NORTHAMPTON — Thousands are expected to flock to the Three County Fairgrounds this weekend for the 31st year of the Paradise City Arts Festival — the city’s flagship arts and music event.
The three-day festival, which opens at 10 a.m. Friday, will feature 200 artists from across the country and six bands on the center stage, headlined by Brooklyn musician Mtali Banda, who performs from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Paradise City Arts Festival Director Mariah Swanson, who took over operation of the festival from its founding directors Geoff and Linda Post last year, said this year’s festival will also highlight the Emerging Artists Collective, in which newer artists will be provided with booth space, along with live artisan demonstrations from the festival’s Art in Action event.
“There are live artist demonstrations scheduled each day, and so you can actually learn from the artists and all different kinds of mediums about their process and actually see them working,” Swanson said. “You’re walking around and seeing all these finished forms, you can hear the stories behind it, learn about the technique and the inspiration, which just makes everything feel that much more connected.”
Within three years of its inaugural event in 1995, Paradise City Arts became a nationally renowned show, Swanson said. This year brings a “recurated” outdoor space with dining tents serving craft cocktails and meals from six regional restaurants.
This year’s festival kicks off on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and then continues Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, from 10 a.m. from 4 p.m., at 54 Old Ferry Road. Free parking will be available.
“We have people coming from all over the Northeast who are driving out because this is the only place that you can see this many artists and all of this work that’s entirely created by hand. This is not something that’s been outsourced; these are the people who have made this work their whole lives,” Swanson said. “They’re coming to be able to share it in Western Mass and we’re very lucky to be able to have this here. You come and you have a meal, you make a weekend out of it.”
With some artists traveling from as far away as Florida and California, and others as close by as Athol and Southampton, to unload their handcrafted products in Northampton, the festival serves as a mecca for creatives.
Tiffany DeAngelo, a wire sculptor from Southampton, has been twisting fine wires into gemstone-scattered trees since her grandmother taught her the art form at age 8. Her business, Tiffany’s Trees, is returning to the festival following a yearlong hiatus.
“It’s [the festival] been really good to me. People are always a little mystified. I think they feel like it’s a little magical, in a fairy garden type of way … a lot of people really relate to trees,” she said. “If they’re trying to find a gift for somebody, it’s easy. They can pick it up, and then they come back to me and say, ‘I never gave that one away, I’ve got to buy another.'”
Another local artist, Jessica Peill, of Athol, will debut her miniature sculpture business The MoonGoat at the festival this weekend. Peill sculpts miniature depictions of snails, slugs, birds and nature scenes out of natural materials such as moss, twigs and stone.
“I started working on the concept about three years ago when I was hiking and this is my first time here … this is my first time actually doing a show, and it’s a little nerve-racking,” Peill said. “I obsessively love gastropods and what they teach us, like slow down, take your time. What you have is this moment, and we just breeze through everything so hardcore in our lives. I wanted to make the things that inspired me to be a different human.”
