The Delta Arts Festival, Arkansas’ largest multidisciplinary arts event, will be held June 4-5 in downtown Newport.
The festival is four free events combined into one — the Delta Visual Arts Show, the Delta Festival of Books, the Delta Musicians Showcase and the Delta Silver Screen Film Fest, according to a news release.
Delta Visual Arts Show
Two-hundred visual artists will set up at the Delta Visual Arts Show in a five-block area of downtown selling their art with a large number of fine artists, craft artists and functional artists.
Participants will include James Hayes, Belinda Lawson and Elizabeth Sadler, all artists of Pine Bluff; and Cindy Smith, author of McGehee.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Delta Festival of Books
Thirty-five authors will be part of the Delta Festival of Books in two venues, with authors both selling books and conducting readings from their works June 4-5.
Delta Musicians Showcase
The Delta Musicians Showcase will feature 31 concert performances on five stages from midafternoon June 4 through evening on June 5.
Delta Silver Screen Film Fest
The new Delta Silver Screen Film Fest will host nine film screenings, with five short films screened on June 4, a feature-length highlighted film that night and three feature-length films on June 5.
Food, restaurants
Downtown Newport will have several restaurants open including: The Downtown Pie Shop, Frankie’s Place, the Old Gas Station Bar and Grill and Postmaster Spirits. Several food trucks will also be set up in a food court area for convenience. Postmaster Spirits will offer their famous Ghost Tours at the old post office, now turned into a craft distillery.
Free art, music workshops
The Delta Arts Festival also features free workshops that are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Adult art workshops on drawing techniques, watercolor painting, smart phone photography and woodworking techniques will help build participants’ skills. Youth art workshops on sculpting, painting, charcoal drawing and drawing birds will excite and entertain young people at the show. All supplies for the art workshops are provided by the festival.
A youth music workshop will teach children and teens how to play the harmonica, and the first 20 young people who show up will get a free harmonica. Adult music workshops will include “Excavating a Song” for aspiring songwriters and “Vocal Techniques” for singers. A filmmaker workshop will be held on Saturday with an accomplished director and screenwriter. All workshops are free, but space is limited.
Contests
Five contests are part of the Delta Arts Festival. The “This is the Delta” contest features work from the participating visual artists. The other four workshops are for young people: The Delta Youth Art Contest, the Delta Youth Poetry Contest, the Delta Youth Short Story Contest and the Delta Youth Songwriter Contest.
Event schedule
Artists, authors, musicians and filmmakers are coming from six states and more than 80 Arkansas communities. The festival features free entry and free parking.
A full schedule for concerts, author readings film screenings, contest rules and a full list of participating artists is available at www.deltaartsfestival.com. Details: Newport Area Chamber of Commerce at (870) 523-3618.