By Courtney Young

Where can you find live music, hundreds of craft vendors, community organizations, food trucks, circus performers in the middle of the street, free coffee, free ice cream, and people of all ages walking on stilts throughout the closed-off roads? Nowhere else than this year’s ArtBeat, going by the name of “FLIP.”

ArtBeat’s “FLIP” turns Somerville upside down while thousands of people walk the streets of Davis Square from sun-up to sun-down. Put together by the Somerville Arts Council, their board, and supported by the city department, local and corporate businesses, as well as over 50 volunteers, this event was many festival-goers’ favorites to date.

“I try my best to come every single year,” Donna Watson, 68, says of ArtBeat. “I have only missed three times. Every year is completely different and we never know what we’re going to get. I used to come when I was younger with my children, and now I’m bringing my grandchildren. It truly is unbelievable what the city is capable of putting on to bring everyone together,” Watson reflects on Somerville’s efforts.

Highly interactive sites throughout Davis Square encourage families, couples, and curious individuals to play games, draw pictures and hang them in the city, create sand art, and participate in live artwork; such as lying down on paper canvas where Christina Tedesco creates a mural of the citizens of Somerville. “We live in such a diverse city, it’s important that people see that,” she emphasizes of her project.

Interactive performances, art, and vendors are not all Somerville had to offer this year. Live music took over three different stages with performers from the greater New England area from 11:00am to 10:00pm. The sounds ranged everywhere from funk, reggae, Americana and jazz, to hip-hop, rock, world music, and singer/songwriter ballads. Coming from Brockton and having toured nationally and internationally, The Perceptionists closed out the show. Donating their products and sponsoring the event, Big Gay Ice Cream and New England Coffee hands out free samples all day long to an overflow of customers.

“This is a multi-platform experience with vendors, music, food, crafts, interactive art, dance; an all-over multi-media experience,” Heather Balchunas of the Somerville Art Council states. “We bring new and different acts each and every time; 90% of the time performers are new. This year we had people saying it was their favorite event, and I had a hard time getting through the streets since the turnout was so great.”

Artbeat is not just a way to give exposure to performers, or support local and regional crafters and vendors, but a way to ensure that families who have just migrated to the area had a way to feel immersed and part of the community.

“It is a perennial favorite and such a different experience for festival-goers just because there is so much happening; but it is one of those things that does take a village, because there are so very many things going on in so many different locations,” Balchunas explains. “If it were not for the support, encouragement, and appreciation for arts and culture in our community, participation of organizers bringing awareness of what they are doing and what they are passionate about, as well as our volunteers and board, we would not have been able to make this happen.”

~Photos by Courtney Young