The heart of downtown Chelsea becomes the heart of Michigan music every year for the Sounds & Sights Festival. With a car show, live music and local vendor showcases, this is one of Washtenaw County’s favorite events. This year, the festival experience amps up with a showcase of Michigan art and artists. GIG – The Art of Michigan Music Foundation is bringing together iconic visual artists to display their talent and educate the local community.
“We’re Sounds & Sights, GIG is kind of the sights of sound, so it made perfect sense. It’s just going to be an awesome addition to Sounds and Sites,” Executive Director of the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce Terris Ahrens said.
GIG works to bring together visual artists who create for and alongside musicians, such as concert photographers, album illustrators and poster designers. Across July 24 and 25, both GIG and the Sounds & Sights planning team have put together full days of exciting content, working to highlight Michigan artists of all mediums. Although this is the first year of the partnership between GIG and Sounds & Sights, GIG has done a similar showcase in Jackson, Michigan over the past two years. Artists, both new and returning, will be featured.
“Chelsea has got a great arts community, great support for the arts, and so I feel that it fits really well with [GIG] and I’m super happy to be part of that and it’s just another facet of Washtenaw County in general,” President of GIG Chuck Marshall said. “We have these hubs of Chelsea, Ypsi, Ann Arbor, that are these really big pots of super talented artists, and to be part of the festival in Chelsea, I’m super excited just to see all our artists getting some attention.”
The two-day event includes presentations and panels, both for and about various artistry mediums, a visual artist experience and more. All experiences at Sounds & Sights, including with GIG, are completely free, family-friendly and open to the public.
“I just want to expose these artists, because I think they’re awesome, and I want to show off their work, and I’m curious about their process,” Marshall said. “So that’ll be what I’ll be trying to dig out from each of them, is ‘what’s your process, how did you get into this and what do you love about it.’”
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Sounds & Sights is part of a larger multi-week experience. Every Thursday night from June 4 through July 30, there are 10 stages with a variety of musical acts with genres widely ranging from old time rock to silent disco and everything in between. For the festival lineup, some of the major acts include a local favorite with the Ben Daniels band, the Crashers and Magic Bus.
“My hope is that people show up and they enjoy this wonderful two-day festival that all of us are working so hard on, but while they’re here, they realize that there’s this amazing community in this amazing town for a lot of them right next door that maybe they haven’t been spending enough time in,” Ahrens said. “That’s what I love, it’s a super big fun weekend, but it’s also just wonderful exposure for our community and all the cool stuff we’re doing.”
The festival is a full-community effort. With local sponsors supporting in various capacities and volunteers staffing across all zones of the event, the Chelsea community has fully embraced the festival experience.
“There’s so much great art being produced in our state, so much in Washtenaw County, and this is a free opportunity to go check out a bunch of great stuff in Chelsea,” Marshall said. “I would encourage anybody that’s just looking for an awesome weekend, come to Chelsea.”
Attend the Sounds & Sights festival on July 24 and July 25 and learn more about GIG.
