them, actually, since seeing a lot of the fair while totting two kids is not so easy).
We liked the new location because there was a place to sit in the shade of the bell tower in the afternoon. We sat down next to someone that Jim had worked with 20 years ago. It took 20 minutes before they recognized each other. Jim pointed out that you can distinguish the tourists from the townies because the former had perfectly white shoes. This guy had shoes even dirtier than Jim's, and a carillon concert program.
The artists like the new location, too --- no merchants everywhere, it's not as crowded, bigger walking areas, and no parking meters in/right behind their booths. Handful of fairgoer complaints about it being too spread out, but it's kinda hard to get 1400 artists (not to mention half to three quarters of a million tourists) into a smaller space. . . .
I wish I could be there. :(
I'm finding myself to be totally uninterested in checking out the Art Fair this year, aside from bicycling around a bit yesterday (as a rule, don't get tangled up in the crowds, so I didn't see much). Seems like a lot of the usual stages are gone, though - I didn't see the State & Washington stage, the Liberty & Ashly stage either.
They're still working on the building at State & Washington during the day, so they couldn't ask someone to try playing music there. They moved the AA Art Center info booth up there, and *we've* been having trouble being heard. Thursday they were pumping concrete up to the sixth floor or something; it was *quite* loud. Also, the Free Press's "official" guide to the Art Fair is absolutely trash; they left out a bunch of information booths from the map (and left *in* the old tram round the Fairs that hasn't run in several years), so I wouldn't be surprised if you're looking on that and not finding stages that do, in fact, exist.
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resp:67 - No. The *good* guide to the Art Fairs is produced by the local monthly magazine Ann Arbor Observer. Don't think the Ann Arbor News does much more than a map in one section.
Jon, you work for the AAAC?
I've been volunteering for AAAC and the Street Art Fair ("the Original") at
information booths this week, but I don't otherwise work for either group.
I usually visit only the one fair. I like it's new location. Unfortunately, other committments left me time for only one relatively quick circuit on Wednesday. I liked what I saw, but nothing specific, other than Stephen Zeh's baskets, comes to mind right now.
In previous years the Observer Guide has been the "Official" guide. I gather some of the Observer people were annoyed that that designation had been given to the Free Press without even consulting the Observer. The Observer went ahead and did a nice guide anyway, but I wonder if the long article in the front about the aging of the Art Fairs and the decline in attendence isn't a small indication of annoyance. Hey, if they aren't official, they don't have to be nice.
Concur with Scott in resp:65 :: it seems like the main official stages are all gone, or at least moved somewhere I haven't found them. Haven't found any music more ambitious than Mr. B's boogie-woogie piano.
I found myself more interested this morning, so I spent a couple hours between Main & State streets. Aside from the usual Ecuadoran guys at Liberty & Division there was almost nothing - a couple random guys with electronic pianos in a couple of spots. Never did see anything which looked like a stage.
resp:73 - as far as I'm aware, there are only four performance areas besides Mr B & a "barefoot violinist" at South U & Forest: WEMU Stage, @ Church & Willard; South U & Tappan; South U & East U; and Ingalls Mall a bit below Washington. Not sure if there was anything at Liberty Plaza as well. Also not sure by how much that's less than previously --- has there ever been a stage downtown? I remember a clown, but that's it.
Used to be a big stage at Liberty Plaza, another at State & Washington, and yet another at Liberty (or maybe Washington) & Ashley. An actual stage, a PA system, bands, etc. And that's only what we had recently. Back around 1980 there was a really cool stage on the diag too. Oh, and within 5 years ago there was music at State & Thompson, too.
Would've been Liberty at Ashley, as this is the first year there's anything anywhere on Washington. Was that beyond the food court, or replaced by it? I didn't make it that far down Liberty this year. Not sure what you mean by State & Thompson, but those streets don't intersect. Liberty & Thompson? That'd be too close to Liberty Plaza. . . Did notice that only WEMU seemed to have a real stage. Not sure what the deal is. Someone suggested the amount of construction in the area, but I'm curious if the combination of the sluggish economy & the cost of the lawsuits btwn Street Art Fair & South U Area Assoc. had anything to do with it . . . . (i.e., cutting down on their ability to pay artists to perform, to rent equipment, etc.)
Oops, Liberty & Thompson. Usually just a tent with a steel band. The Liberty & Ashley stage was down by Ashley, sort of capping off the food court. Used to be you'd always hear music, sometimes from a couple different directions at once.
Kleefeld was playing his piano, or his CDs, behind the Sailing Club booth on Liberty. A harpist was three booths east of the Pioneer Water Polo drink booth. I heard music from the sunken garden at Liberty and Division, but I didn't investigate closely when walking that area. Jeremy Kittel was fiddling on Ingalls Mall while I was in that area on Wednesday.
Al Hill was playing an electric piano keyboard thing at South & East U at 5ish this afternoon. Don't know if he'd been there all week.
There was music at Liberty Plaza, but neither the Art Fair or Herb David promoted the site as an entertainment venue. Our band had to put up flyers to advertise our appearance. The entertainment areas really got little attention in the Art Fair Guide or in the paper. I know that this is supposed to be an Art Fair, but there should be complete information for all activities associated with it.
resp:81 - I think the Free Press spent so much money to become "Official Guide" to the Art Fairs, they forgot to spend any on producing the guide itself. One of the many things they left out was the entertainment listings. Not sure what the Observer's excuse is for their puny entertainment section, though.
You have several choices: