Southeast Arts Council to host Arty Gras festival March 5

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri will host an "Arty Gras" festival from 5 to 8 p.m. on Spanish Street in Cape Girardeau.

This will mark the first year the council will hold the festival, and it will celebrate French and Native American heritage of the area and the relationship of the Mississippi River to the French Quarter in New Orleans.

"Arty Gras" will feature several types of entertainment, including live music, ghost stories at the Glenn House told by Southeast Missouri State University history professor Joel Rhodes, outdoor markets, a parade, art gallery and tarot card readings by Lois Sunodi. Some of the Cape Girardeau businesses getting involved with the Mardi Gras-themed event are Ebb and Flow Fermentations, 20 North Pacific and Le Bistro at The Bar.

The arts council arranged for Spanish Street to be blockaded, so patrons of the event will be able to walk freely in the streets, creating something akin to a New Orleans experience. Kelly Downes, director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, helped come up with the idea to host the event.

"I think there's something about river culture that is super cool. So we were talking about it, and like a flash of lightning it hit me, 'Why don't we call it 'Arty Gras'? We knew once we had the name that this was going to be something special," Downes said. "So, we reached out to Gabriel Ruggieri at Le Bistro because they do a lot of really cool music nights, and he is a huge music fan. He comes from European culture, which has a lot of really cool hip-hop and African influence. We talked about how he could bring some things to it, and then we kept going from there."

Bracelets to get into "Arty Gras" cost $20, and the bracelets will get patrons into each of the locations involved in the festival. Bracelets can be purchased at the event, and council personnel are working on setting up a payment portal on their website, www.capearts.org.

All of the proceeds from the festival will go to local businesses and not-for-profits.

"I think it is important to have street festivals because those are ways people can get together and get outside to see the community members, to experience the arts and support local businesses. When people come together and have a good time, everyone prospers," Downes said. "The philosophy is that we're spending money locally, the businesses are local and working with local organizations. All that money is staying here and making what we have here stronger."