By Katherine Hatcher | Staff Writer
Twenty years of creative opportunities and experiences will be celebrated at the annual Waco Cultural Arts Fest this weekend.
The festival, hosted by Cultural Arts of Waco, runs from Friday to Sunday and includes a WordFest, ScienceFest, ArtsFest and a film showcase. Many of the events will take place around and inside the Waco Convention Center at various times clarified on the festival’s website.
Part of the festival, Wordfest, opens on Friday evening at 6 p.m. in the convention center. Additionally, a local film that was made entirely in Waco, “Believers,” will be shown in the convention center at 7 p.m. Friday will also include performances on their convention center main stage featuring local band, Suede.
Another band, Alex Reyes and the Rays of Light, will perform Friday. Lead singer Billy Gooden, who has sung in the festival with his band for four years now, loves sharing his music with attendees.
“It’s bringing the community together more because it gives a place to go and just hang out,” Gooden said.
Gooden said that they do gospel, jazz, blues, covers, original songs and more.
“We always have fun with what we do, and we always do a surprise,” he said.
In addition to the bands, Squonk – Brouhaha will be performing Friday night at a location near the convention center that can be directly mapped to. This group is performing as a highlight for the 20-year anniversary of the festival. This art form creates boisterous outdoor spectacles by combining fantastical visual design, playful staging and high-energy original music. The show also features strong audience participation and includes music styles, of brass, keyboards, winds and guitar riffs.
On Saturday, the main stage performances will continue all day, including Grupo Fantasma, along with dances, orchestra performances and more. A science fest will also be accessible on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. in the convention center, showing off some school’s organizations’ stem abilities and tools.
On Sunday, there will be more dance performances, including the Gordan Collier Band from 2:30-4 p.m.
Wordfest, Artsfest and main stage performances will last throughout the entire weekend. Cultural Arts of Waco President Doreen Ravenscroft said that the ArtsFest, which will be held at Indian Spring Park right outside the convention center, is inclusive. Art activities will be free all weekend, including easel art, face painting, wood and paper sculpture making and more.
“Those are the hands on arts activities. Anyone can do it, from grandparents, great grandparents, down to the moms that come and want their little ones’s feet painted because they’re too tiny to stand up,” Ravenscroft said.
Since they are creating activities for very young children, Ravenscroft said that this area will be more child-friendly so kids can focus on making prints and paintings. Additionally, Ravenscroft said that the creative outlets at the festival are so special for kids who do not receive those opportunities at home.
“You see families where the kids are totally engaged, and you you have families where the children are searching for how to do [creative art], and you have an opportunity to teach,” Ravenscroft said.
Ravenscroft is pumped for the Wordfest, where there are workshops, readings and public open mics. She said that the event has truly grown outside its standard borders of influence.
“That has grown into basically an international event, because now the poetry submissions come from all over the world,” Ravencroft said. “And we print an anthology of poetry every year now, and that’s available on Amazon.”
The festival has continued to grow from its beginning in 2004. When the organization was first founded, Ravenscroft said that it was just going to be called Waco Arts Festival, but one of the founders suggested that the word “cultural” ought to be in the name.
“So the word for us is that it means everyone. We have over the years, we’ve had Japanese drumming, we’ve had Indian dancing,” Ravenscroft said. “This year, we’re having Indonesian dancing.”
Ravenscroft said she wants people of all ages, religions and circumstances to attend.
“We welcome everyone with disabilities to come,” Ravenscroft said. “We can move chairs so that they can get to the tables and help them work on something.”
Ravenscroft wanted everyone to feel welcome, and she shared other specifics about the event: there will be art being sold, incorporating toys, jewelry, paintings, prints, photography and more.
There will be food trucks serving food throughout the three days. Parking is available at the convention center and around it.
Ravenscroft also said that people should know the festival has more room for volunteers. Volunteers can sign up online if they are looking for cool, creative ways to serve.
