From cityscapes to sound baths, Charlottesville Arts Festival is all about variety (2024)

This weekend’s Charlottesville Art Festival will pack Ix Art Park with opportunities to see, hear and create art. From the tables of 50 diverse artists to the performance lineup to the workshops, festival organizers say there will be something for everyone.

“The Charlottesville Art Festival celebrates diversity and inclusivity. We try to make it an immersive experience,” organizer Ewa Harr told The Daily Progress. The eclectic, family-friendly festival, returning to Ix Art Park for its fourth year, “gives people a chance to be part of the art.”

“Cityscapes of Cville,” an abstract solo show by Hungarian visual artist and graphic designer Zsu Szabo, can be seen in Ix Art Park’s immersive art space, the Looking Glass. Szabo has created a series of oil paintings, mixed-media and collage pieces and other elements that capture the personality of the city as she has experienced it.

Harr recommends exploring the wide range of offerings by the festival’s 50 artists, vendors and community groups. Farm Fresh Fusion Foods, Sabor Latino, Tealicious Cafe and Time for Sweets will be on hand for hungry festival fans.

Performance art is an important part of the festival, and visitors can expect to see Bad Hat Fire Troupe with the Rusty Iris, Doll Entertainment and the Richmond Faery Federation.

Saturday’s musical lineup will include Swansong from 3 to 5 p.m. and Tie Dye Mafia from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Sunday’s schedule offers Ian Blackwood from 10 a.m. to noon, Robert Jospé from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. and the Sweet Potatoes from 3 to 6 p.m.

Workshops will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis in the workshop tent in the outdoor art room.

Alignedwire will lead a workshop on creating crystal jewelry, in which participants will learn about high-vibrational crystals and try out wire-wrapping techniques to turn them into wearable art. Meditation time will follow.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, visitors can learn more about Kemetic Yoga, an ancient Egyptian yoga tradition, from Solomon Marley. The class, held inside the Looking Glass space, will explore a practice that is formally known as Smai Tawi, or “the Movement in the Company of Gods and Goddesses.”

Annabeth McNamara will be leading the third workshop, “Anmara: An Electronic Soundbath Submersion,” at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Looking Glass. McNamara told The Daily Progress that bringing the richness and versatility of layered electronic music to the relaxing sound bath experience creates a refreshing break from daily stresses.

Participants won’t be the only ones savoring the serenity. According to the data on her fitness app, “while I’m performing, my body goes into this relaxed state,” McNamara said.

McNamara said she rekindled her love for the piano, her childhood instrument, after battling repetitive-motion injuries from years of performing on banjo, guitar and ukulele. From the piano, it was a natural leap to new-generation keyboards and looping technology that help her create “a tapestry of sound,” and it wasn’t long before she noticed that audiences found her new direction to be a peaceful one that prompted meditation.

“I started making more of this ethereal music,” she said. “I was playing at yoga festivals, and I noticed that people were in a lotus position.”

The focus is on the participants and their individual experiences; people are welcome to sit, stand, stretch or slip into yoga flow sequences while immersed in the music. And after years of performing in the spotlight, “it’s nice to make music where nobody’s watching,” McNamara said.

“For me, it’s all about harmony,” McNamara said. “I’m obsessed with this idea of harmony. Music is the thing for me that infuses it with magic.”

McNamara said the workshop will merge the traditional sound bath experience with the versatility of electronic music, while offering weary visitors a chance to reset and relax. It’s a destination she also finds inviting.

“It’s like I’m reaching through to another world that I want to live in all the time,” she said. “I feel sunkissed in my soul.”