Council Considers Fall Art Festival For Academy Field

A new art and food festival may be coming to East Greenwich this September. But first the Town Council wants to hear from Police Chief Tom Coyle about how such an event would need to be monitored before giving its blessing.

“We definitely have to go over the logistics of the whole thing,” Coyle said at the Town Council meeting Monday night. “We’re in the early stages of coming up with a game plan.”

The event, being called the East Greenwich Art Festival, would be held at Academy Field on September 3, the day after the annual Summer’s End concert, said Lisa Sussman, a member of the Summer’s End Board of Directors (and a columnist for East Greenwich Patch) and Jennifer Neuguth, who runs a business called Festival Fete, which is helping to organize the event.

Neuguth said she is hoping to attract 100 artists and 20 food vendors for a farmers market-type event to accompany the artists for the event which would occur from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the day after the Summer’s End concert. If the concert was delayed a day for inclement weather, as it was last year, the art festival would happen on Sunday, Sussman said.

Neuguth said the event could attract as many as 10,000 people, which is how many came to a similar event last summer in Providence, she said.

“Those numbers would be for the entire day,” Neuguth said. “They wouldn’t all be there at once.”

Councilor Mark Gee wondered what kind of traffic implications there could be with such an event.

“One thing that concerns me is the availability of parking,” Gee said. “Where are people going to park and where are residents going to park? That’s a pretty congested area. I hope we come up with a plan to address parking.”

Councilor Michael Kiernan, who lives on Church Street directly across from Academy Field, said he thought the festival was a “good idea.”

According to Festival Fete’s website, the event would include artists, a farmers market “and merriment all along Rector Street and Church Street next to Academy Field. In addition, the show will have free children’s activities and an interactive community art project, festive food and music for all to enjoy.”

The Council agreed to reconsider the festival after Coyle and the East Greenwich Police have had more opportunity to go over the logistics.