Normally, around 1,500 volunteers help make the Panoply Arts Festival happen.
This year that number is down to 200.
Cautiously easing back to life after a pandemic-canceled 2020, Panoply ’21 is a slimmed-down affair organizer Arts Huntsville is calling “A Taste of Panoply.”
Set for April 23 – 25 at the fest’s standard location, Big Spring Park, address 200 Church St., Taste of Panoply involves key changes in pricing and programming. As AL.com previously reported, Friday’s admission cost is $20, up from the festival’s usual $10 day passes. But Saturday and Sunday are free to attend this year
Some of Panoply’s central facets, like an array of visual artists and solid local-centric music lineup, are back. Others, like craft beer and the student art tent (perhaps not best consumed in that order) are not. Only Friday night at Panoply will culminate in a fireworks display this year, instead of the usual Friday and Saturday. Tickets are on sale at artshuntsville.org.
But Panoply is happening, by God. Which, after 12 months of COVID-cramped life, is excellent news for North Alabama residents ready to reconnect with local culture and a beloved Huntsville event. Panoply has been around since 1982. It’s easily the city’s most significant festival, after multi-day music fest Big Spring Jam went kaput after 2011. According to Arts Huntsville, Panoply’s average attendance over an entire weekend is 70,000 to 75,000.
Recently, I connected with Arts Huntsville executive director Allison Dillon-Jauken to learn more about what the Panoply experience will be like this year. Below are edited excerpts.
Allison, is Panoply’s footprint at Big Spring Park going to be the same size this year as normal years?
Panoply’s footprint is the same as it has been for recent festivals. To allow more space in the park for social distancing among festivalgoers, A Taste of Panoply is offering fewer activity tents and stages, but the 2021 programmed activities are spread out across the same area you would visit each year for the event.
How many tickets are available for Friday night? (In addition to being the sole fireworks night at Panoply 2021, Friday is also when the festival’s musical headliner, roots duo The War and Treaty, will perform.)
Currently, we are releasing 1,500 tickets for Friday night, and this number may be adjusted as we approach the event.
Is there a capacity for attendance Saturday and Sunday too? Or a number Arts Huntsville has planned for in designing this year’s Panoply?
Arts Huntsville, in cooperation with our public safety partners, will assess the capacity of the park throughout the weekend. Capacity is dependent upon how crowds are dispersed throughout the festival. The Showcase Stage area and the large expanse of park surrounding the stage has more capacity than some areas within the Art Marketplace.
For the 2021 Arts Marketplace, in addition to Huntsville and Alabama, where else are these artists coming from?
Approximately half of the artists in the Art Marketplace are Alabama artists. Overall, roughly 75 percent of the artists are from the Southeast, including artists from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. Other artists from states like Colorado, Illinois and Kansas also travel to Huntsville to participate in Panoply each year. All of these artists have lost multiple art festivals and shows since March 2020.
Has Panoply done free admission before?
As Panoply has grown thru the years, the festival instituted a $10 day pass and $18 weekend pass to offset costs associated with the event. The 2021 A Taste of Panoply will be the first time in nearly two decades that the festival will be free to the public, with a suggested donation of $10 per adult.
On the free days this year at Panoply, can people make donations without using cash?
Festivalgoers may drop cash into the donation boxes as they enter, or you can scan QR codes at the entry gates and throughout the park to make donations online via PayPal or Venmo.
Besides only doing one day of ticketing, what are some other ways Panoply is limiting touch points this year, with pandemic safety in mind?
Panoply has wholly revamped it’s hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) and art interactive areas. Fewer STEAM and art activities will be offered and festivalgoers will be provided takeaway bags to enjoy with their family in the park or at home after the festival. Additionally, several popular activities, like face painting, will not be offered in 2021.
The Panoply 2021 Friday Preview is a limited, four-hour event showcasing the Art Marketplace, two performances on the Showcase Stage and great festival food. With limited festival hours and activities on Friday and the featured Friday night performance beginning at 7:30 p.m., capacity and access is limited for this brief opening event.
What are some food trucks and vendors people can expect at Panoply this year?
The full list of food trucks and vendors will be released in the coming days at artshuntsville.org and across Arts Huntsville’s social media. To share just a few highlights, festivalgoers can watch for Mac & Snacks, New South Hot Dog & Sushi, the Get Loaded food truck and more.
And finally, I understand Panoply is a little different this year. But a lot of the familiar components are there, so why call this year’s festival A Taste of Panoply?
Festivalgoers this year will experience a “taste” of the full Panoply Arts Festival: One performance stage with 15 acts instead of three performance stages offering more than 60 performances during the weekend, as well as select “takeaway” STEAM and art interactives instead of more than 10 in-park, hands on creative activities for festivalgoers of all ages. As this year’s event is offering a selection of the popular experiences festivalgoers typically enjoy at Panoply, Arts Huntsville dived into the archives and pulled out the name “A Taste of Panoply.” Exactly 10 years ago, the Panoply Arts Festival was set up and ready to welcome festivalgoers when the 2011 tornadoes hit our region. Following the tornadoes, Arts Huntsville shared “A Taste of Panoply” with the community throughout the summer months. As Arts Huntsville planned for a scaled-back Panoply Arts Festival for 2021, it was time to once again offer A Taste of Panoply.