Community Corner
Arts, Beats & Eats Announces New Features for 2013
Kick-off press conference in Royal Oak highlights addition of 10K run, user-friendly app, charity challenge and a new location for Arts du Jour.
What's new at Arts, Beats & Eats festival in 2013? Lots.
Dozens of people gathered at the Veterans Memorial between City Hall and the library Tuesday morning to hear Arts, Beats & Eats festival producer John Witz and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson discuss new additions to the Labor Day weekend festival. The event, now in its 16th year, moved to Royal Oak in 2010 after a dozen years in Pontiac.
"John Witz has taken Arts, Beats & Eats from it's very humble beginning to where it's a nationally recognized and nationally ranked festival,” Patterson told the crowd gathered at the kick-off press conference.
Additions to this year's festival include:
- a community challenge sponsored by FirstMerit will allow volunteers to raise pledges for their individual charities via Royal Oak-based web community CrowdRise.com. FirstMerit hopes the incentive will raise the festival's donations to charities to $500,000 in 2013.
- a new mobile app will allow festival goers to have access to information on music schedules, artist booth locations and food menus in the palm of their hands. Users can also use the app to enter contests and participate in games and scavenger hunts.
- in light of the events at this year's Boston Marathon, security company SECURATECH will provide around-the-clock digital video surveillance.
- the addition of a 10K race has been added to the popular Arts in Motion run, which benefits the Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institution, the Michigan Youth Arts Councils and others.
Arts du Jour moves to new location
Mayor Jim Ellison announced Arts du Jour — the official charity preview — will have a new location this year. After three years at the Royal Oak Farmers Market, the event moves to the Barbra Hallman Plaza next to City Hall.City Manager Don Johnson said the area between the library and City Hall will be transformed, from Troy Street to the parking lot, into a collection of the entertainment and food choices that will be available at Arts, Beats & Eats on Labor Day weekend.
"We'll probably set up a couple of big tents in the parking lot," Johnson said. "We don't do that many events in this area so it will kind of give us an idea of what a downtown park might be like."
Witz said he likes the new location with its trees, butterfly garden and fountain.
"We wanted something fresh to showcase this year's festival," he said.
Local impact
Arts, Beats & Eats runs Aug. 31- Sept. 2 and expects more than 400,000 attendees.
Patterson estimates the festival makes a local impact of $10 million.
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"(Royal Oak) is really an incredible host community," Patterson said. "When we made the move here a few years ago, it was one of the best moves we ever made. It's a great community to celebrate in."
By a 5-1 vote, the Royal Oak City Commission approved a new agreement with Arts, Beats & Eats, Inc. during its June 3 meeting that extended the terms with the festival by two years to Dec. 31, 2017.
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"We hope Arts, Beats & Eats is in Royal Oak well beyond 2017," Witz said.
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