Weather in the DeLand area during March always is an iffy thing. There's no telling what the temperature or rainfall may be. But, for the last 50 years, there's been one sure sign of Spring the DeLand Outdoor Art Festival. The 51st annual festival will be held April 2 and 3 in the newly renovated Earl Brown Park, 815 S. Alabama Ave. Admission is free. Fine artists from throughout the Southeast will be competing for thousands of dollars in cash prizes and awards. This year's competition will be juried by Les Slesnick and Patricia Karnes. You can read their outstanding Bio's on our Exhibitor information link.

The festival offers a craft section with items for sale ranging from handmade jewelry, carved wooden toys to Adirondack lawn furniture. Festival planners believe the event will attract more than 135 artists and crafters. More than 4,000 spectators came to the festival during its two-day event last year. This is the fourth year that the art festival will partner with the Florida Wildflower and Garden Festival in Downtown DeLand. Organizers of both festivals intend to keep the partnership going. A free shuttle bus will run between Downtown and Earl Brown Park for those wanting to attend both events between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., when the wildflower festival closes on Saturday, March 29. The art festival will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Since the wildflower festival is a one-day event, the art festival becomes the only show in town on Sunday. That day, the festival will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As usual, country, folk, bluegrass, blues and other musical performances will be going on throughout most of this year's festival. Entertainers will be on stage between 10 a.m. and 5p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Food ranging from Greek salads to popcorn, Wisconsin Cheese Curds, Bar-B-Q, Kettle Korn to Home Made Ice Cream and much, much more to tempt and satisfy your pallet. Festival goers are encouraged to sign up in the information booth for the Spectator drawing of $100 to be spent on fine art & crafts. The drawings are held every hour both days from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Meanwhile, The West Volusia Beacon newspaper will continue its tradition of sponsoring the Youth Division of the festival. Art and Soul Studio, owned by Bonny Leary, Orange City, and Casey Marshall, a local graphic designer, are co-sponsoring the division. The division features artwork from students throughout West Volusia. Other sponsors include: City of DeLand; the DeLand Department of Parks and Recreation; Tinker Graphics and the Florida Department of Transportation.

History of the Art Festival

The DeLand Outdoor Art Festival was founded in 1965 by Joe Elliott President, and Virginia Clausen Vice President. At that time the festival started out on the sidewalks of down town DeLand. In 1971 Joe Elliott stepped down as President, Virginia was elected President and remained President till her retirement in 1999 where she, Flo Perro & Pat Moyer became our senior advisors.

In 2000, Virginia's son Tom Clausen was elected President, his wife Patty was elected Vice President and remain the coordinators of the oldest family run art festival in DeLand's history. Ann Pascoe, joined the ladies in 1969 and remained registrar until she retired in 2013. Anna passed away very peacefully March 7, 2015 at the young age of 99 3/4 she would have been 100 on June 18th.

In the mid 70's the festival moved to the parking lot of the Barnett Bank building which is now known as the Bank of America on the corner of Wisconsin Ave. and Woodland Blvd. In the early 80's the festival moved once again the its present location Earl Brown Park located at 750 S. Alabama Ave. DeLand.