Overview The Boston Arts Festival is a free weekend on the North End waterfront where Boston-area artists sell their own work from their own booths and local musicians play the main stage, and only Boston-area artists and musicians are booked. It takes over Christopher Columbus Park, the old fishing-wharf park beside Long Wharf, for two days each September. The festival started in 2003, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2016, and ran its 24th edition in 2025. Its mission is to give Boston-area fine artists a place to show and sell, and local musicians a bigger audience. On site The festival runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, rain or shine. Artists staff their own tents, and the festival sets out to have visitors talk with the people who made the work. The 2026 edition had 42 visual artists and 13 musical acts, among them Fly by Brass Band, Tokyo Tramps, Ray Liriano and Nicolena Cronin. The weekend opens Boston's fall Open Studios season. Brand presence Partners take a footprint in the park, from a 10-by-10 promotional space up to 20 by 40 feet for the presenting partner, who can also park a promotional vehicle in its space, speak from the main stage and hand out approved samples. Logos go on banners on the main stage and through the park, on the festival website and in its newsletters and social posts, and in the printed materials, which the festival circulates to visitor centers and hotels around Boston for months before the weekend. The top two levels carry exclusivity.