Celebrating 35 Years of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival

CherryArts brought 265 artists, live music and more to Denver’s Cherry Creek North over the July 4 weekend.

3 hours ago

Bryant Palmer,

Photo: Lucy Beaugard

An art lover strolling down 2nd Avenue on July 3 this year likely heard a common refrain from long-time attendees of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival: “This year’s show is so exciting!”

Though in its 35th year as one of Denver’s largest and most respected annual cultural events, the festival from nonprofit CherryArts never rests on its laurels. Thirty percent of this year’s exhibiting artists had never shown their work at the festival before; those 80 new artists, alongside 185 returning ones, helped give the festival a notably fresh vibe.

Photo: Lucy Beaugard

We met Kim Harrell, a silversmith based in Aurora who crafts distinctly textured objets d’art. We met Jonah Ballard, a traveling painter with a signature pink palette and hundreds of thousands of social media followers. We met Ingrid Humphrey, a sculptor from Florida whose Sister Dolls series evokes the best of American folk art.

The festival was full of stories, from the 265 exhibiting artists, the 13 live bands that played free shows all weekend, the cultural groups that brought pop-up performances to the streets and the attendees. The weather was hot and sunny, but that didn’t deter attendees from throughout metro Denver and from out of town.

Photo: Lucy Beaugard

Keen observers may have noticed several dozen students in red shirts on the first day of the festival. Those were art buyers from 23 different Colorado schools. CherryArts’ long-running Student Art Buying program provides an art-focused curriculum to local schools that teaches young people about the business of art.

Then, CherryArts hosts student representatives from each school at the festival, gives each group $500 to spend on original art and produces a Student Art Buying showcase for the new patrons to show off their selections. Since this program began, students from more than 450 schools have added nearly 1,400 works of original art to their schools’ lobbies and hallways.

Photo: Lucy Beaugard

This year’s five emerging artists continued the trend of raising the level of excitement at this year’s event. Situated together on a stretch of Steele Street, these five artists—three from Colorado, one from Oklahoma, one from Brooklyn—were each given $5,000 and months of mentorship by the CherryArts Emerging Artist grant program.

For the second year in a row, one of the emerging artists received an esteemed festival award, a 2026 Juror’s Award for Linda Bishara, which includes automatic admission into the 2027 show. (See the full list of 2026 award winners here.)

Photo: Lucy Beaugard

This beloved three-day festival supports the year-round work of CherryArts to bring art and art experiences to Coloradans, especially students. And the festival generates significant tourism dollars for Denver businesses, particularly in Cherry Creek North. Festival organizers say one of their favorite yearly happenings is the photographs that start to arrive the week after the festival, in their inboxes and on social media: art buyers sharing images of the art they purchased in their homes.

The 36th annual Cherry Creek Arts Festival will take place from July 2 to July 4, 2027. Support the year-round work of CherryArts here.