Bring Your Family to Arts Alive: A Free Local Arts Festival

So…you want something to do on a spring weekend. Something you will enjoy and your kids, too. Even better if that something is free and local!

Arts Alive! 2013, will be held from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, at the  Hylton Performing Arts Center, 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas. The festival—which is hosted by the Prince William County Arts Council and the Hylton Center—will include free performances, exhibits, hands-on activities and demonstrations by local artists and arts organizations.

Inside and outside the Hylton Center, Arts Alive! will feature 24 groups on four stages; visual art on display and for sale; local authors reading their work and telling stories; an open air market featuring artisan works; and food for purchase from local vendors. Performances will range from ballet to belly dancing, from orchestras to a drum and bugle corps, from children’s theater to choral music and a swing band. The festival will close with presentation of the 2013 Seefeldt Awards for Arts Excellence and a special concert by the United States Air Force Band at 8 p.m.

Arts Alive! offers many opportunities for families to engage in the arts. Children can paint their own artwork, learn belly dancing basics, create a unique windsock, try their hand at story boarding and much more. Everyone who attends Arts Alive! will have the chance to take part in a community art project, which will create a one-of-a-kind artwork over the course of the festival.

Admission to this family-friendly event is free and there is plenty of free parking is available at the Hylton Center. Sponsors of Arts Alive! 2013 include United Bank, NOVEC, Target, the Prince William County/Manassas Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Ferde Grofé Foundation, and Burt & Peacock, PLC.

Arts Alive! will be held rain or shine, although some activities may be canceled or moved indoors in case of rain. A full schedule of festival events is available at www.PWCArtsCouncil.org. You can also like PWC Arts Council on Facebook, follow @PWCArts on Twitter, or email pwartscouncil@gmail.com.