PVDFest Updates

I remember going to PVDFest way back in the day when it was still called the Providence International Arts Festival, in 2015. The festival was a marvel of positive energy, and its entertainment vibe was almost ADD, with theater skits and choreographed dance breaking out in the middle of the street, sanctioned skateboarding and blading stunt areas, food trucks and carts, a giant harp strung from the top of the Superman building, spectacular large-scale new public art executed by The Avenue Concept, and concerts that took place in parking lots throughout Downcity. Both the big lots you know and the slightly shady ones you might normally hesitate to walk through were transformed into giddy dancefloors for music of all genres.

This year promises the same sense of wonder and urban transformation. Expect a massive pedestrian zone again, speckled with seemingly random outbreaks of art and music. (see story at motifri.com/pvdfest-to-transform-city-into-magical-wonderland). There will be a WaterFire, of course, with everything that entails. Expect giant Dutch flying dragons and partners from the Dean Hotel and Big Nazo to The Avenue Concept and the Southside Cultural Center, from the Providence Preservation Society to AS220, and from the Downtown Parks Conservancy to Providence Implantations.

“The whole city is a stage,” says Kathleen Pletcher, executive director of event organizer FirstWorks, who mentioned that this year’s fest will also expand to Grant’s block, part of Westminster St. WBRU’s Concert Series will kick the whole thing off on Friday, June 3. There’s family programming during the day, and at night the main stage will host numerous performers, including locals like Chachi Cavallo and VulGarrity and some from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Mali, and the Extraordinary Rendition Band (ERB)’s planet of origin. There will be collaborations with Trinity Repertory Theater, and food trucks from across the state, coordinated by FoodTrucksIn. Eleven public art projects will manifest around Downcity.

So bring an empty stomach, your dancing shoes and as many friends as you can muster! PVD Fest is June 2 – 6 throughout Kennedy Plaza and the Downcity area. PVDfest.com