It was announced last year that the Deep Ellum Arts Festival, one of the longest-running events in Deep Ellum, had run its course and, after 28 years, would finally be calling time due to becoming “unsustainable”.
Founder and executive producer Stephen Millard announced at the start of September 2022 that she would be retiring and though the yearly nonprofit festival had enjoyed “a great run” producing a free-to-attend art and music festival in Deep Ellum had become “too costly and arduous to continue.”
Now the energy and atmosphere of the arts festival, along with its infamous Deep Friday, look to have been given a lifeline and will be resurrected at the end of the month due to the work of community leaders motivated by the festival’s popularity.
After Millard announced the festival would cease to continue the Deep Ellum Association met with community leaders to discuss possible resolutions or opportunities to somehow keep the Deep Ellum Art Festival alive.
The outcome was the birth of the new Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair which will make a splash on Memorial Day weekend with many of the old festival’s attractions and highlights including Deep Friday on May 26th.
The new Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair will be “a community-driven 3-day event taking place on Memorial Day Weekend (Saturday to Monday), in the “soul” of Dallas” according to the website. The festival, which is proudly “all grassroots” aims to “carry on the legacy of the Arts Festival that took place for nearly 30 years, while honoring the art and artists within our community.”
The new festival will follow in the footsteps of the Deep Ellum Arts Festival with the intention of showcasing genuine talent and businesses inside the Deep Ellum community while also offering free admission.
“This is a Deep Ellum, community-focused art fair,” said executive director Breonny Lee who worked at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival for nearly a decade. “We are prioritizing Deep Ellum artists first, Dallas artists second, North Texas artists third, and regional artists last. We are also making it affordable for artists to rent booths and will be accepting applications late.”
The new Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair will take take place on Crowdus Street May 27–29 while the Deep Friday kick-off event will start at 8:30 pm on May 26.
The festival will run from 11 am to 10 pm each day. More information can be found at www.deepellumfair.com.
[Featured image from Facebook / @deepellumfair]