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Two vendors talk on a closed-off street during the city’s Light Up Arlington event on June 29, 2024. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LightUpArlington-13-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LightUpArlington-13-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>Downtown Arlington — home to Theatre Arlington, Arlington Music Hall and Levitt Pavilion — is no stranger to the arts.But local music and art events on the scale of the West Main Arts Festival only come once a year.Over 100 local artists and performers will fill downtown from noon to 7 p.m. Sept. 14 for the eighth annual festival to showcase their crafts and music. Over the day, 40 local bands, featuring musicians from ages 16 through 60, will perform across five stages along West Main Street between art booths, food trucks and creative activities.If you go:

What: West Main Arts Festival, a celebration of local artists from Arlington and beyond

Where: Downtown Arlington, West Main Street from West Street to Center Street

When: Noon-7 p.m. Sept. 14 

Price: Free, with food and merchandise available for purchase.

For more information, visit the event’s website.Mark Joeckel, the festival’s executive director, helped start the festival 10 years ago. He’s watched it grow every year, and the festival now sees about 7,500 visitors a year. As the event’s scale expands, he said its focus stays the same: highlighting local artists.“People always ask me, ‘Why don’t you have any headliners?’ Joeckel said. “I say, ‘Well, we do have headliners — all our local headliners.’”Local art festivals like this appeal to a growing group of people who want to “support local,” Joeckel said. He feels it’s a natural shift away from buying art from strangers, as online shopping and national chains have become normal.The day is a collaboration of art-supporting organizations from in and beyond Arlington, including Dance Theatre of Arlington, Arlington Public Library, Catalyst Creative Arts and the F6 Gallery.This is the festival’s first time to be held in September, previously taking place in early May. That time of year, as school ends and summer starts, can make it difficult to coordinate with bands, Joeckel said.The event fits well into the broader mission of Downtown Arlington, one of the biggest sponsors of the festival, said Maggie Campbell, the organization’s president and CEO. She wants artists to feel at home downtown and appreciates how closely the festival involves students from the nearby University of Texas at Arlington.Joeckel said he coordinates with Arlington’s Levitt Pavilion, the downtown’s central live music venue that hosts concerts on weekend nights throughout the year. Once the festival’s spectacles end at 7 p.m., attendees are encouraged to head to the neighboring Levitt lawn for more music.Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.