Music, art get place in sun

Temperatures have fallen outside, but the weekend is just heating up with various art and musical events happening around North Idaho.

The 38th annual Art on the Green begins Friday and more than 50,000 people are expected to attend the event, which runs through Sunday. More than 135 artists will have booths while two stages will have musical performances from a variety of artists.

The Festival at Sandpoint, not to be outdone, begins today and continues through the weekend as well as Aug. 10-13.

For the past 15 years of Art on the Green, two stages have been used to celebrate music because local artists weren’t getting as much stage time, said entertainment chair Thomas Orjala.

The idea has been a success, he said, as have many of the other events – which include arts and crafts projects for both adults and children.

“That way you’re not just wandering around and looking at art, but making your own,” Orjala said.

The festival includes artists who have been whittled down from more than 400 applicants, Orjala said, and there will be plenty of food vendors so people can gorge themselves on such favorites as corn on the cob and burritos.

The Festival at Sandpoint has some well-known names on its reader board this year, but there’s no secret how the small North Idaho town brings big acts.

“Really, we just find out if they’re in the area, or we just take a stab at it and see if they’ll come out here and start a tour from here,” said festival executive director Dyno Wahl.

And asking those big names to come seems to have paid off.

“We kind of dipped our toe in to see if people would buy tickets for bigger acts,” Wahl said. “We really took it up a notch this year.”

The Festival at Sandpoint has had some famous musicians in the past. Of late, Wahl said, fans expressed a desire to have bigger names along with some perennial favorites, such as the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, at the event.

So, this year, organizers secured country singer Tanya Tucker, guitar legend Dick Dale, bluegrass virtuosos Nickel Creek, British star David Gray and jazz singer Etta James, along with many “up-and-comers,” Wahl said.

The eclectic mix of genres has become a trademark of the Sandpoint event, she said.

“We started out mainly as classical,” Wahl said, “but started to bring in a mix, and it’s been a real hit for season pass holders because they can experience an artist they might have never bought an individual ticket for.”

Wahl said that trademark has worked so well that season passes for the 2006 series are already sold out. This year, organizers expanded passes from 500 to 600, but the majority sold out during an early bird special where people purchased the passes before they knew who was coming to the festival.

She said there are still individual tickets left, but tickets for the second week of concerts will most likely go quickly.

“I feel like we finally really hit our niche,” Wahl said.