EASTHAMPTON — Cultural Chaos, the city’s popular street festival that draws thousands to Cottage Street each summer, is returning next June after taking a one-year hiatus.
Easthampton City Arts, which promotes arts and culture in the city and organizes the festival, announced this week that Cultural Chaos will be held Saturday, June 12, 2027. Going forward, the festival will take place every other year.
ECA Coordinator Pasqualina Azzarello said the festival will look just as it has in the past, bringing in and celebrating local vendors, creators, performers, artists, restaurants and more.
“It will look the same, feel the same and taste the same,” Azzarello said in an interview with the Gazette. “We are really excited to explore new additions and improvements.”
ECA paused Cultural Chaos this year due to the rising cost of hosting the festival. Azzarello said the year off gave officials time to try out new programming and figure out a way to make Cultural Chaos more sustainable to organize.
“Taking a pause this year really felt like the responsible thing to do if we want to continue providing exceptional arts and programming as well as Cultural Chaos,” Azzarello said. “The festival grows every year, and we want to be able to continue to support that, but we realized we needed to increase our infrastructure within.”
While the festival will return next year, Azzarello said holding the event every other year will allow ECA to host Cultural Chaos in its full capacity. She said the event takes months to plan.
“We have a lot of volunteers, but there’s a lot of management and involvement with volunteers, so it’s not as simple as people might believe,” Azzarello said.
Azzarello said the cost to host Cultural Chaos has climbed to about $25,000. ECA does not use any funding from Easthampton’s municipal budget for programming, including Cultural Chaos, relying on donations and grants to host events.
The return of Cultural Chaos was made possible in part by a new partnership with the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce, which is contributing $10,000 to the festival. ECA is slated to receive a $15,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for the remaining funds.
“We’re excited that it is coming back and we’re excited to partner with the ECA,” said Jon Kostek, executive director of the chamber. “Cultural Chaos shows everyone how special the Easthampton community is.”
Kostek said when he started as executive director, two of his goals were to help support arts and culture in Easthampton and get involved in the community more. When approached by ECA to be a partner, he said it was the perfect opportunity to accomplish both.
“The Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce was our first choice of who a local collaborative partner would be,” Azzarello said. “Cultural Chaos is designed in part to bring arts and culture to our community and engage community members of all ages in a really meaningful way. It’s also designed to bring new foot traffic to our local business community, and partnering with the chamber is a fantastic way to do that.”
Cultural Chaos began in 2013 as an initiative of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Cultural District program, and has grown steadily since.
ECA was able to organize several other events this year in the absence of Cultural Chaos that Azzarello said will continue in the future. They include Beats on the Boardwalk, a summer music series on the Cottage Street Promenade, and two fall concerts, including one called Twilight Blues that will be held Friday at the Marigold Theater.
Azzarello said bringing Cultural Chaos back was a collaborative effort between multiple groups, including the ECA Coordinating Committee and the Cottage Street Cultural District subcommittee. She said ECA will now work to get the event organized.
“The beautiful thing is we all get to now roll up our sleeves and truly get started planning next year’s festival,” Azzarello said. “It will be a very familiar and recognizable Cultural Chaos. It is truly a return.”
For more information visit easthamptoncityarts.com.
