Discover Phoenix, a series of events held by the Downtown campus to help students get acquainted with the area and local businesses, will feature the fourth annual Grand Avenue Festival on Saturday. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)The Downtown campus’s Discover Phoenix event series will feature the fourth annual Grand Avenue Festival for the first time in an effort to promote community involvement.
The free festival starts Saturday and will feature local businesses, art galleries and events along the Grand Avenue corridor stretching from 7th to 15th avenues.
Grand Avenue is more than a century old and houses some of Phoenix’s first buildings.
The road was built to connect Phoenix to Glendale, and is the only street that runs diagonally in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
A rail line constructed to follow Grand Avenue shortly after the road was built turned the West Valley into an industrial and agricultural area.
The Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association is hosting the event to promote the pedestrian-friendly arts and retail district while preserving the corridor’s unique history.
Keith Chandler, events and administration program coordinator for the Downtown campus, said he reached out to the Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association to get involved in the festival.
“We wanted to feature an event that was off the beaten path,” Chandler said. “Small businesses on Grand Avenue are pulling together to make the event happen.”
The festival will feature tours of historic commercial buildings and adaptive re-use buildings, live music performances by local bands and disc jockeys, craft fairs, art demonstrations and food vendors.
The Soul Invictus Gallery, 9 the Gallery and the Kooky Krafts Shop will all host fashion shows.
Matt Tomb has owned and operated Grand Avenue bar Bikini Lounge for two years.
Tomb said Grand Avenue businesses are mostly “mom-and-pop” stores.
“Grand Avenue is a quirky grassroots community,” Tomb said. “We really support the artists and small businesses around here.”
Tomb compared Grand Avenue to businesses along Roosevelt Row, which were not as popular 15 years ago as they are today.
Tomb said business has been stable even though Grand Avenue has not experienced the same revitalization as Roosevelt Row.
“Community loyalists are the ones that keep (Grand Avenue) going,” Tomb said.
Elizabeth Smith, outreach director at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said the goal of the Discover Phoenix series is to provide a variety of events that appeal to a broad range of students.
“There are tons of things for students to do in downtown Phoenix, but there is an awareness problem,” Smith said. “We wanted students to experience the different areas of downtown.”
More information on the Grand Avenue Festival and additional upcoming Discover Phoenix events can be found through the Urban Devil app, or at urbandevil.asu.edu.
The event starts at 11 a.m. and provides free parking and courtesy pedal cabs.
Reach the reporter at amy.edelen@asu.edu
