Edmonds Arts Festival: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, June 14-15, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, June 16, Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main Street, Edmonds

The Edmonds Arts Festival has grown from a small community art fair to one of the most prestigious in the Pacific Northwest, attracting artists from across the nation and Canada.

The festival provides a unique opportunity for patrons to meet artists and purchase their work in a beautiful outdoor setting overlooking Puget Sound. The festival offers free live entertainment, a juried gallery art exhibition and sale, a nationally recognized juried student art exhibit and a hands-on children’s art activity area.

Produced entirely by community volunteers, the festival is the primary fundraiser for the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation, which gives scholarships and grants to the community. Over the past 39 years, grants have provided more than $1 million to fund public art installations and large special projects.

Artist Heidi Farina’s painting “Gloaming on Mount Baker” is featured on the 2024 poster for the Edmonds Arts Festival. The poster will be available for purchase at the Festival Store.

Booth artists

Click here for a list of the more than 210 painters, sculptors, photographers, jewelers and other unique artisans on the grassy field east of the Frances Anderson Center and on the Edmonds Plaza.

Gallery artists

Galleries inside the Frances Anderson Center showcase juried art from more than 500 artists (see list here). Paintings, prints, drawings, photography, digital art, sculpture, mixed media, 2D, and artisan works will be shown.

Juried by professional artists, only the highest-quality art, whether produced by an established artist, student, or emerging artist, is selected to be displayed. Awards are given in each media category, and the prize-winning pieces are acknowledged.

Student art: Celebrating a new generation of artists

A key element of the festival’s mission is to promote exposure to art and art education to the youth in our community. This work is especially critical in light of recent budget cuts.

Partnering with the Edmonds School District, the festival is one of the premier student art events in the United States, displaying more than 1,100 pieces of art from K-12 students.

The 2024 gallery will showcase art from 32 Edmonds School District schools, private schools and individual home-schooled students residing within the boundaries of the Edmonds School District.

Performing Arts

There are two different stages featuring live performances. The main stage is the amphitheater in Frances Anderson Center Park, which offers traditional seating and a large grassy area perfect for sharing a blanket while listening. This large, open-air theater hosts our region’s top professional, community, and school performers, from rock and roll and country western to jazz and classical music.

Visit the Edmonds Plaza Stage to enjoy smaller-scale performances in an intimate, park-like setting. Music begins at the top of each hour. There will be covered and open-air seating, with plenty of chairs, so visitors can sit back, relax and enjoy.

See the schedules for both stages and links to artist pages here.

Food and beverages

The festival features a variety of food and drink vendors located throughout the grounds, so you can get a bite of something good whenever you are in the mood. Visit the Beer & Wine Grotto (adults only) for a place to sit and relax. See the complete list of vendors (I spy Dole Whip)!

Kids Create

There will be a variety of free hands-on supervised art and crafts projects for kids of all ages — toddlers to teens. Kids will be encouraged to explore their creative ideas and use their favorite art materials: painting and drawing from life, cutting and gluing all kinds of craft materials, painting rocks, and letting their imaginations run wild.

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June is the “Art-iest month! Celebrate with the Third Thursday Art Walk

5-8 p.m. Thursday, June 20

Summer is finally here, and you’ll find art everywhere you turn this month, starting with the beloved Edmonds Arts Festival this Father’s Day weekend (with the special section devoted to Edmonds-area artists, the Edmonds Arts Plaza).

Art Walk Edmonds will not disappoint; you will love the new art 24 businesses have up this month. Stroll around anytime during business hours to see it, and stop in to meet the artists.

Welcome newcomer Stillhouse Coffee to Art Walk this month. Stop in and admire the work of artist Laura Burkhart. Sugarology is back with some gorgeous art from Jodi Sun.

If tunes are your jam, check out the live music performance by multi-genre acoustic duo Tim Wetmiller and Elena DeLisle at Musicology Co. To top it off with after-art-walk-hours music at Il Viale Espresso & Wine.

Art lovers of all ages, from the youngest to the young at heart, are not just invited but encouraged to come out, meet the artists and get inspired. Check out the show descriptions and walking map online. You’ll want to see them all.

