Enjoy three days of music, arts, crafts, food and more
Stretching from North Idaho College campus to downtown Coeur d’Alene, merchants and artists offer their best next weekend, accompanied by musical entertainment and gastronomic pleasures.
Art on the Green representative Dick Trudell calls this year’s show the “biggest and best we’ve had so far.” More than 150 art exhibitors from all over the country display their creations in the Citizens’ Council for the Arts’ 35th annual event. Media include pottery, paintings, wood, cloth, jewelry, leather, photography and more, with a juried show of 90 artworks.
Nonstop entertainment by more than 30 music and dance groups on two stages and food booths add to the fun. New this year is “Stiltdancer” Janet Rayor, making the rounds of NIC grounds while gracefully dancing on the tiny tips of two 2-by-2 inch stilts, along with fencers and the “Dancing Duckman.”
Moving from the campus along the shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the City Park is the site of “Taste of the Coeur d’Alenes.” Twenty-five food booths will tantalize taste buds – from Tucson roasted corn on the cob, Greek food, German sausage, Indian tacos, burritos, crepes and elephant ears, reports event organizer Carol Gregory. Artists offer everything from collectible paintings to iron sculpting, handmade jewelry and birdhouses. Professional music groups treat the crowds to Jazz, Big Band, Dixieland and Blues.
Sherman Avenue, from Second to Seventh streets, closes to vehicles from 5 a.m. Friday to 6:30 p.m. Sunday and the streets and sidewalks will open to a record-braking 170 vendors for the Downtown Street Fair. Shoppers can walk among merchants, searching for treasures and cuisine, beginning at 9 Friday morning.
“The crowds make it tremendous. There is so much electricity with that many people,” says Downtown Association’s Gay Glasson. Cookie Lee Fashion Jewelry, California Bonsais and slate mirrors are some of the new offerings this year, along with Wok-fired soba noodles for the gourmet.
It should be a great day to stroll the mile and a half or so between the events. Those who don’t want to walk, however, can take a free shuttle service available to whisk an expected crowd of 50,000 between the three sites, running every 20 minutes.