BUFFALO, N.Y. — You know festival season is in full swing when it's time for the Allen West Art Festival. It's this weekend, June 8 and 9, and on Tuesday we caught up with the festival's chair to find out what you can expect this year.
"We're super excited about the festival. This year, we're going to have 120 artist vendors and about ten food vendors, so we're a little bit larger than last year," said Allen West Art Festival Chairman Josh Wilson.
This is Josh Wilson's third year chairing the Allen West Art Festival.
"This year, we're back to our original footprint. So we've been disrupted first by COVID for a couple of years, and more recently by the construction on Allen Street. Our Allen Street construction is completely done," said Wilson.
Wilson says the way the street is right now, after construction, is perfect for the art festival.
"Last year, we did it for the first time with the new streetscape. We got completely positive feedback from our artists, so it just seems like a positive. It just puts a little glimmer into the whole festival," said Josh Wilson.
We talked with Wilson about how Allen West is different from the Allentown Art Festival that's happening this weekend, too.
"They're larger than us, they are a little more focused on fine art, our festival is a little more open to the kinds of crafts and types of vendors we have. More affordable items may be found in our festival. You know, they have a little bit different character, but they're very similar, and we have complete respect for the Allentown Art Festival. They do a great job," said Josh Wilson.
And he says this has a huge impact every year on the local businesses in Allentown.
"We bring in something like 100-thousand visitors into the neighborhood, people get to see Allentown, you know, we see sometimes negative news, whatever, I lived here for twenty years, we love Allentown, we love showing off our neighborhood and we love showing off our businesses," said Josh Wilson.
If you come this weekend, you can expect to see everything from pottery to photography to all kinds of different food vendors.
"My favorite part of the festival is seeing the artists come back year after year. Over the time, it's a lot of the same faces, and you see their art over the years and, you know, that changes a little bit, but it's just kind of the community of artists, like seeing all of these people who, who this is their passion, right? Like this is what they work on, on a lot of times on their personal time, this is a side gig for them, and this is where they get a chance to really shine," said Josh Wilson.
And, this is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Allentown Association.
"We're one of the longest standing historic preservation districts in the country, and this organization has worked very hard both on preserving the character of the neighborhoods, so thinking about historic preservation, but also doing things around safety and building up businesses and, you now, just building up the sense of community for people who live here. You know, we kind of have our unique identity as Allentowners, and so the Allentown Association is just really key to that," said Josh Wilson.