Attendance Up At Hyattsville Arts Fest

Attendance at this past weekend's Downtown Hyattsville Arts Festival was up over the previous year, according to organizers. 

In a message to members of the HOPE email list, the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation said that more than 3,500 people packed into downtown Jefferson Street for the day long celebration of the regional art community. That's 1,000 more people than attended the event last year. 

This was the first year in which the Hyattsville CDC was in charge of the entire event. This was the fifth year of the Downtown Hyattsville Arts Festival. 

Justin Fair, economic development coordinator for the Hyattsville CDC, said that this year's event built on the success of last year's art festival. 

"We had more sponsors than in the past, and out sponsors were integral to building resources in our community," said Fair in an interview. "We had a lot more interaction with business owners and had more interest from the local schools. It was really a combined community effort that made the event successful."

The Hyattsville CDC has set up a Flickr album where you can share your photos from this past weekend's arts festival.

This year's festival was sponsored by Arts District Hyattsville, Pulte, StreetSense, the City of Hyattsville, M-NCPPC, Palette at Arts District, East City Art, ATHA Inc. and Maryland Milestones, and ShelfGenie of Maryland.

Fair said that the sponsors "really enabled and helped cultivate an environment that attracted over 3,500 visitors from throughout Prince George’s County and from as far as Baltimore, Annapolis, and Virginia."