P.S. Art Walk Edmonds is sponsoring an interactive art project at the Edmonds Arts Festival kickoff party, Celebrate the Arts Party. Tickets are available here.

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Art Walk at the Edmonds Bookshop: author Rachel Linden on her new book

6 p.m. Thursday, June 20, The Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Avenue South, Edmonds

Author Rachel Linden will be the featured guest at the Edmonds Bookshop during Art Walk in June. Local Edmonds author Nova McBee will join her for a lively discussion of Linden’s latest novel Recipe for a Charmed Life.

Linden is a novelist and international aid worker who has traveled to over 50 countries around the world, and her experiences inform her stories. Recipe for a Charmed Life is a tale of expectations lost and found, family secrets, good food, romance and a bit of magic, set both in France and in the Pacific Northwest’s San Juan Islands.  The main character is a chef who dreams of owning her own restaurant in Paris, but loses her sense of taste.

You can find more about Linden, Recipe for a Charmed Life and her other novels on her website.

Nova McBee is the author of the award-winning young adult thriller series Calculated, the first of which will soon be a major motion picture. You can find out more about her books here.

All are welcome to an evening of good books, great stories, and laughter; more information is available on the Edmonds Bookshop website.

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Special Juneteenth Freedom Holiday Story Time

9:30 a.m. Friday, June 21, The Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Avenue South, Edmonds

Edmonds Bookshop will hold a special holiday story time in honor of Juneteenth. Enjoy reading with Tabatha Shoemake, Community Engagement Coordinator with the City of Edmonds Police Department and experienced storyteller. All children and their grownups are welcome to this special story time to learn our history and celebrate freedom together.

To find out about more Story Time, check the Events Calendar on their website.

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Now playing at the Phoenix Theatre: ‘Move Over Mrs. Markham’

Runs through June 23, Phoenix Theatre, 9673 Firdale Avenue, Edmonds

Move Over Mrs. Markham, written by Ray Cooney & John Chapman and directed by Eric Lewis, is set in a very elegant top-floor London flat belonging to Philip and Joanna Markham. The flat has been under renovation and thus has been largely empty.

Philip is a straight-laced publisher of children’s books, and he shares an office with his partner, Henry Lodge, on the ground floor.

Reluctantly, Philip agrees to let Henry borrow his apartment for the evening to “entertain” his latest girlfriend. At the same time, Joanna Markham is persuaded by Linda Lodge to let her borrow the apartment so she can entertain her lover.

Nobody knows that the interior designer who had been decorating the apartment for the past three months had decided that this was the night he and the au pair girl would try out the new round bed! When all three sets of people converge on the apartment, expecting to find it empty, chaos and confusion ensue.

General tickets are $25, seniors/students/military $20. Get yours here.

• Produced with permission of Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French Inc. The Phoenix Theater has also started sales for its 17th season (Oct. 2024-June 2025). Learn more about the shows and get a $110 general admission subscription here. For a Senior/Student Military subscription, click here.

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Edmonds Driftwood Players 13th Annual Festival of Shorts

June 27-30, Wade James Theatre, 950 Main Street, Edmonds

They may be short in length, but they’re huge in heart. The 2024 Festival of Shorts features eight finalists, including multiple directors and casts. The theme for 2024 is Silver Linings: a consoling or hopeful prospect. EDP received 495 script submissions for this year’s festival, and the finalists were selected from submissions from around the globe.

The volunteer readers and judges are local Seattle-area theater lovers and playwrights. To keep the process as fair as possible, readers were given blind copies of script submissions for judging.

EDP’s annual playwriting festival provides an opportunity for playwrights to have their works brought to life on stage, as well as gain recognition and potential awards.

Some past winners have later been developed into full-length award-winning plays. After the closing performance, EDP will announce the playwright winners for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Judges Awards and Overall Audience Favorite.

Tickets are $20 for general adults (19-59) and $18 for juniors/seniors/military. They are available online here or by phone at 425-774-9600.

— By Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth Murray is a freelance writer thankful to call Edmonds home. When she’s not busy wrangling her two kids (and husband), you can find her playing ukulele. She can be reached at elmm22@gmail.com.