The 59th Annual East Lansing Art Festival (ELAF) will bring more than 170 artists and thousands of visitors to downtown East Lansing this weekend, May 21-22, 2022. The festival will take place from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 22.
The event will take place on M.A.C. Avenue, from Grand River Avenue to Albert Avenue, and Albert Avenue, from the entrance/exit to the Albert Avenue Garage (the garage will remain accessible to eastbound Albert Avenue traffic) to Bailey Street. The festival site will also include Ann Street Plaza, Fountain Square and the Albert EL Fresco pedestrian space. View the Festival Site Plan (PDF).
The festival will feature art, live music and performances, an artist demonstration area, festival food and much more! Festival schedules and artist details are available at www.elartfest.com. The ELAF is a rain-or-shine event; however, festival guests are encouraged to sign up for Nixle alerts in the event of extreme weather. Community members can sign up for Nixle online at https://local.nixle.com/register/ or by texting their zip code to 888777 to receive East Lansing public safety alerts. For those who don’t live in East Lansing, the keyword EASTLANSING can be texted to 888777 to receive local Nixle alerts during the festival weekend. Additional emergency alert and preparedness information is available at https://cityofeastlansing.com/172/Sign-Up-for-Emergency-Alerts.
Getting to the Festival
Festival goers can get to the festival by car, bus, bicycle or foot. If traveling by car, almost all downtown parking locations will remain accessible during the festival weekend: https://www.cityofeastlansing.com/335/Parking-Locations. All downtown parking locations include accessible/barrier-free parking spaces and there will also be an accessible/barrier-free parking area on the east side of the Bailey Street Parking Lot, 139 Bailey St., and at the parking meters along M.A.C. Avenue, north of Albert Avenue.
Community members can also plan to take a Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus to the festival via the East Lansing Art Festival Bus Route: https://www.cityofeastlansing.com/DocumentCenter/View/12200/East-Lansing-Art-Festival-Bus-Route-2022-PDF. The route will operate from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 and 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 22, with buses running approximately every 10-15 minutes (see the map in the link above for the stops and route). Round-trip fare is 50 cents and children under 42 inches and under ride free with an adult. Exact change is required. All CATA buses have bike racks and wheelchair ramps or lifts for accessibility.
Bicycle racks are also available throughout downtown East Lansing and walking is a great option for those who live close to the festival site.
Festival Street & Lot Closures
Community members are advised that there will be several street and parking lot closures that will be in place from approximately 5 a.m. on Friday, May 20 through approximately 10 p.m. on Sunday, May 22 to accommodate the festival and its setup and tear down. Closures will include:
- the Bailey Street Parking Lot, 139 Bailey St.
- Albert Avenue, from the east edge of the Albert Avenue Garage’s entry/exit to the Bailey intersection
- M.A.C. Avenue, from the south edge of the East Lansing Marriott entrance to the Grand River Avenue intersection
- Grove Street, from the south edge of the entrance to 7-Eleven to the Albert Avenue intersection
Original source can be found here.
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