Festival on Green April 3 and 4

Bringing in crowds of more than 25,000, the University of West Florida’s annual Festival on the Green will be held April 3 and 4 at the UWF Main Campus. Events for participants of all age groups coupled with arts and crafts makes the festival a unique opportunity for everyone to explore their interests and kick-off spring UWF style.

“This spring we have come up with fresh ideas for many of our returning venues,” said Jeff Comeau, co-chair of Festival on the Green. “Participants can look forward to new historic periods, new exhibits in our Children’s Fair and a new expanded location for our Canine Sports Expo and one of our largest book sales ever. We’ll also have 20 groups providing amazing engineering and robotics demonstrations, a new student-sponsored Relay for Life and much more.”

The festival will include a crafts fair, a dog sports and fly ball exhibition, fine arts show displaying regional works, diversity showcase, library book sale and a children’s festival. Events also include an alumni jazz brunch and awards celebration, Time Portal to the Past, new acts on the three musical stages, new festival food and classic car show.

“We want to reach out to friends, community members and also to those people who have never visited UWF,” added Comeau. “This is a way to show our guests and friends the wide variety of things we offer here at UWF, as well as the opportunities that we provide for the community, whether it’s through entertainment or education.”

Off the Green events also include Jazz Fest, RadioLive and the UWF Department of Theatre’s production of “Into the Woods.”

“With the opening weekend of ‘Into the Woods’ the audience will see first-hand the talents of the theatre and music departments,” said Kyle Marrero, chair of the music department. “They can also run downtown to experience the Phillips Jazz Piano competition at the newly renovated Saenger Theatre.”

The Kathleen T. and Philip B. Phillips, M.D. Jazz Piano Competition, a nationally recognized jazz performance competition sponsored by UWF, will return this year as one of the festival’s main events. The final round of the competition will be held as a free public performance April 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Saenger Theatre located in downtown Pensacola.

“Festival on the Green is the best time of year for people to come out to campus and see everything that we do in the music, theatre and art department,” said Marrero. “It’s truly a festival for the eyes and ears.”

For more information, contact Comeau at (850) 474-2610 or e-mail jcomeau@uwf.edu. For a complete schedule of events, visit uwf.edu/festival.

Written by Megan Tyson, University Marketing Communications