A Memorial Day Weekend Art Festival

Denver's first art festival of the season took place this weekend at Conservatory Green in Denver's Northfield neighborhood, located on the site of the old Stapleton Airport.  It took a little less than half an hour to drive out there, which reminded me that it once took less than 30 minutes to get to the airport, instead of having to drive to the Kansas border, like we do now.  But I digress.  This festival used to take place in downtown Denver, but moved to this new location a few years ago, and I stopped attending.  However, since I saw in the newspaper that it is considered one of the top art festivals in the country, I decided to go this year.  And I must say, the art was pretty good, and there were lots of photography booths, like the one on the left, which displayed a lot of really nice photographs of Europe.

The festival seems to be much larger than it was when it was downtown. The park is an oval about three blocks long, and the booths were set up all around the perimeter road surrounding it, as well as in the park itself.  .This is the first time I have visited this neighborhood, and I must say it is very nice.  There are a lot of 3 story townhouses surrounding this park, and just to the north are some really large homes, including contemporary versions of the Charleston Single House, complete with full length verandas on the side.  It is a fairly new community, and the trees are just starting to grow, giving it a definite suburban feel.  Also, although nice, the townhouses and homes all look alike, adding to that suburb atmosphere.  I myself prefer downtown or old city neighborhoods with lots of trees.  Nevertheless, I did enjoy looking at the photography.  In the photo on the right the booth features photographs from the Sahara.  The photo on the top left of the booth features a man kissing his camel. Nice.

Also at the festival was Xavier Nuez, a photographer from Chicago who specializes in lighting up abandoned buildings in deteriorating neighborhoods in Chicago and Detroit, making for some spectacular photographs, as seen in the photograph on the left.  I first saw his photographs when the festival was downtown, and was very impressed.  In addition to selling his photographs, he holds workshops on his lighting techniques, and takes people into deteriorating Chicago neighborhoods to learn "light painting photography."  There was a $150 show special for one of these workshops, and I must say I was tempted.  Perhaps next year.  Be sure to check out Nuez's web site at http://www.nuez.com/.