Time flies, it seems. That’s the only reasonable explanation for the fact that Knoxville Opera’s Rossini Festival is now in its 17th year as Knoxville’s preeminent street fair event. This year’s version of the free annual event is Saturday, April 14, 2018, open from 10 AM until 9 PM. The International Street Fair is centered on Gay Street from Summit Hill to Cumberland, but extends to Market Street and Market Square via the intersecting streets of Church, Clinch, Union, and Wall.
Originally designed to complement the Knoxville Opera April production with Italian opera, culture, and cuisine, the street fair eventually outgrew those boundaries, attracting a wide variety of vendors and artisans. The entertainment side of the festival also expanded and diversified. Not surprising, this rapid growth placed an undue burden on organizers to simultaneously stage an opera production and handle the massive logistics of a street fair. As a result, this is the second year in which a Knoxville Opera production has been offset from the street fair. This year’s spring opera production is Verdi’s Aida on May 4 and 6 at the Civic Auditorium.
This year, the street fair offers five entertainment stages—
• Choral Music Stage (Gay Street near Wall Avenue)
• Dance Stage (Market Square)
• South Instrumental Music Stage (Bijou Theatre Parking Lot)
• West Instrumental Music Stage (Clinch Avenue near Market Street)
• Opera Stage (Krutch Park Extension)
For children, the YMCA FunZone located in Market Square will include the Dance Stage and activities to promote “Healthy Kids Day.”
• A garden area where kids can plant a seed to take home to grow
• Beyblade Stadiums for kids to bring their Beyblades for tournaments
• a sample of the YMCA Power Up Fitness for Kids program at the top of every hour
• bounce houses, bungee trampoline jump, toddler carousels, bubbles, side walk chalk and more
The Ruby Knox Band will close the 17th Rossini Festival with a performance from 8 to 10 PM on the Opera Stage in Krutch Park Extension across from Regal Cinemas.
Click here for information, maps, and a schedule of performances on the five stages. (Scroll down and click on the photo “Entertainment Schedule.”)
To help facilitate parking for the expected throng of street fair visitors, Knoxville Opera has arranged a park-and-ride system: the Garza Law Smart-Ride pick up and drop off zones brought to you by WATE 6 On Your Side Traffic. Attendees may utilize taxis or app-based transportation including Uber and Lyft to get to and from ancillary parking areas for enhanced convenience from four convenient designated sites. Check out the link above for information on that feature.
