The In The Soil Arts festival gets underway in St. Catharines today.
Performances, displays, and other artistic offerings will be spread out near downtown with several events happening on St. Paul Street and King Street.
Artistic Director Deanna Jones says some events will have limited participation as they ensure the safety of viewers and artists alike.
"We worked with a really wonderful consultant just to make sure that everything that we're sharing is safe for audiences, safe for artists and so we're just taking extra precautions. We have very limited seating for some of the events."
Along with the other displays, there will be a special memorial play space in front of the office at 36 James Street.
"We'll be out on the street and we'll be sharing some large scale games on the road that people can play. We're doing that to honour a dear friend of ours we lost this year, Dawn Crysler," Jones explains. "And so we really welcome everyone to come around and share a little friendly competition of four square or checkers in the spirit of Dawn."
Crysler was a well-known face among the folks at Suitcase In Point, Carousel Players, The Shaw Festival, and her colleagues at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.
Passes for the festival are available on the In The Soil website on a pay-what-you-can scale.
Although there are many events scheduled for this weekend, there are some events taking place into next month as well.