New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas tried in vain for years to create an Edinburgh-esque “fringe” festival to surround it. Turns out you can’t just manufacture these things. But two fests which were in a sense inspired by A&I have endured.
One is the Audubon Arts on the Edge festival, as old as Arts & Ideas itself. The 2011 edition is Saturday June 4 from noon to 5 p.m. on Audubon Street, between Orange and Whitney in downtown New Haven.
The fest’s title overreaches all over the place, since neither the arts nor the location are in any way “on the edge.” Many of the performers come from local schools or mainstream arts organizations, the fest is overwhelming kid-friendly, and Audubon street is only a couple of blocks from New Haven Green, in the city’s designated arts district.
What it may lack in edginess, however, it delivers in comfort and cheeriness. Art on the Edge is a free and easy way to check up on some of the area’s reigning school-based performing arts groups, including ensembles from New Haven Ballet, the Educational Center for the Arts and Neighborhood Music School. There are interactive exhibits and demonstrations from local museums and other community organizations throughout the day. Most of the live performances are musical, but there are some dance and spoken word acts:
At noon and again at 1:40 p.m. on the Leeney stage: The Peruvian Folk Dance Group doing Tusuykusin Peru
At 1 p.m. and again at 2 p.m. on the Park of the Arts stage: Storytellers sponsored by New Haven Free Public Library
At 1:30 p.m.: Stiltwalker Lady Blaze.
At 2:10 p.m. on the Leeney stage: New Haven Ballet.
At 3 p.m.: Don Wunderlee doing a Punch & Judy show.
At 3:55 p.m. on the Leeney stage: Neighborhood in Motion—An Interactive Dance Experience.
A complete sched is here (in PDF form).
The other A&I-adjacent New Haven arts festival is of course Ideat Village, which began as openly antagonistic towards A&I but has long since settled into its own independent groove. This is Ideat Village’s tenth anniversary, a landmark it reached despite some organizational waffling a few years ago (the founders almost stopped doing it, then happily changed their minds) and despite some serious obstacles placed in its way by certain downtown civic and business interests.
Ideat Village is entirely dependent on a volunteer staff, community donations and city park permits. This year I’m told they’ve been stymied by sudden alterations in the hours when outdoor events can be held in downtown park areas. We trust the nonsense will be overcome and the Ideats can take over the asylum once again. Meantime, there’s an Ideat Village fundraiser June 4 at 9 p.m. at café nine with seven bands for a mere six-buck cover.