Arts, Beats & Eats celebrates 10 years

PONTIAC –
The 10th anniversary Festival of Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats will offer new international, regional and local features that will continue to make the city of Pontiac the premier family destination for Labor Day weekend, Aug. 31-Sept. 3.
With its new International Block Party on Pike Street, Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats begins its gateway to the world with the Stoli International Stage, featuring 20 acts offering music with an international flavor representing Ireland, Brazil, Scandinavia, Lebanon, Bolivia, Canada and other countries. Just down the street, festival visitors will dine beneath a cornucopia of flags on themed cuisine from around the world. The restaurants boast a multitude of diverse food themes, including Italian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Cajun and Mediterranean.
The festival also will take attendees to exotic destinations to experience it all first-hand. In honor of the festival's 10 years, Arts, Beats & Eats has teamed up with travel experts, Funjet Vacations, to give away 10 all-inclusive trips to Mexico and the Caribbean. Each trip to Jamaica, Cancun or Puerto Vallarta includes roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, roundtrip transfers to and from the hotel and airport, all meals and beverages and more. The trips will be given away in different manners.
Also new this year, the Bloomfield Force Soccer Club will participate in Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats, providing free soccer clinics every half hour during the weekend to encourage kids to get up and be active. Soccer is a favorite sport among youth in the Metro Detroit area, and the Bloomfield Force Soccer Club is renowned throughout Michigan for individual and team achievement, with its outstanding coaches and holistic teaching philosophy.
Additionally, the Festival's most well-known, international attraction, the Ontario Tourism display, returns with its myriad of interactive exhibits showcasing many cultural and leisure offerings of that great region.
Also, Arts du Jour guests will be treated to dueling pianos entertainment at JD's Key Club, blues and jazz at the unique Boom Boom Room, and more than 50 restaurants serving food in all locations. Local dignitaries, musicians, artists and guests are again expected as Arts du Jour gives partygoers a "taste" of what's to come over Labor Day weekend, while helping to raise money for more than a dozen worthy, not-for-profit organizations in the metro Detroit area.
While the festival will now also target an "international audience," and showcase many local economic development projects, it's the "regional" cooperation that might get the most attention this year, as Chrysler Arts, Beats & Eats announces its participation in the "Three Days in the D" initiative. Created by the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, "Three Days in the D" represents the region's incredible Labor Day Weekend special event line-up.
That lineup includes the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, The Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Michigan State Fair, and other events. Anticipated as the most fun-filled Labor Day weekend of any city, "Three Days in the D" will be heavily promoted to guests outside of the metro Detroit area, to make plans to visit what will be the most happening region in the world.
Title event sponsor, the Chrysler Group, will again rev up its interactive activities at the Chrysler "Ride & Drive." Patrons will have the chance to test drive a wide array of exciting vehicles the automaker will have available. More than 200 local and national musicians will perform on 10 stages throughout the festival and Metro Detroit area's most popular restaurants and eateries are planning to delight the public's taste buds during the EATS component of the festival.
The Health Plus Art Fair, one of the nation's top juried art shows, features an array of specialties including ceramics, fabric and fiber, leather, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, wood, digital art, drawing, graphics and printmaking, glass, jewelry and metal. Festival patrons have the opportunity to view the work of more than 150 fine artists, and bask in the artistic wonderment of master puppeteers, talented classical musical performers and theater entertainers on the Flagstar Bank Cultural Stage.