Foo Fest, AS220's legendary summer block party fundraiser, returns for the first time since 2018!
On Saturday, August 9th, from 1 PM to midnight, AS220 shuts down our block of Empire Street in downtown Providence and spills out onto the street. Foo Fest attendees can expect 11 hours of music, dance, and performance on two stages, hands-on art making demos and activities, interactive installations and spectacles from local creative minds, food and drink from local vendors, and the opportunity to participate in our creative community with thousands of other people. This year, Foo Fest coincides with the 40th anniversary of AS220's founding and celebrates the unjuried, uncensored, and all-ages access to arts and creativity that the organization provides to all Rhode Islanders.
In 1985, AS220 was founded as a reaction to the stifling arts and cultural atmosphere in our country, putting forth the radical idea that everyone is an artist and that creative expression is amongst the highest forms of self actualization. As we honor our past, we also reflect upon how the repression that reared its head in the '80s impacts us once again in our current moment and take heart in the knowledge that artists give us the tools to learn, resist, and create the future we want to see.
Foo Fest 2025 commemorates the creative, joyful, spirited resistance and community solidarity that have been at the heart of AS220 for four decades, and all are invited to celebrate, dance, sing, and strive for a just world with us.
Also check out other Festivals in Providence, Arts events in Providence, Nonprofit events in Providence.
