The Downtown Palm Beach Gardens Art Festival

My sister Susan and I attended the Downtown Palm Beach Gardens Art Festival yesterday afternoon. I have never spent much time in Palm Beach Gardens, and so I was surprised to hear they even had a downtown. I have always thought of Palm Beach Gardens as a big suburb with no center, but it actually does exist. To be honest, it was more like an outdoor shopping center than a downtown, but it was very nicely landscaped and has restaurants with outdoor patios, interesting shops, and attractions for kids.

The booths for the artists were set up along the walkways between the shops and restaurants and included sculpture, paintings, jewelry, glassworks, and photography. This is the first time it is being held in Palm Beach Gardens. It is being hosted by Howard Allan Events, and I was surprised to learn that it is being held in Palm Beach Gardens because Howard Allan Events will not be able to host the 15th Annual Downtown West Palm Beach Art Festival, due to construction at CityPlace. Now THAT is a disappointment. I attended that festival this past April and thought it was great. CityPlace is a wonderfully landscaped mixed-use development close to downtown West Palm Beach, and although the Palm Beach Gardens Art Festival is nice, the one in West Palm Beach is in a whole different league - the difference between holding an art festival in a suburban shopping center and holding one in a vibrant urban neighborhood. And as I recall, the festival in West Palm Beach was very well attended, while in Palm Beach Gardens, not so much.

In any case, there was a lot of interesting art on display at the festival. Some of it was very good, and some just plain weird - photographs of Barbie and Ken dolls out and about in South Florida does just not grab me. Most if not all of the artists seemed to be from Florida, which gave the festival a local flair, which was nice. The few items I checked were priced in the hundreds and thousands of dollars, and so the art was no doubt geared toward the well-heeled, who make up a sizeable part of the population down here. In fact, I have never seen so many Bentley convertible sports cars in my life. I am even tempted to trade in my 2014 Hyundai Accent if I can get a good price on one and keep the payments under $150 a month, but I digress. The Palm Beach Gardens Art Festival continues through today from 10:00 until 5:00 if you want to check it out. It is certainly worth a look.