HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Huntsville's annual Panoply Arts Festival will look a bit different this year.
Due to the pandemic, the three-day event will be a scaled back version called "A Taste of Panoply." Panoply 2020 was held as a virtual festival.
Friday night is a special ticketed event. Saturday and Sunday are free, but Arts Huntsville is requesting donations.
Art activities will be offered as "take away" kits, including STEAM-based activities like "hovercrafts", creative catapults, and binary bead art. Local artists will offer behind-the-scenes demos of their work, and the "Chalk Art" area gives festival goers a chance to be part of a public art project.
The 2021 event will be held from April 23-25 at Big Spring Park in Huntsville. The event will follow sanitization and social distancing guidelines and is currently planned with a mask requirement in place.
There will be music, art, and food trucks, but this year, there will not be a craft beer tent. Instead, guests will be allowed to bring in a purple cup from any Huntsville Entertainment District establishment.
The first night of the event, Friday April 23, will serve as a preview event with a limited number of guests allowed in.
Friday evening will require an advanced ticket purchase in order to guarantee entrance. Tickets will be $20 and can be purchased at artshuntsville.org. Tickets will be available until April 23 at 9 a.m. or when capacity is reached.
Click here to get your ticket.
To avoid crowds at ticket booths, Saturday and Sunday night will be free for the public to attend, but Arts Huntsville says donations are critical to this year’s event.
"Panoply ticket booths are traditionally the first point of contact for festivalgoers, but this year we are asking for adults visiting the festival to make a $10 donation as they enter," said Allison Dillon-Jauken, Arts Huntsville Executive Director.
Watch the full "A Taste of Panoply" announcement here.
Check out the full line up here:
Featured Music
This year, Arts Huntsville welcomes 15 musical performances to the Panoply Showcase Stage, sponsored by Buffalo Rock.
The ticketed “A Taste of Panoply” Friday Festival Preview event kicks off with the Lamont Landers Band. Closing out the evening is Nashville-based headlining act The War And Treaty. The dynamic husband-and-wife duo were named emerging artists of the year by the Americana Music Association and were featured on the Today Show and at the 2021 Rose Bowl Parade Spectacular. The War And Treaty has previously performed with Mumford & Sons, toured with Jason Isbell and will be opening for John Legend on multiple tour dates this summer.
Saturday on the Showcase Stage features local and regional talent throughout the day including the following acts: Tyler A.K., Them Damn Dogs, WANDA, Joe Cagle, DMRSoul and Lana White. Saturday night, the Unique Live Band will open for the headlining act The Vegabonds, who will close out the evening with a night of Southern rock music. The Alabama-born, Tennessee-bred group of five musicians released their fifth studio album “V” in 2019 and have previously opened for acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the late Gregg Allman.
On Sunday, “A Taste of Panoply” celebrates a day of Alabama Music, featuring a full-day lineup of artists from North Alabama with the following acts: Cotton and Clover, Alan Little and the Giants, Ally Cat and the Stray Dogs, Midlife Chrysler and The Beasley Brothers to the Showcase Stage.
Art Marketplace: The Panoply Art Marketplace provides outdoor shopping in a beautiful setting in and around Big Spring Park. This year the juried Art Marketplace will welcome over 100 professional visual artists, many of whom have not had the opportunity to sell their work at festivals for over a year. One of the most popular features of the festival, the Art Marketplace features a variety of mediums including, but not limited, to jewelry, sculpture, clay, glass, metal, fiber, two-dimensional and mixed media paintings.
Friday Night Festival Preview: The Friday Night Festival Preview will provide festivalgoers with the first opportunity to shop Panoply’s Art Marketplace while also enjoying the musical talents of the Lamont Landers Band followed by the evening’s headliners The War And Treaty. Attendees should note that Panoply’s STEAM Street and Creativity Corner activities will not be open to the public on Friday night.
Military Salute Night: The Panoply tradition of the Military Salute Night, sponsored by Dynetics, continues on Friday, April 23rd. All active-duty military and Armed Forces reserves, along with their dependents, are welcomed to the park for a free evening of entertainment. As the Friday Night Preview event is the only ticketed experience at this year’s festival, military personnel will be asked to show their current military ID at the entrance on Friday night.
STEAM Street: This year festivalgoers can experience STEAM Street – sponsored by Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Alabama – on Saturday and Sunday at Panoply. STEAM Street will feature an art of science microscope exhibit, sponsored by Davidson Technologies, and takeaway STEAM activities including hovercrafts, creative catapults and binary beads supported by sponsors the National Space Club and RUAG Space USA. New this year, a STEAM in Action demonstration will be led by the Bakingtist.
Creativity Corner: On Saturday and Sunday, Creativity Corner will offer an in-park art scavenger hunt and takeaway art activities for kids and families to create at home or with their family while social-distancing at the festival.
Arts in Action Demonstrations: Regional artists will offer live demonstrations at the Arts in Action tents on Saturday and Sunday, offering festivalgoers a first-hand look at art processes from Green Pea Press, Cigar Box Guitars and Angel Jordan in the genres of printing, playing and scarf dyeing.
Panoply Letters: The arrival of the giant letters announcing Panoply signal the start of the festival. This year’s Panoply letters will be finished artworks created by UAH art students designed to provide fun festival photo opportunities in the park throughout the weekend.
Sidewalk Chalk Areas & Lookie-Lou Photo Opportunities: The sidewalk chalk areas and lookie-lous provide a fun activity for festivalgoers to enjoy within Big Spring Park. These are always a must-see-and-do activity for making temporary public art and capturing festival memories.
Strolling Characters: Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to see characters and dancers from their favorite area arts organizations strolling through the park for socially distanced photo opportunities.
Panoply Poster Artist: Each year, Arts Huntsville commissions an artist to create a piece of art that captures the spirit of the festival and the community. This year’s Panoply poster art was featured last year at the virtual iPanoply and was carried over to this year to give full recognition of the vibrant art created by Panoply Poster Artist John “Jahni” Moore.
Panoply Festival Food: Festivalgoers can enjoy creative culinary creations alongside the diverse array of art and music as the festival will also showcase 13 regional food trucks and vendors.
Festival Seating: Enjoy music and performances at the outdoor Showcase Stage with open-air seating. Festival patrons are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets to sit on, while social distancing, as they enjoy the lineup of “A Taste of Panoply” performers.
Fireworks: Panoply’s Friday night closes with a celebratory fireworks display sponsored by Delta Research.
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