FORT WORTH, TEXAS.- …Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., announced the dates for the annual MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, the Southwest’s largest free four-day visual arts and entertainment festival. This year, the festival will run from Thursday, April 18 through Sunday April 21, 2002 and will span nine blocks of historic downtown Fort Worth.  MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival features visual art, cultural entertainment and gourmet fare day and night with 200 artists and over 100 performers during the four-day festival.   The eclectic variety of fine art includes ceramics, painting, photography, woodcarvings, glassworks, jewelry and multi-media compositions.  Lynn Whipple, an artist from Winter Park, Florida, won last year’s Best of Show and her work will be featured on all festival marketing and merchandise. 



In addition to the magnificent artworks, the festival boasts an array of over 100 local, regional and national performers on three large stages, strolling entertainers, a Family Fun Area featuring children’s entertainment, arts-and-crafts and interactive projects for the entire family, and over 25 delectable delights and libations along MAIN ST.’s Gourmet Fare.  Individuals coming to the festival from Dallas and mid-cities areas can now park and ride the new Trinity Railway Express to and from the festival. The TRE will be available throughout the four day festival.



The MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival is a juried art festival, where all artists compete to win the honor of displaying and selling their works and competing for prize money at the annual festival event.  Nearly 1000 entries are received each year, and a panel of expert judges review each artists’ work.  Once the finalists are selected, letters are sent notifying each entrant if they have been selected to exhibit during the 4-day festival.  The finalists display their work at the gala outdoor festival, and a group of distinguished judges selects winners from 15 categories during the event.  The on-site jury selects ’Best of Show’ and any number of merit awards winners. They also select up to 25 artists to return as exhibitors at the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival the following year.



The festival is the winner of 16 Pinnacle Awards from the International Festivals & Events Association, winner of 20 Awards from the Texas Festivals & Events Association, including the Zenith Award, for the best overall festival in the state of Texas.  The festival is ranked among the Top 100 Festivals in the Nation by Artfair SourceBook, rated as the Top Show in Texas by The Harris List, and is recipient of the Merit Award for Festivals and Special Events from the International Downtown Association.