Phoenix’s artists celebrated their creativity Saturday at the third Phoenix Annual Parade of the Arts in downtown Phoenix.

The parade was a celebration of the creative culture of Phoenix, Stephen Strange said. Strange and his wife Sahar, from the Strange Family Circus, coordinated the event.

“We want to have an event in Phoenix that gives people the ability to express themselves artistically in a public environment while enjoying and appreciating the metropolis in which they live in,” he said.

Physics and music senior Alise Martin said she enjoyed the parade’s combination of food and entertainment.

“The parade’s awesome. There’s free food, good music and everyone seems really happy,” Martin said. “This is what culture is all about.”

Performances at the festival included bands, magicians, jugglers and poets. Poet Aaron Johnson, a Phoenix resident, said he was impressed by the social opportunities the event offered.

“It’s all about meeting all the different artists and knowing that we all exist,” Johnson said. “That way we can put on bigger events, like this one, and merge all the arts.”

Johnson also applauded Phoenix’s local businesses for helping sponsor and put together the event.

“We hear all the negative things about businesses, but this is a great chance for businesses to do something positive for the community and art,” Johnson said.

The parade took place around 7:30 p.m. More than 1,000 people marched south on Second Street from Garfield to Monroe streets and back again to the Brazilian beat of Grupo Liberdade, a local samba group. Some of the sights in the parade included custom bikes, tap dancers, a human noodle float and people juggling on stilts.

The Office of the Mayor, Treehouse Productions and the Downtown Phoenix Partnership helped put on the event. Jimmy Cerracchio from the Downtown Phoenix Partnership said the event helps promote the downtown area and gets people interested in its art community.

“The parade is basically supposed to be a big community gathering, to get people interested in downtown and show off our art community, which is one of the strongest points downtown Phoenix has,” Cerracchio said.
Cerracchio said people were encouraged to wear costumes and build floats to participate in the event.

“Everyone at this event is basically an artist,” he said. “The whole thing is about self-expression so in reality anyone who takes part is an artist.”

Reach the reporter at snrodri2@asu.edu