Salem Art Fair moves from path to pasture to protect historic white oaks
The Salem Art Fair & Festival will have a whole new look when it returns to Bush’s Pasture Park next week, after two years as a virtual-only event.
Instead of meandering beneath the tree canopy, as it has for decades, nearly the entire festival will shift out into the pasture bordering High Street SE.
The goal is to protect the park’s centuries-old, native white oaks.
“The changes we’re making this year are significant,” said Matthew Boulay, who took over as executive director of the Salem Art Association, which puts on the festival, in 2020.
To make up for the lack of shade, the festival will add two air-conditioned cooling tents, industrial-sized misters, and large umbrella tables scattered throughout the site.
“The main thing is that the trees will be, we hope, protected from any potential impact of having the Art Fair, which is 35,000 people walking around,” Boulay said. “By moving into the pasture, what we’re really doing is directing all this pedestrian traffic onto grass and away from the tree’s roots.”
Centuries-old trees
The park’s white oak woodlands precede European settlers.
Mature White Oaks are vulnerable to damage from soil compaction, because most of their roots are in the first foot of soil, and extend out as much as three times the tree canopy size.
The Art Fair has been held at the park for 70 years, growing from a collection of local artists near the Bush Barn Art Center to take over most of the upper park.
Concern about the festival’s impact on the trees began growing in early 2019, after a study found it was a major contributor to soil compaction and root damage done by pedestrians and vehicles in the upper park.
That year, festival officials tried to ensure that vendors kept their vehicles on the paved paths while setting up and tearing down. But observers noted dozens of vehicles, including RVs, parked on the lawn around trees for hours.
The festival was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the hiatus, two things happened to prompt the major changes, Boulay said.
In 2021, the city of Salem completed a Cultural Landscape Management Plan for the park and adjoining Deepwood Estate Gardens. It aims to better protect the park’s ecological health and to celebrate its cultural history.
The plan recommended phasing out the Art Fair from the upper oak grove.
And, the February 2021 ice storm hit, felling 20 of the park’s oaks. Studies showed one of those downed dated to 1657.
It’s unclear how much human-caused root damage contributed to the trees’ failure during the storm. But the result was shocking.
“The damage to the trees was just so vivid,” Boulay said. “It persuaded everybody that we needed to make these changes.”
A new footprint
The festival draws about 200 juried vendors.
A few of their booths will still line the park’s main north-to-south path, but they won’t radiate out under the trees as before. Instead, most of the booths will be in the southern half of the pasture.
The children’s area will move next to, and incorporate, the Crooked House Playground near the Bush Barn Art Center.
The main stage will no longer be in the natural amphitheater on the hillside below the playground. Now it will be in the northern half of the pasture, along with the food and beer court, and a new wine court.
Vendor setup and teardown will be changed, to reduce driving in the park. The city will close High Street SE during those times so vendors can unload and load in the street. They will then use carts or wagons to ferry wares to their booths.
Tents will be secured using weights, rather than stakes, and there won’t be any fencing or signs where there might be tree roots.
Educating about the oaks
In addition to protecting the oaks, Salem Art Association will use the festival to educate the public about them.
During the festival, the Bush Barn Art Center will host an exhibition about the park’s trees.
And this year’s festival poster celebrates the trees. It features a drawing of an oak tree by local artist Rich McCloud, with text by Kalapuyan artist Steph Littlebird.
“We’re really trying to take this opportunity to not only protect the trees but to celebrate the trees and talk with the community about the importance of protecting the tress,” Boulay said.
If you go
The Salem Art Fair & Festival runs from Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17.
Pricing has changed this year.
Daily admission is $10 for adults, $5 for teens 14-7, and free for children. A 3-day pass is $20 for adults and $10 for teens.
The festival will be free to members of the Salem Art Association, and people can join when they buy tickets. A limited number of free tickets also will be distributed to people who live nearby. And admission is free to anyone with an Oregon Trail benefit card.
Activities in the children’s area, such as face painting, will be free this year.
Tickets can be purchased at the festival or online at https://salemartfair.org/.
Parking will be available in the South Salem High School parking lot, at 1910 Church St SE, all three days, and there is parking available in the SAIF building parking lots at 400 High St. SE and 440 Church St. SE after closing on Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.
Shuttles will be running from those parking lots throughout the weekend. Cherriots buses will be stopping nearby on the corner of Liberty and Bush streets every 15 minutes
The event is the Salem Art Association’s largest fundraiser.
Tracy Loew is a reporter at the Statesman Journal. She can be reached at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem Art Fair moves from path to pasture to protect historic white oaks
