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An expected 50,000 fun-seekers will converge on Coeur d’Alene this weekend for three popular outdoor festivals.

Art on the Green, A Taste of the Coeur d’Alene’s and the Downtown Street Fair take over the Lake City from Friday through Sunday.

On the Green

The anchor festival, Art on the Green, returns for its 39th event on the North Idaho College campus near the Spokane River.

“I look forward to Art on the Green every year,” says volunteer Ricky Scuderi, 15.

The Scuderi family has been staffing the ice cream booth for “well over 10 years now,” says the Post Falls High School freshman, “ever since my brother, Adam, was in diapers and I was in a stroller.”

The family-friendly festival was organized almost 40 years ago by a handful of volunteers who would become the Citizens Council for the Arts.

On Saturday at 5 p.m., a sculpture will be dedicated to one of the founders of Art on the Green, Patrick Flammia, who died last summer. (Story on Page D5.)

Art on the Green continues to be a major fundraiser for the visual and performing arts in Coeur d’Alene.

Every dollar spent on food, and 20 percent of those spent on artwork, helps support programs such as ArtShop, Lake City’s Writers’ Camp, the Summer Art Institute and the Patrick Flammia Institute for Drawing.

Art lovers at the festival can again browse through more than 140 fine art and craft booths, view a juried art show, and leaf through the Clothesline for small, low-cost, two-dimensional works.

Longtime impressionistic oil painter Sharon Mille of Coeur d’Alene has her work in both the juried show and the Coeur d’Alene Art Association Booth.

“I’ve been painting in oils since 1973,” says Mille, “and showing at Art on the Green forever.”

Returning for a second year in the juried show is watercolorist Ginger Rose of Hayden, Idaho.

“I love watercolors,” says Rose. “If you use light washes and glazing the painting retains a glow of the paper coming through.

“It is kind of like looking through a stained glass window with sun behind it.”

Artist Cindy Radavich of Post Falls is a first-time exhibitor in the juried show and has a few items for sale on the Clothesline.

“The pastel portrait I have in the juried show is from a series called ‘Faces of Uganda’ that I’m doing to raise money for an orphanage and night shelter over there,” Radavich says.

In addition to the craft booths, Art on the Green provides continuous entertainment on two stages beginning Friday at noon.

The headliner act on Friday night on the Main Stage will be Spirit of Ojah with Ghanaian highlife, reggae and calypso music.

On Saturday, Elisa Monte Dance, a modern dance group, closes the evening’s entertainment.

The final group on Sunday at 4 p.m. is Prima Noche, an African drumming group.

Street Fair

Sherman Avenue will be closed to traffic between Second and Seventh streets beginning around dawn on Friday to allow 200 vendors to set up for the 16th annual Downtown Street Fair.

Sherman will remain closed until 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Third and Fourth streets will be open for north-south cross-town traffic.

“Temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-80s,” says Gay Glassen, events coordinator for the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association. “That’s perfect for the Street Fair.”

The Street Fair officially gets under way at 10 a.m. Friday when booths start hawking everything from frozen cheesecake to paintable doll houses and crystal nail files.

“Anything a little bit different and fun is what you’ll find at the Street Fair,” says Glassen.

There will also be live music on street corners and art demonstrations, including wood carving by Dick Francis of Castlegar, B.C.

“Dick has been coming down for several years to carve Santas in front of our store,” says Mary Peak, owner of Christmas on the Lake. “People love to stop and watch him work.”

A Taste

Nearby, A Taste of the Coeur d’Alene’s in shady City Park offers 25 food booths with a variety of cuisine choices including burgers, elephant ears and beef tacos.

In addition to food, the Taste features more than 100 artists and crafters spread along the park’s Centennial Trail.

Wildlife painter Joe Kronenberg of Spirit Lake is returning for a second year with his photo-realistic pastel paintings.

“I love it when someone thinks one of my paintings is a photo,” says Kronenberg, who can spend up to three weeks working on one image.

Metal worker Dan Severns of Spokane is showing stainless steel and brass sculptural pieces and wall hangings.

“Everything I do is by hand,” he says. “I’ll be bringing fish, wildlife and landscapes.”

Live music begins at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the park’s bandstand with the Summer Sounds. Jazz and big band groups rotate every couple of hours throughout the weekend.