FLEETWOOD — Dubbed the 84th Avenue Café StreetFEST, the Fleetwood Community Association is putting on a fullday outdoor festival with the aim of drawing in youth with an interest in arts and music this Sunday (Aug. 3).
Organizer Rick Hart, who is also the president of FCA, says although the area has tons of people in their teens and early 20s who are involved in the arts, the area doesn't have the facilities to foster creative growth.
"The core thing was basically trying to hit the kids from mid-teens to early 20s - the youth," Hart said.
"So, the idea that came of our end of it was, 'Let's close the street down and see what we can do with it.'" Starkly different from the annual Fleetwood Festival, which will be going into its 16th year and typically draws younger families, the 84th Avenue Café StreetFEST will feature artists, youth bands and activities aimed at getting high-school aged and older kids involved in the community.
The City of Surrey helped by kicking in $1,000 to see the street festival happen.
"That was the whole idea: to get the kids involved," said Hart. "It creates some sort of social communication within the community."
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, 84th Avenue will be closed off between 160th Street and Fraser Highway.
On one end of the closed down street, Hart says there will be musical performances in a caféstyle, singer-songwriter genre with harder rock 'n roll and hip hop on the other end. Performances will be done by young musicians, and between the two ends of the road street hockey will be set up, as well as a life-size chess game and other live arts.
"Art goes along with music, so we've got some artists coming and some of them will be younger and some are older, too, that are going to be able to interact with kids who have some talent and let them know what the possibilities are," said Hart.
kalexandra@thenownewspaper.com