SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN) — In Santa Cruz County, Tubac Festival of the Arts is taking place from Wednesday, Feb. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 11. The festival is located near 2 Tubac Rd.
The festival is open from 10am to 5pm each day, except Sunday when it will be ending at 4pm.
The festival is one of Tubac’s most well-known and popular events of the year, drawing in vendors and visitors from all over the country.
The Tubac Chamber of Commerce President Randy Wade said, “It’s really what put Tubac on the map, more than anything. If you talk to people a lot of times their first visit to Tubac is for the Festival of the Arts.”
This year’s five-day festival features more than 200 arts vendors, food, live music and horse-drawn trolley rides in addition to the town’s local shops and galleries. It has been taking place every year since 1959 and is spread out across four different streets.
“We have fine art, some crafts, some jewelry, but we really focus on fine art and really good quality art,” Wade said.
One of the festival’s artists, Barbara Meikle, has been attending for about a decade, traveling from Santa Fe, NM.
Meikle said, “It’s a very artistic town, the people are warm and welcoming. Whenever you get a lot of artists together, it’s always a lot of fun.”
She loves doing live paintings during the festival to not only show people her painting process, but for a greater cause.
“I raise money for animal rescue so one of the things I like to do is have live models, so we started incorporating that in this whole experience,” Meikle explained.
She said a portion of her sales from her live paintings will be donated to benefit animals.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
