.Philadelphia: Artists love the crowds at the Doylestown Arts Fest

From PhillyBurbs: Artists love the crowds at the Doylestown Arts Fest
It was Pam and Bill Marlin’s first year exhibiting at the Doylestown Arts Festival.

And even though they didn’t sell as much of their art — clocks and plaques with detailed images of people and scenes from Philadelphia carved out of wood — as they had hoped to, the Bryn Mawr couple said they had a good time.

“It was only our first show,” Pam Marlin said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

The Marlins, who do business as ABI Woodworking, have been working on their art for a little more than a year. Pam Marlin said she and her husband went to several different arts festivals last year to see where they might want to set up shop this year, and the Doylestown Arts Festival was at the top of Pam’s list.

“The people were great. They had a lot of stuff,” she said.

Bill said, “It’s crowded. And it stays crowded.”

Artists John Mertz and Margaret Almon said the crowd generally seems very enthusiastic about the art.

“It feels like there’s a true appreciation,” said Almon, of Lansdale, who sells stained glass and mosaics under the name Nutmeg Designs.

Mertz, an oil painter from Bedminster who has shown his art at the festival for seven or eight years, said he’s reached a point where “a number of folks that I know expect me to be here year after year.”

The arts festival, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, draws thousands of visitors every year; organizers estimate that 10,000 to 20,000 people come to town.

“The weather’s been fantastic and that makes a difference,” said Donna Goetz, of Yardley, who makes and sells jewelry under the name Gypsy Jewels.

Goetz said she thinks Doylestown is an attractive town and she loves that the streets are closed and the artists’ tents are set up right in the middle of town. The shop and restaurant owners in town were very kind, Goetz said.

Bill Marlin said he likes that the tents are set up on only one side of each street. In some other festivals nearby, he said, tents are set up on both sides of the street and it “feels like you’re being funneled through” and “you’re going to be swept past booths.”

The Doylestown Business and Community Alliance, the local group that organizes the festival, gives “ample room for people to walk,” Bill Marlin said.

Goetz said the different musical acts and entertainers, who included this year popular Beatles cover band Almost Fab and “The First Lady of Musical Fitness” Miss Amy, seem to draw a lot of different groups of people.

Doylestown Township artisan Amy Turner said she loves seeing all the dogs people bring with them.

“That might seem silly, but I really love it,” she said.

Turner hand-weaves scarves from yarn made of dog hair, as well as more traditional materials like cotton, rayon and wool yarn.

Turner’s booth was set up in front of Finney’s Pub on South Main Street — in the middle of the main stages for musical performances — and she said it gets a bit loud when two musical groups are performing at the same time.

Turner and Mertz didn’t like that they had to take down their art and tents and put them away Saturday night, and then set them up again Sunday. Mertz said: “I’m getting too old to set up stuff all the time.”

Mertz and Almon said it was difficult to get set up Sunday morning — the day of the Univest Grand Prix.

“Everything was barricaded before we got here,” Almon said. Her tent was set up on Hamilton Street near the Plaza West parking lot.

Mertz said: “It was very difficult for vendors to come in, unload, then find a place to park. ... They could have done a better job on traffic control.”