Soirée Celebration Set for Friday, Saturday

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

The Anderson Soirée, now in its fifth year, returns Friday and Saturday with live music, art, food, and the kind of family events that reflect the heart of downtown.

At the center of the event is a local idea dressed in fancier clothes: a festival that is both street party and cultural showcase. The music lineup includes Joe Nichols, The Tams, Benton Blount, and a spread of regional and local performers, while nearly 60 artisan vendors, live art demonstrations, and four stages will keep downtown in motion from Friday afternoon into Saturday evening.

The Soirée is more than just another downtown event with food trucks attached. The Anderson Arts Center has helped shape a visual-arts component that ranges from painting and woodworking to jewelry, textiles, and photography, and the festival will also feature aerial artists, stilt walkers, chalk art, LEGO exhibits, library programming, and the reassuring bustle of Kids Kingdom.

For a city that has been working, in fits and starts, to make downtown feel like a destination rather than a passage, the festival is a neatly packaged argument for the place itself.

Admission is free, the event runs Friday from 4-p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and, at least for one weekend, Anderson will be offering not just an event but a celebration.

Main Street will be closed to through traffic beginning Thursday at 6 a.m. and will remain closed until early Sunday morning, from Tribble Street to John Street for The Soirée.

The parking lot behind Grace Church will close Thursday at 6 a.m. and remain closed through Saturday evening. The Church Street Heritage Plaza parking lot will be reserved for handicapped parking only during the festival and will close Friday at 6 a.m. The Generator Park parking lot will also close at that time.

All streets and parking lots will reopen early Sunday morning.