Since 1995, the Cambridge Arts Festival has provided an annual opportunity for local artists to showcase their talent in culinary, dance, literary, music, performance, and visual art. For its audience, this interactive free festival is a chance to learn about these art forms through workshops, demonstrations, and hands-on activity.

Cambridge Arts Festival

About the Festival

• On June 6, 2009, the Cambridge Arts Festival will again be held from 10am until 10pm in and around Cambridge’s New City Hall and Centre for the Arts. This location is highly accessible and gives us a large, flexible space in which to entertain.
• A complete list of participating artists can be found on our website.
• Our children’s area, running from 10am until 5pm offers the opportunity to experience the Arts through crafts and other hands-on activities.
• From Eduardo Machado to Ian Reid to Bobnoxious, our Music stage, running the duration of the festival, will feature acts from a wide variety of genres.
• Our Performance stage, also running the duration of the Festival, will host a variety of engaging entertainment including music, dance, workshops, and more. From break dancers, the 21.0 Calmtins and Doyle’s own new dance crew to bellydancers always a crowd favourite, Khizmet’s Belly Dance Studio will once again grace this stage with both a performance and a workshop. A new feature this year will include our opening performers 10:00am Phatty’s Maui Tai martial arts group with a history lesson and demo to a hands-on on instruction.
• On our Literary stage, running until 5pm, Festival goers will hear prize-winning pieces from our poetry contest, as well as readers, entertainers, and storytellers from many literary disciplines.
• From 10am until 10pm, our Visual Artists will amaze and inspire you. Patrons will have the opportunity to not only view and purchase finished pieces, but also to watch and participate in the creation process.
• New this year, we have welcomed Culinary Artists to our roster. Come and taste the difference between food and art.
• Also new this year, anyone with a drum is invited to join in on our drumming circle running throughout the day.

New for 2009 – We’ve joined with the Spotlight Festival

• Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Culture and produced by the Ontario Arts Council, the Spotlight Festival puts together Arts Events throughout the province all on the same weekend. More information about the Spotlight Festival and events happening in other cities can be found on their website.
• For 2009, we have exchanged our traditional date choice of the second Saturday in June, for June 6 in order to partner with this festival and offer our event at the same time as other Arts Events in surrounding cities.
• The Cambridge Arts Festival will include these Spotlight funded activities:
  • Word-Up with Bill Ashwell – Pick a word, any word. Word Up is an interactive and public display of evolving poetic creativity, and the ordinary fridge door is the blank page. Using magnetic tiles printed with random words and blank tiles to be written on, participants can explore the possibilities of “found poetry”. A photographic record will be made of the progress and posted on the Cambridge Art’s Festival’s website and particular works will be emailed to the “authors”
  • Shape My World by Ean Kools where visitors participate in the art creation process using shapes.
  • Everyone is Marilyn by David Popplow – get transformed into Marilyn Monroe and take home a souvenir picture to remember it by.
  • The Musical Instrument Petting Zoo hosted by Beyond The Clef Music School welcomes kids of all ages to learn about and try out musical instruments from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
  • Tesha Emarthle offers workshops and instruction on Iroquois Social Songs and Dance
  • Installation Art invites patrons to create their own sculpture out of provided materials
  • Observe and interact with carver Nii Addico as he creates striking wooden African masks (12-2pm)
• Festival patrons are also invited to participate in several more free activities and workshops hosted by the Cambridge Centre for the Arts. Details for these can be found on their website.

Our History

• The first festival was held in September 1995.
• Historically the Festival had been located in Mill Race Park but was moved to in and around City Hall and the Cambridge Centre for the Arts in 2008.
• In recent years, attendance has been estimated at 1,500 – 2,000 families. Our goal for 2009 is to double this number.
• 40-50 volunteers are required to plan and run the event.
• The festival has hosted as many as 60 artists throughout the day.