Artsplosure-Raleigh Arts Festival

Live & Local Spring Fest is presented in partnership with Live It Up! Hillsborough Street in mid-April in the 2300-2400 blocks of Hillsborough Street, across from NC State University's original campus. This free-to-the-public festival features: (1) area artists and fine crafters exhibiting and selling one-of-a-kind, original works; (2) community groups working to improve and enliven the Hillsborough Street corridor and NC State campus organizations; (3) musicians, dancers, and performers in multiple genres; and (4) interactive and enriching activities for school children and their parents. Anticipated attendance = 12,000 people.

Artsplosure - The Raleigh Arts Festival takes place in downtown Raleigh on the third weekend in May. Venues include Moore Square and three to four blocks of Fayetteville Street. Since its founding in 1980, this award-winning "discovery" festival has entertained and inspired hundreds of thousands of people. Every aspect of the festival is curated with an eye toward presenting quality art and, often times, the unexpected. It features both national artists who are receiving critical acclaim and are under-exposed to North Carolina audiences and some of the city and state’s best emerging performing and visual artists to new audiences. This free-to-the-public festival’s principal components are: (1) the juried Art Market, featuring the talents of more than 175+ visual arts and crafts exhibitors (selected from a pool of 400 applicants) from across NC and the nation, who compete for six merit awards totaling $3,500; (2) Kidsplosure, multiple interactive educational activities and entertainment for children and their parents; (3) specially-commissioned, large-scale, interactive visual art installations; (4) Aerialists and/or other unique variety performers; (5) the Student Art Exhibition showcasing the two and three dimensional art work of Wake County public and private middle and high school students; and (6) ongoing musical performances in multiple genres. Artsplosure is consistently voted the "Triangle's BEST Outdoor Event" by readers of the Triangle Downtowner Magazine and is currently ranked 36th in the nation by Sunshine Artists. In 2018, Artsplosure won the Carolinas AAA Member's Choice award as "Best Festival in NC." Anticipated attendance = 80,000.