Festival on Ponce to Debut This Weekend

Just when you think intown Atlanta can’t squeeze in another weekend festival, here comes another one — and in a picturesque location right here in our own front yard.

This weekend marks the debut of the Festival on Ponce, set in the chain of parks that famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted Sr.designed more than a century ago along Ponce de Leon Avenue in Druid Hills.

According to organizers, no full-fledged festival has taken place in this stretch of parklands for more than 70 years. And yet, with its gently meandering design and attentive balance of lovely meadows and thick forests, the Olmsted parks make for an ideal setting, said festival director Patrick Dennis said.

Lovely homes along Ponce de Leon can be admired as visitors stroll the festival that is to feature more than 100 artist booths plus food vendors and acoustic music. The festival will occupy the first two of the six adjoining parks, starting with Springdale Park just east of Moreland Avenue/Briarcliff Road, then continuing into the next park, Virgilee.

“We are looking forward to more people discovering the wonderful jewel of the Olmsted parks in Atlanta,” said George Ickes, administrator of the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance.

In recent years, that group raised $10 million through a grassroots campaign for extensive repairs and restoration to the string of six parks (45 acres in all) that Olmsted designed well over a century ago.  The goal has been to restore the parks — stretching for about 2.5 miles – to their original splendor.

Paths have been recreated and bridges built just where they were on Olmsted’s designs. Hundreds of shrubs and trees have been planted. Modern power lines are no longer in sight. Vintage street lamps have been installed that resemble ones from the turn of the previous century.

The Festival on Ponce was launched by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, a nonprofit organization created several years ago by Patrick Dennis and Randall Fox.

AFFPS coordinates artists’ markets and festivals throughout the metro area. A top goal: to give local artists more exposure and more opportunities to showcase and sell their goods.

The Ponce fest will primarily feature local artists — from painters to potters and soap-makers.

Participating artists includes East Point’s Marc James Villanueva, a mixed media painter, and Marietta potter Knox Steinbrecher, who considers her wares “art for the daily life.”

Both said they are grateful to AFFPS for creating more opportunities on the homefront for local artists.

“These guys (Dennis and Patrick) are providing myself and other local artists with the opportunity to showcase our work much more often in our own hometown,”  Villanueva said. “They are helping me survive and they are bringing a lot of artists together. I think we are really revitalizing the art scene here in Atlanta.”

For the Festival on Ponce, organizers have had “Please Respect the Landscape” signs printed up that will be donated to the park alliance.

“We were bowled over by how successful the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance has been not only in preserving the parks with such talent and determination, but also enhancing them,” said Fox, vice president of AFFPS.

Earlier this week, dozens of customers buying lunch at the Tex’s Tacos food truck that stopped at various intown locations, asked about the “Festival of Ponce,” which was advertised on a sandwich board that Tex’s placed alongside its vehicle — to promote its presence there.

Inquiring minds wanted to know: What is this Ponce fest? Where exactly is it? Why haven’t I heard of it before?

So, now you know.

“We look forward to a colorful and unique experience for artists and the community,”  Fox said.

If you go: Festival on Ponce, Olmsted Linear Park, 1451 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta, 30307. 10am-7pm Saturday and 11am-6pm Sunday (July 23 & 24). Free. www.festivalonponce.com,  www.atlantaolmstedpark.org