Category Archives: musicians

August 22, 2025

2025 Salem Arts Festival Part I (Salem, MA)

Date Of Event: June 6-8

Location: Salem, MA

Summary: Artists from all over the Salem (MA) area showed off their artistic abilities at the 17th annual Salem Arts Festival.

As summer is winding down, sadly, it’s true, I thought it was the perfect time to post photos from the annual Salem Arts Festival in June of this year! Ok, I should have posted them earlier. But, it’s been a busy summer! And I plan to show off more photos from my busy summer soon!

The 17th annual arts festival featured art and artists from all over the Salem, MA, area.

The theme for this year’s festival was Hissstory. As the sign below states, the hissstory project repurposed banners from previous events in the city. These repurposed parts were used to form a very long snake! Citizens of Salem were encouraged to create their segments of the snake which was displayed on Front St; the staging area for the performers. Recycling, or repurposing, at its finest.

The festival ran from June 6th to 8th. But, because of the rainy weather, I only attended on the 8th of June.

Since there was so much art and entertainment at the festival, I have decided to post this blog post in 2 parts. This post will include the popular “Mural Slam” as well as some of the dancers and musicians at the festival.

Without a doubt, the main event of the festival is the mural slam. Twelve artists painted uniquely creative works of art.

The murals weren’t finished until later in the day after I left. So, I stopped by the next weekend to photograph them when they were done. Plus it’s fun seeing how some of the murals evolved. At least it’s fun for me. Maybe I need to get out more.

Paige Doyle-Elwell

Howie Green

Colomba Klenner

Jess “Pickles” Clark

Max Pro

Daphne Powers

Bruce Orr

Naijah Nine

Caoin O’Durgy

Sarah Egan

Jennifer Wackerle

Bobbie Smith

There were additional murals and other works of art that were not part of the mural slam. The elephant was made by Polyvios Christoforos for the 2018 Salem, MA, mural slam. Bonus points if you can name all of the 4 buildings in the painting with the homes.

But, the art wasn’t just the murals and in the old town hall. There were also musicians and dancers. Matt Savage Groove Experiment kicked off the festivities on the second day of the festival. Matt is the keyboard player and composer for the band.

One of the more interesting and creative parts of the festival were the dancers. There were tap dancers.

But, the most interesting dancers were the interpretative dancers.

I hope you join me in part 2 of my blog post from this event which I will post soon!

17 Comments | tags: art, dancers, dancing, festival, festivals, fun, Massachusetts, music, New England, photographs, Photography, Salem, street-art, travel | posted in art, Massachusetts, murals, musicians, New England, Salem, Salem Arts Festival, travel, Uncategorized

June 12, 2018

10th Annual Salem Arts Festival – Part II (Salem, MA)

By New England Nomad

Location: Front St, Old Town Hall, Salem, MA

Dates Of Event: June 1-3, 2018 (event usually takes place the first weekend in June)

Cost: Free

Parking: Street parking, which is limited during festivals, costs .75 an hour (4 hour limit) and there are several parking lots and garages. You can find more information about parking in Salem here.

Handicapped Accessible: Yes

Dog Friendly: Yes

Location: Artist’s Row, Salem, MA

Fun Fact: Salem (in Hebrew) means “peace”

Murals weren’t the only types of art on display at the Salem Arts Festival.

In addition to the amazing art on display and family friendly activities I highlighted in Part I of this series, there were several bands, dancers and other entertainers who set up on the stairs of the Old Town Hall on Front St.

All of the performers were very talented and entertaining (view the videos below to see for yourself)

All of the performers had some ties to New England, and in many cases the Salem area.

Liz Bills And The Change are from Haverhill, MA (about 40 minutes north of Salem), rocked the alley next tot he Coffee Brewhouse. Great presence and style.

Wellesley (MA) native and Berklee College of Music graduate, Sarah Blacker and the New England Groove Association was another great performer.

She even made a new young fan.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the performers was the variety of music and entertainment. In fact, I actually heard and enjoyed some music from bands that I never thought I would be into. One of those bands was the Boston-based Outrageous Fortune Trio Jug Band mixed jazz and blues in their repertoire. I particularly enjoyed their version of “Come Together.” He actually used the cane in the photo below as an instrument.

I loved the Emma Sundvik & Hunter Burgamy Jazz Band.

I also had a surprise encounter with a friend from my gym. Anthony (“Antonio”) plays the Flamenco guitar for Boston Flamenco. Anastasia and Anna Maria joined him in his performance.

At the end of their performance, Anastasia gave some of the visitors a lesson in Flamenco dancing.

The entertainment was not just limited to music, though. One of my favorite forms of entertainment was the dancing of the Salem YMCA Fly Kidz. These kids can dance!

And what would an arts festival in Salem be without a visit from Dark Follies?

Dark Follies incorporates stunts (a straitjacket escape artist), dancers and other magical entertainment into their acts.

The kids loved the Boston Opera Outreach Troupe. It was great seeing little children embracing this music.

If that was not enough, the Aerial Artistry of Baechtold & Abel (and their college understudy) took center stage on Front St. Their acrobatics were so graceful. But, what people may overlook is the strength these acrobats must have to be able to support their own and their partner’s body.

Speaking of Front St, there were “tiny dancers”, or more accurately a tiny stage with real life sized dancers performing.

There were also fairies who blew bubbles, read stories and danced with the children (and a few adults).

There was also a “Poets In The Round” poetry reading event.

The street performers who you might usually see only during the Halloween season also came out to partake in the festivities and take photos with their fans. Or, just take in the scenes with a, uh….friend. It was like Halloween in June!

Of course, what would an art festival be without dogs?

Rocko looked cool rocking his bee wings with his doting humans.

Igor (the Hairless dog) was one of the more unique dogs I have photographed. You may notice his two different colored eyes.

Below are some videos of the performers from the art festival. Sorry for the “shaky cam” in some of the videos, particularly those taken at the end of the day.