Arts, Beats & Eats off to a good start

ROYAL OAK — Arts, Beats & Eats has kicked off the annual Labor Day weekend, and the party has just gotten started. 

At around 2 p.m. Aug. 30, the first day of the event, the streets of downtown Royal Oak were packed with hundreds of people.

With nine stages of music performances playing at once, 125 artists selling their work, and 50 different food trucks or restaurant options, the event was sure to bring a huge crowd.

Inty Muenala is an Ecuadorian man who lives in Michigan. He has been attending Arts, Beats & Eats for around seven years. At the festival, Muenala is selling homemade Native American-style clothing, jewelry and art.

“I love it here; there have been a lot of people coming through today,” he said. 

Muenala said he loves selling the clothes of his culture and representing his family's hard work. Setting up a booth at Arts, Beats & Eats has become a tradition for him, and he appreciates being able to showcase his culture.

Muenala and his family own a store called “NTVES” located in the Mall at Partridge Creek at 17420 Hall Road in Clinton Township.

Olivia Mac is at Arts, Beats & Eats for the second year as a promoter for House of Dank products and events. Mac does not work for HOD, but is volunteering as a promoter.

“Last year was my first year, and I thought it was really interesting,” she said. “I’ve been to the Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, but this is still different — it’s not solely cannabis related, we also have everything else like Breezes (an electronic vape), mint extracts and other things that we have going on.”

Located at Sixth and Center streets, people can visit Dank Land, an immersive pop-up experience that includes merchandise, lounge seating, music and entertainment. The area was decorated with gigantic clouds following the “High in the Sky” theme.

“Today it has been a little slow, but I think we have got a lot more coming later. We got some girls that are going to do some fire tricks and hula hooping,” Mac said. “So that’s going to be really cool. Last year was really popping, and this year, it is looking just as promising. I think it’s great.”

Dank Way is the second installation from HOD, located on Seventh Street between Washington Avenue and Center Street. The space allows for festival attendees 21 and older to purchase and enjoy cannabis products.

“I’ve seen a lot of traffic going through Dank Way, but yeah, I love it,” she said.

Around the corner of the HOD installations, attendees can find the artists who make up the “art” in Arts, Beats & Eats.

Shelly Knupp, the owner of Through the Fire, Fused Glass Creations LLC, is back at the festival for the second year showcasing and selling her handmade dichroic jewelry and fused glass sculptures.

“I found out about it on an artist website and I looked at the music for the past few festivals and I was like, ‘Wow, those are some names that I am really interested in; it will probably be some good music,’ so I applied,” she said.

Knupp comes from Dayton, Ohio, where she works from home on her art full time. She said she has three firing kilns in her basement. Knupp said she mostly sells art at different art fairs, but she also has art selling at different boutiques and health care institution gift shops.

“It’s kind of a crazy way to choose to live,” she said. “But it’s very gratifying to be able to be creative for a living.”

Knupp said that Arts, Beats & Eats in 2023 was her most successful show ever, but she said that it’s nearly impossible to tell if this year will be the same or worse.

“Last year, this was my biggest show ever,” she said. “Today is a little slower, but who the heck knows; if you could predict art shows and sell that algorithm to other artists, you would make a million dollars.”

Knupp will have her art for sale all four days of the festival, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Arts, Beats & Eats is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug. 31 through Sept. 1 and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 2. Tickets can be purchased at artsbeatseats.com.

Admission costs $10 before 3 p.m. and $12 after 3 p.m. every day of the festival. Cash and credit card transactions will be accepted at the gate entrances.