Hundreds of amusement-seekers came to the Village Green shopping center in Lincolnshire this past weekend for the first Arts & Eats Festival.
Village officials and art show promoter Amdur Productions melded the “Taste of Lincolnshire” with the “Lincolnshire Arts Festival” into a single program for the first time this year. Lincolnshire economic development director Tonya Zozulya said they had hoped to “re-energize the two events” with the move.
Amdur owner, Amy Amdur, said she believed the new combination went well.
“Friday night, of course, was a little off because of the rain, but Saturday night was really spectacular,” Amdur said. “We really had nice crowds. We were really, really happy with it.”
The new production kept the artists in their usual spot near the fountain square in Village Green, while the food tents moved to a larger parking lot on the opposite side of the Half Day Brewing Company building.
About a dozen food providers filled the lot starting on Friday, including the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort, Dairy Queen, Eddie Merlot’s, Kona Grill and Half Day Brewing. Sculptors, photographers, woodworkers, jewelers and others populated the art portion of the event, which happened Saturday and Sunday.
The break between rainstorms Friday made for comfortable temperatures, which brought Matt and Sarah Cameron, of Deerfield, out with their 7-month-old daughter, Maeve.
After eating across the street at Philly G’s Restaurant, the couple saw the signs and heard cover band Shout Out playing and decided to see what was going on, they said.
Amdur said that before the event began, she expected few art fest attendees — now in its 19th year — to be bothered by the new format since the food portion appealed to a different crowd wanting live music.
“We found that the people coming to the arts event were hungry,” Amdur said. “Sometimes you just have to be patient for an idea’s time to come up.”
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