Festival weekend

Slather on the sunscreen, grab your straw hat and head for Coeur d’Alene this weekend for the region’s largest free outdoor arts bash.

Near-perfect temperatures in the mid-80s are expected to draw more than 50,000 visitors to the Lake City for a trio of popular festivals: Art on the Green, Downtown Street Fair and Taste of Coeur d’Alene.

Beginning Friday at 6 a.m., traffic on Sherman Avenue will be diverted to allow for setup of the 15th annual Downtown Street Fair. Sherman between Second and Seventh streets will remain closed until 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

The Street Fair gets under way at 10 a.m. with more than 200 booths packed high with everything from giant-sized homemade cookies to gourmet pickled garlic to local designer T-shirts.

More than a dozen performers will make music on street corners throughout the three days.

“We run the gauntlet from awesomely amazing art down to 50-cent tiny pots,” says Gay Glasson, with the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association. “There is definitely something for absolutely everyone.”

If the giant cookie doesn’t quite fill you up, check out the food at the Taste of Coeur d’Alene in City Park.

This year 25 booths will provide a variety of choices including vegetarian dishes, tacos and ice cream.

Live music begins at 1:30 p.m. on Friday in the park’s bandstand with the Robin Marks Jazz Quintet, featuring Keith LaMotte on trumpet.

“For this gig we’re going to play a lot of jazz favorites,” says Marks, a well-known Spokane jazz vocalist. “We’ll pick up on the mellow vibes of the summer day and add to it.”

The 38th annual Art on the Green again returns to the North Idaho College campus near the Spokane River.

“It keeps coming back year after year because it is a great big community party,” says Dick Trudell, publicity coordinator for the Citizens’ Council for the Arts, sponsor of the festival.

“Families love coming to Art on the Green because of the many kid-friendly activities.”

The festival is a major fundraiser for the visual and performing arts in Coeur d’Alene. Every dollar spent on food, and 20 percent spent on artwork, helps support programs such as ArtShop, Lake City’s Writers’ Camp and the Summer Art Institute.

Favorites include the giant sandcastle, jousting fencers and “hands-on” art area.

Visitors can again browse through more than 140 art booths, view a juried art show, eat homemade food and be entertained by 30 music, dance and magic acts on two stages.

The arts and crafts booths feature a wide range of objects including pottery, paintings, wood, cloth, glass, jewelry, leather and photography.

One returning exhibitor, and this year’s poster design winner, is painter Alan McNiel of Troy, Mont.

McNiel’s winning image features an inquisitive, bright orange and red portrait of “Bert,” based on a neighbor’s Polish chicken.

“I’ve taken a little liberty with his coloring,” says McNiel, “but it really does look just like him.”

This year McNiel is bringing a number of his new urban landscapes, including “Powell’s Bookstore.”

“I usually paint these images from the perspective of sitting inside a café or bookstore, looking out at all the motion, complexity and sensory experience of the city streets,” he says. ” ‘Powell’s Bookstore’ captures the way downtown Portland feels to me.”

In addition to the craft booths, Art on the Green provides continuous entertainment on two stages beginning Friday at 1 p.m.

The headliner Friday night will be Bakra Bata, a steel drum and dance group. On Saturday the Dance Theater of Oregon, a dance/theater comedy group, wraps up the evening. Closing out the festival on Sunday afternoon at 4 will be All that Jazz.

“People seem to love sitting outside, enjoying the entertainment and eating picnic style,” says volunteer Clark Lusk. “The favorites from our food booths include corn-on-the-cob and German sausage sandwich.”

The popular $5 sandwich includes German sausage, processed Swiss cheese and sauerkraut on a whole-wheat roll.

Volunteer Liz Stevens of Coeur d’Alene started the sausage booth in the ‘70s. Today, her daughters, Becky Brown of Post Falls and Martha Cornwall of Coeur d’Alene, carry on the family tradition.

“We have people who come yearly for that sandwich,” says Brown. “They will wait patiently in line for a long time just to get their German sausage sandwich.”