Garden in the Park, an art festival hosted annually by Keep Opelika Beautiful, will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, at Municipal Park in Opelika. This event focuses on promoting homemade goods, featuring over 30 homegrown art and food vendors, family-friendly activities and musical entertainment.
Keep Opelika Beautiful is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. The organization maintains a clean environment in Opelika, focusing on preventing litter, recycling and other beautification programs.
In 2005, Garden in the Park began as a fundraiser for a little red caboose that was originally located at the Train Depot. According to executive director Priscilla Blythe, KOB continues to fundraise for projects throughout the community with Garden in the Park.
“It's just a fundraiser, and it's really the only thing in Opelika like this,” Blythe said. “It's a great service for the community so that our local artists come and showcase their work and let the community come to see it and buy from them.”
Garden in Park is set to have 30 art vendors, but Blythe said in previous years that this number can increase drastically in just a week.
With a focus on homemade and homegrown goods, KOB is not planning to have food trucks at Garden in the Park. Instead, shoppers can expect fried fish, fried green tomatoes, kettle corn, snow balls and vendors selling fresh bread and eggs.
“There's lots of places to resell, buy and resell online and other things like that. It's harder for the artists to sell their own,” Blythe said. “We want to provide an opportunity for people that do create and grow and are doing things on [their own] to showcase their talents.”
Entertainment will include performances from local musical groups, free train rides from the Rocky Brook Rocket, face painting and other arts and crafts activities. Guests are also encouraged to enter the raffle hosted at Garden in the Park to win fun prizes.
Blythe emphasized that this event is for the whole family, but kindly asked guests to leave personal pets at home.
Blythe thanked sponsors Glynn Smith, The Orion Companies, Stone Martin Builders and ESG for their contributions and is excited for the community to support local artists for another year of Garden in the Park.
“I love seeing the community come together. I love watching the performers, meeting the artists, listening to them talk about their craft and creations,” Blythe said. “I've always gone home with quite a few things myself.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Jennifer Santiago is a freshman in exploratory studies from Enterprise, AL. Santiago has been with The Auburn Plainsman since Fall 2024.
