AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)- The annual Arts in the Hearts Festival is back which means street closures begin.
Four streets will begin to close tonight, and some pedestrian paths will close tomorrow.
Those four streets being closed are 8th & Broad Street, 7th & Reynolds, 9th and Jones and McCarten & Reynolds east to 8th & Reynolds.
The following pedestrian paths will be blocked:
On the levy at the western edge of the festival boundary (northeastern edge of the Mariott Hotel).
On the river path at the west side of the Riverwalk Amphitheater.
On the levy at the eastern edge of the Festival boundary.
On the river path at the eastern edge of the Festival boundary.
All closures will remain in place until after the festival ends and the Sheriff`s Department deems the areas to be safe for traffic.
Now, something new this year for the festival is that it has shifted over to Reynolds Street from Broad Street, giving the festival a new footprint to follow.
This is due to the Broad Street project.
The Augusta Common will still be the main hub, but there will be some new locations to look out for.
“We’ll be using the Ampitheater as a community stage, the convention center as a sole suite stage. That’ll be our indoor stage. And then the jazz stage will sit right at the levy, at the base of the street market. And of course, global stage will be in the common as usual. Oh, and we added a literary lounge and that’s going to be in Bootleggers. We partner with them as well,” said Executive Director for Greater Augusta Arts Council, Denise Tucker.
And because of the new footprint, more generators will be added for the festival.
“That infrastructure (Broad Street) has pretty much been built up to accommodate the festival. We were able to pull power from light post and the person who works on our power is absolutely amazing. He knows that footprint like the back of his hand and it’s easier. Well, now that we have shifted and we’re using a lot of the lots across the street, we have to bring in more generators to accommodate the power that we need to run the festival,” said Tucker.
Those streets will close tonight at 10pm.
You can get your Arts in the Heart tickets in advance for $15, just click here for more information.
Photojournalist: Dania Alawir
