Weekend Pick: Sun or Shade

The big news for this last weekend in June of 2008 is the Des Moines Art Festival. Hours are Friday, 4:00 to 10:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; and, Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and the location is the Western Gateway area between approximately 12th and 16th Streets and Locust and Grand Streets. In addition to painters and other artists traditionally at such shows, the festival also includes a film festival and musicians. Of course, there will be plenty of food vendors for those people who like to sit and watch other people. Sponsors read like a who’s who of area corporations: Aviva (artists’ village), Bank of America (children’s activities), Des Moines Register (publicity), Hy-Vee (food), Kemin Industries (public art project), Meredith (music), Nationwide (film), Principal (emerging artists), and U.S. Cellular (music).

For people who prefer less hype as they view the work of artists and artisans, Artfest Midwest, run by the Stookey Companies, will be held on Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and the location is the Varied Industries Building at the state fairgrounds. There will be a silent auction, with proceeds going to Orchard Place.

A free shuttle will provide transportation between the Arts Festival and Artfest. For those people taking public transportation, DART has information on its website about the detour on the #1 bus route and for the free D-Line downtown shuttle. Set-up for Arts Festival has already detoured those two bus routes.

The 30th Triennial Congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom wraps up this weekend at Simpson College in Indianola. Talk show host and author Amy Goodman will talk at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 27th. Cost is $15 and RSVP is required. Location is the Great Hall on the Simpson campus. On Saturday, June 28th, at 6:00 p.m. a dinner and tribute will be held featuring Fran Korten, publisher of Yes! magazine. Cost is $35 and RSVP is required.

The weather is expected to be in the low 80’s this weekend and dry. If you are looking to volunteer the people Parkersburg, Cedar Rapids, or another part of Iowa hit hard by a tornado or a flood, call the Iowa Concern Hotline at 800-447-1985. I never heard about this phone number until it started appearing in story after story about the 2008 floods. So, I searched the Internet for more information. The hotline is a service of Iowa State University’s Extension Service. It was started as a rural concern hotline in 1985 during a farm crisis. It now offers a 24-hour, 7-days a week resource for issues ranging from agriculture to volunteers. The extension service also has other hotlines, including ones specifically for teenagers and for people with gambling problems. There is also an Iowa Concern website.

Des Moines swimming pools are open but portions of bicycle trails are still listed as closed on the Parks and Recreation webpage.

M.R. Field encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com.