Temperatures are growing warmer, days are getting longer and conditions are just right for strolling down a street lined with artist’s booths, snacking on food truck favorites, and listening to live performances as dusk slowly falls.
Outdoor arts events are back for the 2023 season.
LIVE! on the Plaza
In the Plaza District, the LIVE! events had shifted to the second Sunday afternoon of the month for the winter, but starting in March, LIVE! on the Plaza returned to its regular 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. time slot on the second Friday of each month.
And the festival has big plans in store for the spring, starting April 7.
“April is the Earth Day LIVE!, so we always partner up with a lot of conservation- and nature-oriented or maybe litter pickup-oriented organizations and nonprofits,” Plaza District Association Director of Marketing and Programming Joel Parks said.
The OKC Zoo is a regular staple at the April event and sometimes brings animals along with them.
“We do an upcycled fashion show,” Parks said. “So Dig It [OKC] is a business in the Plaza District and they have a lot of vintage upcycled fashion. And so there’s a whole fashion show of upcycled art and wearable art.”
Next, May’s event is Plaza Con, on May 12.
“Plaza Con is all things pop culture, whether that be video games, movies, and we do cosplay and we do a cosplay fashion show and and have a lot of fun with that one,” he said.
June 9 is Pride On the Plaza, which will see a first for the district this year.
“We’re actually going to shut the street down, which we’ve never done for a LIVE! before,” Parks said.
He said he’s excited to see the event expand into the street.
“We realized the crowds were of such a size and the audience was such a size, like, we need to shut the street down, one, for just foot traffic to be safer, and then, two, to make the event better and better programming and we can have more space,” he said.
The Plaza District plans to shift to the second Sunday afternoon of the month when the time changes in the fall to accommodate the colder weather, Parks said, before shifting back to Friday evenings when clocks change forward again in the spring.
More information can be found at plazadistrict.org and on the events’ social media pages.
Festival of the Arts
April also means the return of the annual Festival of the Arts, organized by Arts Council OKC.
With 144 artists and approximately 30 food vendors, the five-day festival is celebrating its 57th year.
Held April 25 through 30 at Bicentennial Park in downtown Oklahoma City, the event organizers are expecting 650,000 attendees.
It takes more than 5,000 people, mostly volunteers, to keep things running—headed by volunteer co-chairs Farooq Karim and Susie White, working alongside the Arts Council OKC staff.
The festival includes activities for a range of ages.
“We’re trying to sort of build the next generation of artists and patrons,” Karim said. “So we actually will have a tent where kids can go buy art that’s from the festival artists.”
Each item in the tent is for sale for $5.
Additionally, a juried art sale will feature artwork from youth ages 8 to 18.
“They’re sometimes a little shy at first to kind of talk about their art but it is so fun to interact with those young artists and and to have them have the opportunity to actually interact with people who may or may not buy their work and, you know, a lot of them will sell out,” Karim said.
For those interested in having first pick of the artwork for sale at the festival, attendees can sign up for Festi-First at artscouncilokc.com/festi-first.
“It’s a commitment that you make, that you will spend $250 during the week of Festival on any kind of art; any number of pieces,” White said.
The program includes a parking pass, breakfast, and having three hours starting at 8 a.m. at the beginning of the festival to consider art purchases before the festival opens to the public at 11 a.m.
Art mediums represented at the festival range from live performances to oil painting to photography to jewelry to ceramics to wood to sculpture to digital design and production (DDP).
Additionally, the food options have ramped up this year.
“This is the most international food offering I think we’ve ever had,” Karim said. “So we’ve got some really interesting new ethnic food that we’re going to have. So I think we’ve got a Nigerian vendor, we’ve got a Puerto Rican vendor, we’ve got a Mexican street food vendor.”
VIBES
VIBES in downtown Edmond is returning for its third year in downtown Edmond.
It takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month from April to October.
“This season we are going to have 46 businesses, 82 visual artists, and 33 performing artists participating throughout the season,” Edmond Fine Arts Institute Program Director and Director of VIBES Savannah Whitehead said. “And there will definitely be favorites returning like the Oklahoma City Ballet and the paint-off kind of feature, as well as new things. April’s gonna actually kick off with a fire juggler from Inspyral Circus.”
“The paint-off will feature different artists that will come and paint a piece during like a timed event,” she said.
Event attendees will be able to vote for their favorites at $1 per vote.
More information about individual upcoming events can be found on VIBES’ Facebook and Instagram pages.
Red Brick Nights
Red Brick Nights kicks off its 2023 season in May.
The festival runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month from May to September in downtown Guthrie.
“Red Brick Nights is a family-friendly community-gathering event,” Red Brick Nights Event Organizer James Long said. “So we have food trucks, we have pop up shops, we have a kids area put on by North Church Guthrie and then obviously the music talent so we try to appeal to the whole family with not only our music selection, but the things to do as well.”
The largest of the Red Brick Nights is the July festival, which includes a firework show.
“We typically have about 3,500 people that attend the events,” Long said. “And then the Fourth of July one is like over 10,000.”
More information can be found on Red Brick Nights’ social media pages as event dates draw closer.
