Arts In The Park Will Engage The Community

Get ready to pack up your lawn chairs and blankets because the Chesapeake Arts Center’s third annual Arts in the Park festival has something for everyone. Scheduled from 11:00am to 3:00pm on Saturday, August 26, the outdoor event will feature a variety of performers and bands that will grace the front steps of Hammonds Lane Theatre to provide ongoing entertainment to the crowd. There will also be opportunities to browse through crafts, art vendors and photography. The youngest attendees will find themselves at home with a moon bounce and face painting.

One of the bands scheduled to perform is RÊVE, an art rock band with a sound most easily described as “Radiohead meets Muse.” The group members, who are passionate about music education in communities, have been looking to get involved with the Chesapeake Arts Center in some capacity for the last year and thought this festival would be a great opportunity to do so.

“We’re really looking forward to playing more for the community,” said band member Athena Hiotis. “We play shows all over and it’s great, but you really sort of play to one group of people … There’s really nothing like playing a festival like this, because you get a whole bunch of everyone. You get families, you get individuals, you get music lovers, you get people that didn’t think they were going to discover anyone that they liked and then end up liking you, so it’s just a really good opportunity to meet people from the actual community that are into anything and everything.”

RÊVE has performed throughout the mid-Atlantic region and in Canada. They also self-produced a short music film with a local director, Edgar Nazario, which included actor Steve Agee of “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” and “New Girl.”

Also on the band lineup for the festival is Annapolis-based Leo & Cygnus. The band consists of five members who met in music class at Anne Arundel Community College. What originally began as a project between rhythm guitar player and vocalist Daniel Alvarez and lead guitar player and vocalist Alex Barnett evolved into a five-piece band. One of those members is bass player Chris Au.

“All five of us encompass different styles of music and we just kind of combined into what is now known as Leo & Cygnus,” Au said. “We like to call our music genre indie fusion, but overall, if you like indie rock styles with really lush musical textures, [you will like our music].”

New to this year’s festival are activities surrounding the upcoming opening of the new makerspace. The makerspace opens on September 30 and is the outcome of bond bills and grants that enabled Chesapeake Arts Center to renovate an old unutilized woodshop. It will include tools such 3-D printers, a screen printing machine, woodworking, a metal shop and a laser cutter. One of these activities, a paper airplane throwing contest, will focus on creating from an engineering standpoint. The Chesapeake Arts Center hopes this space will be beneficial for both STEM activities and for artists interested in sculpture and design.

Guests can find the free festival at 194 Hammonds Lane in Brooklyn Park. For more information, visit www.chesapeakearts.org.

“Really, with Arts in the Park, we want to put all the things that we have out there but also showcase all of the vendors and performers within the community and let everybody have a great day and see what we’re about,” said Julia Franklin, Chesapeake Arts Center administrative assistant and rental coordinator. “ … We are here for the community as part of our goal and mission to create a place for people to create.”