The Diamond City is shining with art, food trucks and music at its 69th Fine Arts Fiesta.
Larry Newman, executive director of the Diamond City Partnership, says the Fine Arts Fiesta is "Wilkes-Barre’s Super Bowl."
“It's terrific to see the Square come alive…people gravitate to the Square. And really, it's wonderful to see Public Square functioning in the way that it was actually designed to function, which is as the public's gathering space,” said Newman.
Fine Arts Fiesta is Pennsylvania’s oldest community arts festival, said Newman. It falls on the same weekend Wilkes University and King’s College’s graduation ceremonies each year.
This year’s theme is “Listen to Your Art,” and musicians young and old poured their hearts out on the stage.
Penn State Freshman Anya Kranyak, 19, is thrilled to be back home for the summer and making music.
She played the flute on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square on Thursday in a sea of other flutists from Kingston-based Anne Chairge’s Music Studio.
“It's just cool that we all get to come back, especially the older kids. And Anne's studio … is like a family. Like I come back and I'm with my closest friends — even the kids that are like seven years younger than me … It's really cool that we can all get along and make music together on such different levels,” Kranyak said.
Kranyak said she’s played the flute for the past 11 years. Flutists with the studio’s Fiesta show are as young as around 11 to 20 years old.
Clara Kemmerer, 12, switched between the flute and piccolo — a kind of smaller flute — for the show. She also was excited to play alongside her friends.
“I like playing the flute for the same reason, because it's really fun. Also, I like that it's like a social instrument, so you kind of get your own little community,” said Kemmerer.
It’s Wilkes-Barre’s art community that brings Gerry DuBoice back to Fiesta every year for 40 years as a volunteer. She’s helping to run the adult juried exhibit for the festival.
“We have so many local artists … and the fact that the artwork is beautiful [draws people in.] … And plus the people are wonderful, and that's what I really enjoy. That's why I'm willing to sit here and work it [each year],” said DuBoice.
Newman said Fine Arts’s volunteers keep Wilkes-Barre’s art scene alive. He commended the Fiesta committee for their hard work and spoke excitedly about the city’s future as a hotspot for creativity.
“[The Fiesta] is a wonderful way to bring the visual and performing arts into the daily life of Wilkes-Barre in the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania … It's terrific to see the school groups here today. It's terrific to see families with children here, and it's great to have a reason for people to gather on the square,” Newman said. “You know, this is [who] we are [as a community].”
The Fiesta is on at Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square through 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 18. WVIA has a booth through the end of the festival.
