Chapel Hill celebrates 41st annual Festifall

Despite heat reminiscent of summer, Chapel Hill citizens gathered on West Franklin Street Sunday alongside Triangle-area performers, artists and local businesses to celebrate Chapel Hill’s annual autumnal premiere arts festival — Festifall.

Festivals and special events supervisor for the town of Chapel Hill, Wes Tilghman, said Festifall, which has been running for 41 years, is an opportunity for the Chapel Hill community to come together and celebrate the local arts scene.

Festifall united street performers, musicians and vendors of art, food and merchandise in one dense location from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

This year, UNC was also involved in Festifall through the Ackland Art Museum, Tilghman said.

The Ackland sponsored “Art on the Move” at Festifall in partnership with its running exhibit “The Sahmat Collective.” Participants were encouraged to create colorful social justice-inspired messages by decorating their bikes that then went on display at the festival.

Some of the most enthusiastic “Art on the Move” participants were Festifall’s younger attendees, who rode their painted creations around the vendor booths.

In addition to the Ackland, UNC groups like Dance Marathon and Bhangra Elite were also present at Festifall.

Tilghman said there were 80 to 100 artists from the region in attendance, each in their own booth.

“All different types of artistic media are represented at Festifall, and we want to help them exhibit and sell their art,” he said.

Durham artist Erin Hathaway is the creator of Split Infinity Jewelry, where she has been making handcrafted chainmaille jewelry for two years.

Festifall marks the first-ever event in Chapel Hill for Hathaway.

Hathaway said the community feel of Festifall was due to the involvement with music, local storefronts and the vendor artists.

“It builds a sense of pride for where you live, camaraderie, ownership and a reinforcement in the community spirit,” she said. “Not to mention, it encourages people to shop local.”

Fellow artist vendor Kirsten Hausman is the creator of a hand-made paper flower business called Flowerthyme, based in Durham.

Hausman said that the big crowd at Festifall was seeking unique things, which was good for her craft.

She described the mix between vendors, performers and Chapel Hill businesses as a mutualistic relationship.

“Maybe certain shop owners will see my things and decide they love me so much they need me in their shop,” Hausman said.

Triangle-area musician John Klonowski and his band, Tea Cup Gin, were among the musical entertainment at Festifall Sunday.

Tea Cup Gin writes much of their own music inspired by 1920s and ’30s jazz — their name is a reference to the Prohibition Era when speakeasies had to serve their liquor in tea cups to evade the law, Klonowski said.

As first time performers at Festifall, Tea Cup Gin had to adjust to playing outdoors where the sound dissipates quickly, Klonowski said, but the volume change wasn’t difficult to make.

“The great part about playing at festivals in general is that it’s a greater amount of people and a good audience,” he said.

Klonowski said he writes most of the original songs Tea Cup Gin plays.

“If you compose a piece of music and it inspires people to get up and dance to it, that’s always exciting,” he said.

The local businesses of West Franklin Street also felt the impact of Festifall.

CD Alley employee Martin Anderson said the store saw a lot of foot traffic and more new people coming in because of Festifall.

“I’m a big fan of any reason for people to get together in a public place and celebrate,” Anderson said.

“Festivals like this remind us that we are not just in our own little bubbles, and that we are all in this together.”

arts@dailytarheel.com