ASU Art Museum and Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation bring Feast on the Street to Phoenix, a London-inspired strolling celebration for the eyes and the palate Saturday, April 13.
The urban harvest festival will link guests through a half-mile long community dining table, artist-driven street entertainment, demonstrations of sustainability and the shared joy of exploring the heart of downtown Phoenix through food and music.
With an emphasis on sustainability, “Feast on the Street has set its sights on being a zero waste event. This first year will be an educational effort,” said Greg Esser, desert initiative director with ASU Art Museum. “People will see compost and recycle bins throughout the event. Through ASU, the City of Phoenix and other partners, we’ll have numerous demonstrations encourage people to divert green waste from the landfill and create healthier soil for their gardens at home.”
Clare Patey, the curator of Feast on the Bridge in London which takes place on Southwark Bridge that overpasses the Thames River, brings Arizona the Phoenix version of “Feast” in partnership with Matthew Moore, a fourth-generation Phoenix farmer and renowned Arizona artist.
Entry to the Feast is free, offering guests a rediscovery of the simple pleasure of eating and imbibing with neighbors in a common place. Area restaurants will prepare grab-and-go meals for purchase along with participating gourmet food trucks. Beer and wine will be served. Guests will be able to marvel “table art installations,” created by Arizona artist Joan Baron and team using desert-indigenous creosote plants throughout the vast communal table.
Entertainment, Activities, Parades and More
A variety of artists and interactive art, music and sustainability activities will be featured at the event. Moore will create a massive commemorative salad toss using greens and vegetables typically discarded due to their bruised appearance.
Roaming musicians will lend their talents to the event as well, with New Orleans-style Bad Cactus Brass Band leading a parade, and Dry River Yacht Club and Cumbia-style Chicha Dust from Tucson headlining the stage. The Haymarket Squares, a premier punkgrass band local to Phoenix, will roam the event as they perform.
As part of the sustainability vision of the event, community gardens, farms, school groups and those who simply have a love for growing food are invited to Mobile Garden Parade where they’ll put their garden on wheels – in wheelbarrows, bike baskets, hats, buckets, backpacks or anything that makes a garden portable.
ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability will produce compost demonstrations; ASU’s Advanced Special Management Program will host interactive art activities using and celebrating indigenous plants and materials throughout, where guests can work with palm fronds and natural dyes, make leaf prints and even sunflower stalk frames.
A pop-up park in the event footprint will offer games of bags and more, and the ever-popular Arizona Storytellers series will host humorous first-person accounts on the topic “gathering around the dinner table.” Stories are scheduled every half-hour.
For more information and schedule for Feast on the Street, please visit feastonthestreet.org
When: Saturday, April 13, 2 – 9 p.m.
Where: First Street between Taylor Place and Moreland
Cost: Free entry
