With the peak of the Summer months beginning to die down, the committee for the Helper Arts Festival is preparing for what might be the biggest rendition of the festival to date, with this year marking 30 years of the celebration. The kickoff event is a gallery stroll through Helper, and Castle Country Radio sat down with Marilou Kundmueller to talk about the event and the festival as a whole.

Opening us up, Kundmueller talked about what the gallery stroll entails,” the festival starts on Friday with the booths opening up at 3 p.m., but usually on Thursday we have the gallery stroll where Main Street is shutdown, and it’s a big event that kind of kicks off the festival weekend.” Kundmueller continued,” Last year what we did was had a drawing where the participants in the gallery stroll could sign a ticket in each gallery that they visited. All those tickets were pulled together at the end of the night, and one gift certificate was given away for $500 to spend on fine art in the town. But this year, in honor of the 30th anniversary, we have three $500 gift certificates for artwork and a $50 gift certificate for each business participating in the stroll.”

Kundmueller also took the time to explain what her favorite part of the festival was, stating,” I enjoy working with the members of the board who have a passion for making the Arts Festival a thoughtful and fun event for the whole community.”

Closing out our interview, Kundmueller left the listeners with a tip for engaging in the gallery stroll,” Engage with the artists and the gallery people and look at the artwork as if you might be able to buy it and put it on your wall. Ask questions, find something that you would enjoy.”

The Helper Arts Festival Gallery Stroll will be held Thursday, Aug. 15 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Helper Main Street. For more information on the Helper Arts Festival, you can visit its website or Facebook page.