Music, art and a rare performance by musician Randy Newman add to the festive downtown atmosphere of Eureka Springs during the 2007 Eureka Springs May Festival of the Arts, which began May 1st.
According to Festivals Director Sally Thackery, “It’s our month-long party, and this year we’re not holding anything back!”
The festival kicked off with the unveiling of the new Art Benches in Basin Spring Park, followed by the Spring Art Judging. Also, folk singer Tracy Grammar and award-winning songwriter and musician Randy Newman performed on May 2nd and May 4th respectively.
Music and Art in the Park features free concerts each weekend of the festival, in Basin Spirngs Park on Spring Street and at the newly-formed Art Colony on Main Street. The Art Colony is a unique concept showcasing working artists in combined studio and gallery space. This will be the first year that the Art Colony, formed last October, will be open for the May Festival of the Arts.
Even for the non-art fan, Eureka Springs is a bevy of activity in the spring. The area is known for some of the best bass fishing in the country. Sixteen-acre Lake Leatherwood Park, on a natural migratory path, has a blind for easy birding. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, The Great Passion Play, Blue Spring Heritage Center, the Pine Mountain Jamboree, Cosmic Caverns and the Ozark Mountain Hoedown are just a few of the many opportunities for family outings. Internationally renowned Thorncrown Chapel, reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright, and row after row of 19th Century, middle-class Victorian homes, in the many styles of the era, make the city a rare architectural treat. And Eureka Springs had always been known as a shopaholic’s dream, with hundreds of art galleries, unique shops and boutiques.