TORONTO - Good food, great live music and dozens of crafters greeted visitors Saturday at the 35th annual Festival of Arts.
The festival is sponsored by the Focus in Toronto organization, and is centered at the city gazebo commons at Third and Market streets.
Brenda Cich chairman of Focus in Toronto, said there are about 30 artisans and crafters offering a variety of items in addition to food vendors scattered throughout the festival area.
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Mark Law
READY FOR FALL — Jamie Patterson of Toronto checks out some fall decorations Saturday at the Toronto Festival of Arts. The festival continues today from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. It is centered around the city gazebo commons. The festival this year features all live and local musicians performing in a variety of different styles.
Cich said kids games were added this year.
"There wasn't usually things for kids to do," she said.
A dunk tank will be featured today.
There are also several informational booths, including Reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing by the "laying of hands."
There are hourly drawings for prizes. A drawing was scheduled today for a handmade quilt.
An outside church service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today hosted by the Riverview United Methodist Church featuring the Remnant, a praise and worship band from Wellsville.
Mark Miller, festival music director said six bands have been booked to perform at the festival.
"We wanted to do something different this year and accentuate the arts through the use of live music," Miller said.
The live music selection included blues, classical, country rhythm and blues, acoustic contemporary, jazz and bluegrass.
The festival on Saturday also included a "poetry slam" for pupils from Toronto High School.
Maureen Taggart, Toronto High School principal, said there were eight pupils in grades six to eight that prepared poems since the beginning of the school year.
The pupils were graded on the quality of the poem and their stage performance.
"It's the first year we have done it. We were able to pull it off since school was only in session about eight days," Taggart said.
"It takes a lot of courage to get up in front of a crowd and perform something so personal," Taggart said.
