The Black Swamp Arts Festival is a juried art show that showcases 100 artists in downtown Bowling Green. There are three stages of entertainment, a selection of food trucks, a beer garden and a Youth Arts Area.
2024 DATE: TBD
Location: Downtown Bowling Green
Website: https://www.blackswampfest.org
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This post documents my experience on September 10, 2023.
My experience in 2013 can be found HERE.
Festival Structure
The Black Swamp Arts Festival is a festival that consists of a juried art show of 100+ artists from all over the United States, the Wood County Invitational Art Show, a Youth Arts Area, 3 entertainment stages and various food trucks.
The juried art show, the festival’s main attraction, runs along several closed off blocks of Main Street.
As seen in the above map, the food, Beer Garden and Wood County Invitational Art Show are just east of Main Street while the Youth Arts Area is at the north end of the art show on Main Street.
Entertainment stages are spread about the grounds with the Main Stage next to the Beer Garden and food, a small Community Stage along a mid-section of the art show and a third Family Stage stationed between the art show and the Youth Arts Area.
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Art: Shows and Activities
The juried art show brought in over 100 impressive artists from across the United States who set up booths filled with interesting works consisting of paintings, blown glass, sculpture, photography, ceramics, leather and various other media.
With the help of artistically decorated snow plows, streets were blocked off from traffic…
…allowing pedestrians to casually walk through the streets as they shopped among…
…the pub Art of various towns and the pop art of various icons…
…blown glass, stained glass and pottery…
…sculpted bonsai, leather purses and Appalachian and Shaker style brooms…
…and antique pet photos a-plenty.
A second art show, the Wood County Invitational Art Show, was set aside in a lot with even more artists, also ranging in media that included painting, sculpture, photography, jewelry, ceramics…
…as well as these beautiful blown glass creations and spray painted art and clocks!
Just to the north of the art show was the Youth Arts Area…
…and here is where kids could get crazy with the chalk…
…and take part in various free artistic activities among the various craft tents.
The most popular activity here was making your own tye die shirt ($5)…
…where kids could pick their design, go crazy with the colors…
…and bring home a colorful (and exciting) souvenir.
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Food and Entertainment
While there were food, snack and drink vendors scattered along sections of the juried art show on Main Street…
…the festival had a designated food and drink area…
…with a nice assortment of food vendors…
…plenty of seating…
…a Beer Garden area…
…and a large Main Stage.
While I wasn’t able to catch a show on the Main Stage…
…I was fortunate to catch Toraigh performing on the Community Stage, found along the length of the juried art show on Main Street…
…and AmpWagon on the Family Stage, found on Main Street between the juried art show and the Youth Arts Area.