Avon Lake Readies for ArtsFest 2011, Fireworks Over Lake Erie

Avon Lake is getting ready for thousands to descend on Miller Road Park July 3, to celebrate the city’s annual TrueNorth Artsfest festival from 2 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.

The free summer festival that combines the arts, nature, music, and the feel of a yester-year community fun-fair by day, and a “Boston-Pops” type performance and an “over Lake Erie” fireworks spectacular at dusk.

Add to that the scenic backdrop of Lake Eire on the Fourth of July weekend and you have Artsfest.

“(It’s) our opportunity to showcase our community pride and lakefront,” Mayor K.C. Zuber said. 

The event is an opportunity for more than 60 vendors to showcase their wares but attendees will also be treated to a host of activities including:

• Military honor guard presentation
• Artist booths
• Main stage performances
• Children’s “Arts in Action” take-home projects
• Varieties of live music every hour
• Roaming park musicians
• Non-profit representation
• Businesses
• Festival food
• Kid’s DJ
• Bounce castle and slide

Click here for a full schedule of events.

Former councilwoman Holly Moore-Kowalski, a TrueNorth Chorale member the festival’s "Arts in Action"  volunteer appreciated the grass-roots feel of the festival.

“It’s not run by a big entity,” she said. “It is a true, home-grown community event.”

Author Terra Sprosty-Koerpel, a new Avon Lake resident, said the festival was family appropriate.

"I hear the words ‘home-grown’ and ‘community’ and I know in my heart that regardless of a person’s age, at the core of Artsfest is family fun,’ Sprosty-Koerpel said. “Plus fireworks over the lake at night...it's a memory in-waiting." 

Evening concert will feature fireworks, Rodgers & Hammerstein

Beginning at 7:30 pm, under the direction of Rick Fortney, Manager and Artistic Director for Lorain County Metroparks TrueNorth Cultural Arts center, the TrueNorth Chorale & Symphony will present an in concert Broadway version of A Grand Night for Singing, from the timeless music of Rodgers & Hammerstein.

The evening concludes with a fireworks display over the lake and patriotic music from the TrueNorth Chorale & Symphony which will features singers patriotic songs synchronized with the pyrotechnic’s “rockets red glare” and the sounds of the “bombs bursting in air.”

 The concert and festival have grown from its inception several years ago, when it debuted in the parking lot of Artstown Plaza.

“In conjunction with the city’s fireworks, Artsfest has grown from a patriotic concert in a parking lot, to a patriotic concert on the shores of Lake Erie,” Fortney said.

The annual event is a partnership undertaking between the City’s “Friends of the Park” and Lorain’s MetroParksTrueNorth Cultural Arts.

Local business sponsors include , WOWway Internet, Cable & Phone, Busch Funeral and Crematory Services, OhioComp, Community Foundation of Lorain County, , Markers Inc., Minute Men Staffing Services, Thogus, Hinkley Lighting, and friends of K.C. Zuber for Mayor.