This weekend’s festivities — set for Saturday (11 a.m.-8 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m.-6 p.m.) at Ogden Union Station — will mark the 20th time the festival has been held and the second time under the direction of Ogden Downtown Alliance.

“This year’s festival will welcome more than 100 local and regional artists showcasing original artwork across a wide range of mediums, alongside live music and cultural performances, interactive art demonstrations, local food and beverages, immersive art installations, and hands-on creative experiences for visitors of all ages,” a press release on this year’s event said. “Throughout the weekend, guests will experience the vibrant energy that has made the Ogden Arts Festival a beloved community tradition for the past 20 years.”

Cecily Kiss, community partnerships director with the Ogden Downtown Alliance, told the Standard-Examiner said there will be returning favorites and a few new additions this year.

“We have our roaming stilt walkers,” she said. “We have a roaming bubble artist. We have muralists doing live painting, and we have a graffiti competition on Sunday. But something new this year is our community mural artist, Jaroh … is also going to be doing graffiti demonstrations on site all day Sunday, every hour on the hour. And not only will he demonstrate and show some new tips and tricks, but then he’ll allow the public to go ahead and try their hand at it as well, which is really exciting and fun.

“And we’re bringing even more entertainment to the event. We will be programming both the outdoor fountain stage and the indoor Browning Theater with live musical performances, cultural performances, dance artists and aerialists, as well as some live spoken word.”

She added that there will also be a reduced cost VIP pass that is good for a brunch either Saturday or Sunday presented by the Garden Grille & Lounge.

Kiss said that, as of Wednesday, Ogden Downtown Alliance is still looking for nearly 100 volunteers to help out with the event. Whether serving for a few hours or all day, volunteers receive a free meal, a free T-shirt and behind-the-scenes experiences.

She said that they’re also making sure that this festival truly is open to everyone.

“This year we are bringing back our Paint It Forward program, so if there are individuals or families who may have financial boundaries that keep them from attending the event, we do have options for them to reach out to us or let us know at the box office that they would like a Paint It Forward ticket and they can have free entry,” she said. “We’d also love if more folks could support that by purchasing Paint It Forward tickets for just $5 that help support that programming and allowing folks to attend and remove those financial barriers that they might be experiencing.”

Kiss said it’s exciting for the Ogden Arts Festival to be able to celebrate two decades as a mainstay of Ogden summers.

“I think it’s incredible that the arts festival has survived and thrived over the last 20 years,” she said. “Events are a hard industry and they don’t always stick around, but this is a beloved event in the community that Ogden really shows up for and we couldn’t do it without all of our wonderful community partners, the artists who participate, the sponsors and especially the volunteers who help us run the event. I think because we’ve had such a great community support system over the past 20 years, we’ve been able to keep this event alive as it has evolved and as our community has evolved.”

She said the next 20 years are in the hands of the art world and the people of Ogden.

“As our community shifts and grows, we hope to grow with the community and provide an opportunity for artists and art enjoyers alike to come together and have a creative community weekend where art can be celebrated and it can be enacted,” she said.

For more information, to purchase tickets or to volunteer for this year’s Ogden Arts Festival, visit https://ogdendowntown.com/ogdenartsfestival/.