Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival

Some may call be crazy, but even moreso than the Columbus Art Show that used to be down on the river and recently moved to Broad Street, this is the Arts Festival I look forward to most each year.Less pretense, more affordability, less crowds, and easier parking. Sure its still got the same nasty fair-food and sure there isn't enough shade, but that is of little concern when browsing the top quality art at relatively bargain basement prices (compare this festival to Columbus, Ann Arbor, Black Swamp, Birmingham.....enough said on prices.)If I had only one complaint it would simply be to make the event more than one day so that those with family engagements for Labor day would have a chance to visit on Sunday.

We had a really nice time here on labor day.There is ample parking, so much to see and do and everyone is in a great, laid back mood.You see dogs everywhere and kids playing, Northam Park is nice no doubt.It is mostly about art, but there are bands and food vendors as well.Nice way to spend labor day getting some fresh air and admiring art.

This festival gets 5 stars for being way better then I thought. I was not expecting it to be as big and family friendly as it is. We came around 10:30 and were lucky to have a small care to find street parking not too far from the park. This place was busy for being 10:30 in the morning as more people than us thought to beat the noon day heat. I like the booths here better than the Columbus arts festival as I felt like there were more practical booths, not just paintings and wall art. They had an Amish broom guy who was making a killing. The booth was packed and everywhere I looked, I saw brooms in people's hands. Around the outside, they had food trucks setup along with a few other businesses. This place was very kid friendly with a large area dedicated to kids working their hands. They even had an entertainment stage just for kids. The fire dept. was close by this area along with the parks playground. They also had plenty of bathrooms with port a potties along with the parks facilities. Another bonus was free water. As we walked in, two volunteers gave us a flyer and told us about free water over by the spider tent. Thank you because water was needed on this muggy Labor Day. I was expecting to be here about 30-45 minutes, but it turned into two hours and if it wasn't for the little one, we may have stayed longer. I would recommend doing this in 2014 for Labor Day.

Bigger and better than I expected. Lots of interesting vendors, music, and decent food options. A nice site, but access and parking is a bit challenging (mostly street parking).