A weekend for the arts in Amherstburg.
ART by the RIVER, which is held annually the weekend before Labour Day weekend, is the major fundraiser for the Gibson Gallery.
The Arts and Crafts Festival, which was first held in 1967, is Essex County's original Arts and Crafts Show which has grown into an end of summer tradition in Amherstburg, attracting 170 artists and artisans from across Ontario.
2024 will be the 57th year for the event which will run on both Saturday and Sunday.
It's held at the Fort Malden National Historic Site of Canada, located at 100 Laird Avenue.
Admission is $5 but children 12 and under can enter free when they're accompanied by an adult.
Emma Laframboise, one of the student workers at the Gibson Gallery, says this year they have a couple different changes.
"So we have more towards the kids entertainment. We have a clown coming, and then we have magicians on site. Myself and the other student teacher will be working a kids station we like to call it, a little artisan station. We're going to have whiteboards for drawing and class information for our next season of classes coming up," she said.
Laframboise says there's always drink and food vendors, along with live music and some plein air artists.
"They'll paint what they see, they'll paint the waterfront, they'll paint the event live as it's going on. So we're super, super, super excited to have them there and they'll be sort of scattered around the park painting different things. So if you like to see live art that's totally available for you there."
She says usually they see around 10,000 to 15,000 come through during the event.
"We have lots of children, people of all ages, there's definitely a huge variety of people. Especially people of Amherstburg love to come down, but last year we had some people from Nunavut and others from way up north in Canada coming to visit Amherstburg," she said.
ART by the RIVER is an outdoor show that takes place rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.