One of the world's most respected festivals, hosting 190 of the nation's top artists in a beautiful urban street setting surrounding the 4.4 acres John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park and the Krause Gateway Center designed by Renzo Piano Workshop. Fourteen-time winner of the coveted Grand Pinnacle Award from the International Festivals and Events Association, the outdoor festival celebrating arts and culture attracts more than 200,000 people each year to its downtown location in Iowa's capital city and largest metropolitan area.

Juried Art Fair

The centerpiece of the Des Moines Arts Festival is the highly competitive Juried Art Fair presented by Nationwide. Festival artists are selected through a rigorous, industry acclaimed blind jury process that takes place over the course of multiple days. The process is completed by five jurors who are privy to images of the artwork with associated pricing, booth images and an artist statement. No other information is provided to them. This intensive process results in a collection of vibrant, innovative, and masterful original works of art. The wide array of art in every medium is what attracts Festival guests year after year, who annually spend more than one million dollars on art at the Festival.

Interactive Arts

Throughout the Festival, guests of all ages have the opportunity to get creative and hands-on with art, music, dance and more! These activities can be found throughout the Festival site and in the Creative Zone.

The Billboard Project
The Billboard Project presented by Athene is a giant interactive art experience where Festival guests contribute to the creation of a large mural over the three days of the Festival. Guests entering the art activity area will receive one small square image of the original painting, a blank panel and the opportunity to transfer their interpretation of the small square onto the larger. When finished, the panels are affixed into a billboard-sized frame, piece by piece.

BOOM Art!
Suspended 30 feet high from their all-electric bucket truck, MidAmerican Energy Company presents BOOM ART, an Interactive Mural Project. Taking our fascination with doodling to a whole new level, join other festival guests as you illustrate our unique pattern design and watch as the finished mural rises above the streets during the three-day festival.

Spin Art
Join Prairie Meadows and the Altoona Lions Club to create your newest masterpiece from everyone’s favorite art pastime.

Creative Zone Activities
Hosted by non-profit organizations participating in the Community Outreach Program, sponsored by MidAmerican Energy
-Paint plantable, flower seed paper. Kids will choose from biodegradable paint colors to paint words, images, or designs on their very own plantable seed paper! They can take their project home with them or leave it with us to be planted in our community garden pollinator area where signage will explain where the flowers came from.
-Create seed balls as part of the Blank Park Zoo Plant.Grow.Fly conservation initiative. These balls are made of organic clay and contain native Iowa prairie seeds that can be planted to create more habitat for Iowa pollinators.
-Rock painting that inspires through positive messaging! Leave your creation in a park or on your dresser for daily motivation.
-Create a public art project made out of legos!
-Use craft materials to make and decorate paper instruments!
-Create a virtual chorus!  Children and families sing a song and it'll be recorded live. At the end of the Festival, the recording will be fashioned into a virtual choir piece that will live on indefinitely.
-Create a virtual chorus!  Children and families sing a song and it'll be recorded live. At the end of the Festival, the recording will be fashioned into a virtual choir piece that will live on indefinitely.
-Children will create pause bracelets, using three green beads to represent an ellipsis, as a reminder to pause and center yourself.
-Dress up in cultural attire to learn dances and games from cultures all over the globe!
-Turn trash into treasure by creating musical instruments with soda cans, TP rolls, laundry detergent bottles, and more! Participate in a song writing exercise to think outside the box by writing a song from random words drawn from a hat.
-Anime creations. Add your favorites accessories to a anime figure!
-Victorian Bookmark. Use Victorian images (advertisements, letters, flowers, etc.) to create a vintage bookmark.
-Create a public art piece! Participants will color a small square which will be added to the giant color-by-number.
-Create origami birds using various colored and pattered paper.  The birds will be hung from a canopy of tree branches to create a unique room full of birds.
-Get groovy and move through a fabric design structure and become warriors for the Earth.
-Participate in a “What is your WHY” interactive sticky note art wall.  Children will also be able to make a memory box from a small cardboard box, to save notes or small items.
-Explore the properties of shapes by investigating angles, sides and dimensions to understand how a triangle compares to a pyramid. Using various materials to create shapes and then dip them into bubble solution to see if you can make a square bubble.
-See what your voice sounds like with the Chrome Music Lab Spectrogram.  Participants will walk away with a picture of their voice.

Interrobang Film Festival

Film is presented in concert with the Des Moines Arts Festival. The audience, whether cinema enthusiasts or curious newcomers, can experience curated screenings from films around the globe.

The Interrobang Film Festival is a three-day IMDb-verified Festival. It is a juried show, including public showings and panel discussions. Filmmaker submissions are accepted in every category and is juried by a panel of peers. The Festival screens an average of 40 films per year.The 2023 Interrobang Film Festival will be June 23 - 25. It is held at east end of the Festival inside the (air-conditioned) Des Moines Central Library.

2023 Entertainment

The Festival hosts live music on the Hy-Vee Main Stage and Roots Stage as well as pop-up performances across the Festival site. You never know what you'll discover at the Des Moines Arts Festival...and it's all FREE!

Schedule:

Friday, June 23, 2023

5:00pm - 6:15pm: Molly Nova and the Hawks - Hy-Vee Main Stage
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Stringfield - Roots Stage
6:30pm - 7:30pm: Annie Kemble - Roots Stage
6:45pm - 8:00pm: B2wins - Hy-Vee Main Stage
8:00pm - 9:30pm: Buffalo Nichols - Roots Stage
8:30pm - 10:00pm: The 502s - Hy-Vee Main Stage
Bill Robison - Strolling Entertainment
Roberto the Magnificent - Strolling Entertainment

Saturday, June 24, 2023

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Brad & Kate - Roots Stage
12:45pm - 1:15pm: Des Moines Playhouse - Little Shop of Horrors - Hy-Vee Main Stage
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Day's Live Music - Roots Stage
2:15pm - 3:15pm: Des Moines Music Coalition Student Showcase - Hy-Vee Main Stage
3:25pm - 3:35pm: Des Moines Breakerz - Hy-Vee Main Stage
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Emmett Phillips and Friends Community Showcase - Roots Stage
4:00pm - 4:45pm: Penny Peach - Hy-Vee Main Stage
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Jordan Messerole - Roots Stage
5:15pm - 6:15pm: Heath Alan Band - Hy-Vee Main Stage
6:30pm - 7:30pm: River City Opry - Roots Stage
6:45pm - 8:00pm: Satsang - Hy-Vee Main Stage
8:00pm - 9:30pm: Joshua Ray Walker - Roots Stage
8:30pm - 10:00pm: Sister Hazel - Hy-Vee Main Stage
Bill Robison - Strolling Entertainment
Roberto the Magnificent - Strolling Entertainment

Sunday, June 25, 2023

11:30am - 1:00pm: Des Moines Arts Festival Drag Show - Hy-Vee Main Stage
1:30pm - 2:30pm: Stutterin' Jimmy and the Goosebumps - Roots Stage
1:30pm - 2:45pm: The Finesse - Hy-Vee Main Stage
3:00pm - 4:00pm: Central Iowa Music Lab - Roots Stage
3:15pm - 4:30pm: Sunday Afternoon with Monday Night Live! - Hy-Vee Main Stage
Bill Robison - Strolling Entertainment
Roberto the Magnificent - Strolling Entertainment

Date: Friday, June 23, 2023 - Sunday, June 25, 2023

Hours:

Friday 11am-10pm
Saturday 11am-10pm
Sunday 11am-5pm

Location: Western Gateway Park - 1205 Locust St, Des Moines, IA 50309

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