The annual Westport Downtown Merchants Association (WDMA) Fine Arts Festival will return to Main Street this summer after a nine-year hiatus in Parker-Harding Plaza.
Crowds pack Westport’s Main Street in 2007, the last time the Fine Arts Festival was held there. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo
The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously today to approve use of town property on Main Street, Elm Street, and Church Lane for the event on the weekend of July 15 and 16.
The last time the festival was on Main Street was in 2007. Since then, it has used areas of the Parker-Harding parking area as well as the adjacent Gorham Island office building for the event.
Randy Hebertson, WDMA president, told the board its members suggested the move back to Main Street. He said merchants felt they really were not benefitting from the event with only the back of their stores facing the riverside exhibits.
With plans still to be worked out with the police and fire departments, he said the goal is to have the artists’ booths facing the front of the Main Street stores.
The 2003 scene on Main Street for the Fine Arts Festival. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo
In addition, Hebertson said, the WDMA will be working closely with the Westport Library, which also holds its popular summer book sale that weekend, to co-promote the events.
He said the WDMA also hopes to encourage crowds to visit the new Bedford Square development, which will be open for the first time for the festival.
The Fine Arts Festival, now in its 44th year, had been a Main Street tradition before its move away in 2008.
This year, the WDMA has appointed Sue Gordon Brown, of Gordon Fine Arts and the Bruce Museum, as the festival director.
