The South Columbia Creative District known as SOCO is gearing up to host it’s annual Creative Arts Festival. This event helps connect local artists with the community.
The SOCO creative arts festival is a once a year celebration of artists and crafters in Tri-cities.
This year’s Festival is Saturday, September 21st from 10 a.m until 4 p.m.
Apple Valley News Now spoke with Warren Hughs who is a local artist and a member of SOCO and he said this festival is a representation of what SOCO is.
“The goal of SOCO is to create a centralized organization where artists can come and get connected with local businesses, with opportunities to pursue public art and just meet up with each other,” Hughs said, “there’s a large community in Tri-cities, and it’s kind of spread out. And SOCO as a creative district our goal is to help educate and connect artists with real economic work to make art a viable career in the Tri-cities.”
This festival also serves as a way to make connections between local artists and the community, Hughs said.
“It is an awesome opportunity to connect to the community. You will meet people that you never expected to meet. You will get to talk about your work. It is really a fulfilling time to and you know, the money, it’s selling stuff’s kind of cool. But being able to talk to the community and engage them in art on a really, personal level, is just unbelievable,” Hughs said.
This is what people can expect to see at this year’s festival, Hughs said.
“We have 20 woodworkers, we have nearly 20 artists that will be vending. I’m going to have some of my stuff out there. There’s going to be a big quilt show in the Keybank parking lot and I think there’s six bands, six musical acts that will be playing throughout the day,” Hughs said.
Hughs also tells Apple Valley News Now that coming to this event is more than just a festival, it’s about supporting local artists.
“If you have something better to do on your Saturday, then that’s great. But in Tri-cities, supporting your local artists and supporting your downtowns in the historic districts is a pretty important thing to do. If you want there to be these events going forward, then it’s time to come out and support them,” Hughs said.
Hughs has been involved with the festival for the past two years to make it easier for the next generation of artists to get engaged in the community and start pursuing a career in art.
Kennewick Avenue from Dayton Street to Washington Street will be closed to cars the whole festival and then 30 minutes after to allow for tear down of the festival.
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