The annual Bluff Arts Festival returns Oct. 19-21 with a new “Taste of Bluff” and expanded entertainment options as well as favorites such as hands-on workshops, an artist market and storytelling.
Taste of Bluff will be Oct. 20 from 6-8 p.m. at Cow Canyon Trading Post and allow participants to buy food from Bluff restaurants and listen to free performances by DDAT and The Crags.
DDAT, from Farmington, includes trumpeter Delbert Anderson and hip hop artist Def-i and will perform at 7 p.m. At 8:30 p.m. The Crags, from Durango, will bring its psych-a-desert rock to the stage.
Storytelling by the River returns Friday at 6:30 p.m. with Ellen Meloy Fund for Desert Writers Award recipient Deborah Taffa. Taffa’s presentation “America the Blistering: One Family’s Eco-Experience in Arizona and New Mexico” will highlight her tribal histories, her status as a displaced urban Native American and her sacred relationship to the canyons of the American Southwest.
At 8:30 p.m., a high-energy drumming performance by Moab Taiko Dan will be at the Bluff Community Center outdoor pavilion. Moab Taiko Dan is known to perform Japanese taiko pieces and original compositions and multicultural rhythms. The group also will conduct a drumming workshop Saturday morning.
Artist-led workshops include plein air painting, rock art drawing, artisan clay-fired beads, writing, creative element weaving, rag rug weaving at the Bluff Fort Co-op, cold frame gardening, kombucha making, off-the-grid living and hiking.
Artist Joe Pachak invites festival attendees to drop in as he creates a sculpture of a coyote for Bluff’s annual Winter Solstice Burn.
Also on the schedule:
University of Utah Book Arts Program bookmaking table at the Bluff Community Center at Third East and Mulberry, 10 a.m. Saturday. The 2018 Artist Market, at the Bluff Community Center, Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. A full schedule of events and workshop registration information is available online at BluffArtsFestival.org.
