Over the last 15 years, Hyattsville’s Arts & Ales Festival has become the signature event for the Route 1 corridor and surrounding area.

The free event, which is open to the public and scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, will showcase nearly 100 artists and crafters working in various mediums, along with craft alcohol, local restaurants, and live music.

Now in its 15th year, the annual festival takes place along several blocks in downtown Hyattsville, just off Baltimore Avenue, and is expected to attract around 5,000 people.

After an initial effort fizzled in 2004, the festival started in earnest in 2009 as EYA was building the Arts District row homes. Working with local groups, the developer held a small arts festival with about 30 vendors to help sell homes.

Other developers also supported the festival the first few years, but once the homes were sold, the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation (CDC) took over full responsibility and began expanding it, adding local brewers in 2016.

This year’s festival will also feature local favorites Franklins, Denizens Brewing Co., Streetcar 82 Brewing Co. and Maryland Meadworks as well as Twin Valley Distillers, Bullshine Distillery, Liquid Intrusion and The Brewer’s Art from elsewhere in Maryland.

Stuart Eisenberg, executive director of the Hyattsville CDC, told the Hyattsville Wire the event generates about a half million dollars and valuable publicity for the city as an arts and dining destination.

“The word gets out regionally and statewide that Hyattsville and the Arts are indelibly linked,” he said.

For the 15th anniversary, DJs with the Hy-Fi Groove Society will hold a dance party on the lawn on Farragut Street at the end of the festival while vendors and officials break down the tents.

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