Lower East Side's Festival Of The Arts Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary Memorial Day Weekend

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY – A Lower East Side arts festival that celebrates the neighborhood’s entertainers is holding its 20th anniversary Memorial Day weekend.

The Festival of the Arts, helmed by the East Village’s off-off-Broadway venue Theater for the New City (TNC), will run May 26 to 28 and is free to attend. The theme this year is “Art v. Tyranny,” which seeks to spotlight “the need for the arts for a healthy life and economy.”

“We face tyranny. We face a strongman. We face apple-pie fascism,” said executive director Crystal Field. “Art is going to resist. It always has and will continue to do so.”

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The theater describes the festival as “a multicultural cavalcade — a free-for-all of theater, music, dance, comedy, film and art.”

This year’s LES Festival of the Arts will feature David Amram. Amram composed the score for the 1962 film “The Manchurian Candidate” as well as for “Splendor in the Grass” in 1961. More than 270 other acts will grace the various indoor and outdoor stages throughout the festival weekend, including performance artist Penny Arcade and comedienne Reno, the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, stilted performers from Bond Street Theatre, the Rod Rogers Dance Company, work from playwright Gretchen Cryer and 28 poets reciting original writing.

A crew of vendors will be available between East 10th Street and First Avenue selling offerings including Italian sausages, Harlem’s Curry-ya, arts and crafts and French crepes, handmade jewelry and Chinese massage therapy. What’s more, 37 Lower East Side-area artists will be on site, their purchasable pieces decorating the walls of the TNC lobby.

Theater for the New City has also invited local councilwoman Rosie Mendez and City Council District 2 candidate Carlina Rivera, the latter of whom will be a keynote speaker, as well as Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

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According to a recent press release shared on Theater for the New City’s website, Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick has cited the festival as “a celebration of our community’s entertainers and artists” that provides “an opportunity for community members to experience and engage in arts of all kinds.”

A full schedule is available on the TNC website. (For more Lower East Side news, click here to sign up for Patch's daily newsletter and free, real-time news alerts.)

Want to know about the LES Festival of the Arts? Check out this year’s promo.

Photo credit: Theater for the New City via Facebook