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Art Off Pike: Urban arts festival coming for 12th straight year, celebrating arts of all sorts, Sept. 25


Last year's festival (Photo provided)

Last year’s festival (Photo provided)

Covington’s annual urban arts festival celebrating art in all its forms, Art Off Pike, returns for its 12th year Sunday, September 25.

Running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the urban arts festival takes place in downtown Covington on 7th Street between Washington and Madison and draws thousands to the city’s urban core. The event will feature a wide variety of artwork available for purchase by more than 50 artists, as well as performances from local bands, spoken word artists, and performance artists, and unique interactive art installations spread throughout the event.

This year, The Forealism Tribe will return to lead costumed parades through the festival (noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m.) and costume making workshops (11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m.). Caravan Traveling Sound will bring their mobile sound studio and pop-up instrument showroom for guests to explore music and even record their own songs. For attendees looking to take a break from the action, Plop! will bring their giant bean bags, to create an urban living room with views of all the excitement.

In the arcade connecting 7th and Pike streets, Art Off Pike continues, with the unveiling of a new mural, designed by Durham Brand & Co. and funded by Cov10, featuring Covington native Una Merkel. Larry Sean Kinder, author of Una Merkel: The Actress with the Sassy Wit and Southern Charm, will be on-site to sign copies of his recent biography of the Tony Award Winner and Academy Award nominee.

The event will extend into the taproom at Braxton Brewery where unique poster works from Covington design companies including Handsy, BLDG, Druham Brand & Co. and Pull club will be available for purchase. Coinciding with the poster sale, representatives from Donna Salyers Fabulous Bridal will be onsite designing a wedding dress from recycled bags.

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Outside next to Braxton, the Madlot will house music, food, entertainment, and seating. The stage, sponsored by Braxton, will feature a variety of programming including dance, spoken word, and music. Smoking Zeus will open the event and take to the stage from 11 a.m.-12 p.m., and Baoku, a 10-piece band led by Baoku Moses, will close the evening playing from 4-5 p.m. Local food trucks will also be in the Madlot and several nearby restaurants will be open for attendees to get food before during, and after the event.

After Art Off Pike, attendees are encouraged to head to Orchard Park for ReSoup, a community event hosted by the NKY Incubator Kitchen, LiveWell NKY, The Center for Great Neighborhoods, and COV10, from 6-8 p.m. The event will include soup made by chefs from the NKY Incubator Kitchen comprised of “gleaned” foods gathered from local farmers.

Art Off Pike is free and open to the public. There will be ample parking in the city parking garage on 7th Street or street parking is available at a first come, first serve basis.

For a full list of vendors, schedules, and more information about Art Off Pike, visit artoffpike.org.

2016 Art Off Pike Sponsors:

Premier:
Hotel Covington
KW Mechanical
Salyers Group

Stage:
Braxton Brewing Co.

Festival:
Forcht Bank
Hub+Weber
River City News
Durham Brands
Scooter Media

Community Partner:
MKSK
Laura Menge
Covington Business Council
ASWD

About Art Off Pike: Art Off Pike is Covington’s annual urban arts festival with incredible arts, culture, food and drink. For the last 11 years it has been the event for emerging artists to establish success with their careers as well as engage with arts and cultural enthusiasts all over the region.

ABOUT RENAISSANCE COVINGTON: Renaissance Covington strives to stimulate the vitality of downtown Covington by fostering proactive community efforts and partnerships concentrating on organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring to socially and economically revitalize downtown Covington for everyone.

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