It's become an annual tradition for me to check out the Allentown Art Festival with my sister Sally's family, and this year was no exception. I should mention that in this case Allentown refers to a bohemian neighborhood in Buffalo and not the old iron producing town in Eastern Pennsylvania. The festival has been going on for over fifty years, and it's quite a magnet to bring suburbanites (like us, to be honest) into the heart of the city. As usual, I brought my camera.
The main appeal of the event for me is the people watching. There is a lot of great art on display, of course, but also a fair amount of jewelry, furniture, lawn decorations, and other craft-like items for which I have little interest. But it's fun to see the crowds, taste some of the multitude of snacks offered by the street vendors (this year, Tom, Ben and I actually took a shot at the deep-fried oreos; more on that in a later post).
I don't actually have alot of shots of the individual artists' booths because they can be a bit touchy about the appearance of someone trying to record and swipe their ideas (I kind of got bawled out by a guy who paints Santas on driftwood-- he told me he was afraid he'd see them popping up in Walmart if he didn't stay on guard). The guy above seemed pretty oblivious to that threat though.
In Buffalo, there are street festivals like this almost every weekend from June through August. Upcoming events include the Italian Festival and Canal Fest, which I'll probably check out as well. But Allentown is the real biggie, and in many ways signals the start of summer.
The weather was slightly threatening early on in the day, which kept the crowds down. But the above shot, taken as we were about to depart shows how the ranks of festival-goers swelled, cramming the six or eight block area of the festival. I already can't wait to go back next year!
It's become an annual tradition for me to check out the Allentown Art Festival with my sister Sally's family, and this year was no exception. I should mention that in this case Allentown refers to a bohemian neighborhood in Buffalo and not the old iron producing town in Eastern Pennsylvania. The festival has been going on for over fifty years, and it's quite a magnet to bring suburbanites (like us, to be honest) into the heart of the city. As usual, I brought my camera.
The main appeal of the event for me is the people watching. There is a lot of great art on display, of course, but also a fair amount of jewelry, furniture, lawn decorations, and other craft-like items for which I have little interest. But it's fun to see the crowds, taste some of the multitude of snacks offered by the street vendors (this year, Tom, Ben and I actually took a shot at the deep-fried oreos; more on that in a later post).
I don't actually have alot of shots of the individual artists' booths because they can be a bit touchy about the appearance of someone trying to record and swipe their ideas (I kind of got bawled out by a guy who paints Santas on driftwood-- he told me he was afraid he'd see them popping up in Walmart if he didn't stay on guard). The guy above seemed pretty oblivious to that threat though.
In Buffalo, there are street festivals like this almost every weekend from June through August. Upcoming events include the Italian Festival and Canal Fest, which I'll probably check out as well. But Allentown is the real biggie, and in many ways signals the start of summer. 
The weather was slightly threatening early on in the day, which kept the crowds down. But the above shot, taken as we were about to depart shows how the ranks of festival-goers swelled, cramming the six or eight block area of the festival. I already can't wait to go back next year!
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