By Mary O’KEEFE

The Montrose Shopping Park will be celebrating all things artistic with this weekend’s 36th anniversary of the Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival.

The event will be on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Honolulu Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic in the 2200, 2300 and 2400 blocks, from Verdugo Boulevard to Orangedale Avenue. In addition the 3600, 3700 and 3800 blocks of Ocean View will be closed to traffic.

The items to be sold must be “handcrafted only, no re-sale, no manufactured goods,” said Dale Dawson, Montrose Shopping Park Association event coordinator. “[That rule] is being strictly enforced.”

This year there are 50 more vendors than last year, bringing the total to 245. There are a variety of vendors selling all types of goods including country crafts, clothing, baby items, garden decor, jewelry, outdoor furniture, bath and body items, metal works, glassware, woodcrafts and ceramics and so much more, Dawson said. 

There are some new venues added to this year’s event including live music on stage at Ocean View Boulevard and Honolulu Avenue featuring Mojo Filter Blues Band in the mornings and the Ploughboys, a Celtic band, in the afternoons. There will also be a beer and wine garden on Ocean View Boulevard.

Some community favorites are back including a Kids Zone with a bungee jump and inflatables at Orangedale Avenue, the performance artist Man in White will be in the 2300 block of Honolulu Avenue, and the International Food Court will return to Wickham Way with new vendor Calamaki that features grilled octopus.

Restaurants in the Montrose Shopping Park will be open for business, and there will be food trucks featured as well.

The Arts and Crafts Festival has historically seen crowds as large as 40,000 over the two-day event, Dawson said.

  Mary Okeefe