Something New for San Anselmo Art & Design Festival

Something New for San Anselmo Art Design Festival
For the first time in 21 years, San Anselmo is adding a gourmet cooking and home/landscape design component to its annual Art & Design Festival, set for next weekend.

More than 50,000 people typically flood town for this celebration that raises money for the San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce. Traditionally, the festival teams the purchasable creations of 200 artists with two days of free entertainment and more than a dozen food booths, where folks line up to buy everything from snacks to full meals, plus soft drinks, wine and beer.

With the addition of this year's new culinary and home components, the crowds are expected to swell even more, says event producer Steve Restivo. The San Rafael resident is founder of Steve Restivo Productions, which also produces San Francisco's annual Union Street Festival, held in June, as well.

"One of the reasons we came up with this concept is that, since so many festivals have been around now for so many years, we needed to do something different," Restivo explains. "We saw a huge boom in people's interest in cooking, home and gardening, thanks to shows on HGTV and the Food Network."

According to Connie Rodgers, president of the San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce, the additions to this year's festival are a breakthrough not just for the town, but for Marin's festival scene in general.