A Guide to Cary’s Lazy Daze Festival 2021

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Cary, NC — Next weekend the Cary Town Hall campus will be flooded with the smells of barbeque, the sounds of live music and wonderful sights of artwork from all over the country.

That’s right, the 45th Annual Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival is almost here and we’ve put together a quick guide to help you make the most of this highly-anticipated two-day event.

When:

Saturday, August 28, 2021 | 9 AM – 6 PM

Sunday, August 29, 2021 | 12:30 – 5 PM

Where:

Cary Town Hall Campus, 316 N. Academy Street

Downtown Cary

What Will 2021 Lazy Daze Look Like?

For those unfamiliar with this festival, it is an event well-recognized as one of the top art festivals in the country. Lazy Daze will take place on the Town Hall Campus in Downtown Cary next weekend and it will include 184 artists from 16 states. Thirteen of the artist chosen for the festival are local Cary residents.

This impressive lineup of artists will bring all sorts of creative works to Downtown Cary, including:

  • Ceramics
  • Digital art
  • Drawing
  • Fiber & Leatherworks
  • Furniture
  • Jewelry
  • Mixed Media
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Printmaking
  • Sculpture
  • Wood

In addition to the artists’ displays, there will be live entertainment, food and drink vendors and many more exhibits to enjoy.

To see all participating vendors, entertainers, activities, guidelines and more, see the full 2021 Lazy Daze information pamphlet or the Lazy Daze webpage.

Parking & Finding Your Way Around

Arrive on Foot, By Shuttle or RideShare

Visitors to the festival can park in Downtown Cary and explore the local businesses on their way to the festival. If spots are hard to come by though, there will be a free shuttle bus running from Green Hope High School in West Cary, located at 2500 Carpenter Upchurch Road.

These busses will be departing at 8:30 AM on Saturday and at 12 PM on Sunday. The last busses of the evenings will leave the festival at 6:30 PM Saturday and 5:30 PM Sunday.

A third option is to use a ridesharing service such as Uber or Lyft. For this, there will be a safe drop-off area within the Fire Department Administration parking lot, located between the railroad tracks on Academy Street a short walking distance from the festival. a limited amount of accessible parking spaces will also be available in this lot.

Color-Coded Booth Map

Looking for a specific artist, vendor or the kids’ section of the festival? The best way to get your bearings at the festival is the color-coded map which separates the festival site into 5 sections.

The full list of artists will be available at two information tents the day of, or online in the 2021 Lazy Daze information pamphlet. On these lists, each artist is shown in their category of work and a particular color, noting which section of the Town Hall campus you will find them.

If you still have questions or get turned around, there will be plenty of helpful volunteers on site!

Local Pub Hosts a Lazy Daze After Party

If you don’t want the fun to end at 6:00, no problem. At the end of the first day of the festival on Saturday, August 28, Crosstown Pub & Grill in Downtown Cary will be hosting their third installment of their Summer Music Series.

Conveniently, this provides a great opportunity for festival-goers to walk over to enjoy an unofficial after-party.

The live performances will begin at Crosstown at 6 PM and finish around 9 PM. The two featured performers this time around will be Casey Ukulele and Lounge Doctors.

Story by Ashley Kairis. Photos courtesy of the Town of Cary and Brooke Meyer.

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