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Family Guide to Arts Beats and Eats 2018

Tips and tricks for getting the most out of the festival

By Karen Evans, Publisher August 30, 2018

Arts, Beats & Eats 2018 has arrived! Considering attending the festival with your kids? Here is what you need to know!

Cost: Assuming two adults and two kids over 3, who visit the festival for lunch and two rides each, you're probably looking at $70 including parking, or $52 without parking.

  • parking: $0-$10-$15 {see details below}
  • admission: $0-$3-$5-$7 {see details below}
  • food: 16 tickets for $10 
  • rides: $2.50-$3.75 per ride

Admission: The admission price gives you a festival wristband that allows you to enter/exit the festival that day, provided that you don't remove the wristband. Includes admission to general seating at any of the concert stages (including the ABE National Stage - Michigan Lottery Stage). VIP tickets to the main stage are available at an additional cost.

  • Kids under 3 are FREE all weekend!
  • Admission to the event is free on Friday from 11-5; Friday admission is $7 after 5 p.m.
  • Admission the rest of the event (Sat/Sun/Mon) is $3 before 3 p.m., $5 from 3-5 p.m, and $7 after 5 p.m.

Business Closures and Business Deals

  • Some businesses are closed this weekend, so call ahead before you visit your favorite Royal Oak store or restaurant. 
  • Other businesses are offering special deals throughout the weekend -- check out the full list here!

Events to Check Out

  • Get Fit! Lots of fun fitness options are included in the festival. Contrary to usual advice, LEAVE your water bottle at home -- no outside food or drink is permitted into the festival. Most of the fee-based classes include bottled water in the price.
    • Life Time Fitness Classes at Main and Fourth Street. All classes are a $10 minimum donation. Proceeds go to Life Time Foundation and Ford Arts Beats & Eats festival. Life Time Foundation is committed to removing the seven most harmful ingredients that is fed to children, most commonly found in food provided by their school system. 
      • Dance Jam 8-9 p.m. Friday (you can register online in advance. Advance registration gets you two admission passes to the festival, free parking at Royal Oak High School and free shuttle, a cocktail voucher for a free themed cocktail from the Life Time bar near the Ford Performance Pit Stage, plus the chance to win one free trip to Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort and the chance to win 2 free VIP tickets to that evening's mainstage show)
      • Warrior Sculpt 1 p.m. Saturday. Attendees will receive smoothie tickets that can be redeemed at the Life Time Smoothie Tent. 
      • Gluteus Maxout 1 p.m. Sunday
      • Strike Class (kickboxing/MMA combo) 9:30 a.m. Monday (you can register online in advance. Advance registration gets you two admission passes to the festival, free parking at Royal Oak High School and free shuttle, and post-class mimosas)
    • Life Time Fun Fit Kids Classes: 20 minute classes for kids following each of the above-listed adult classes. Held on the Detroit Institute of Arts Kids Stage.
    • Priority Health Zumbathon: Saturday 10-11:30 a.m. Last year over 1500 people participated in this huge Zumba Fitness party at the festival. This year will include over 150 Zumba instructors from across Michigan. Zumbathon will benefit Paws With A Cause this year. Paws With A Cause enhances the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs. Registrants must be over 16 or be accompanied by an adult. You can register online for just $8, which gets you free admission for you AND a guest to the festival, free parking from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. on Satuday in the Center Street Parking Garage (300 S. Center) in Downtown Royal Oak and a bottle of water.
    • Priority Health Practice for a Purpose: Two large-group yoga classes Sunday at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Classes are $10 each or $15 for both. Class price includes free parking at the Center Street Parking Garage (300 S. Center), two free admission passes to the festival, and free water.
      • 9 a.m.: Thrive Hot Yoga will present its Original Hot Yoga class, which will feature 26 postures and two breathing exercises. The all-inclusive class, recommended for all experience levels, will offer something for everyone. This class with benefit The Chika Fund at the Have Faith Haiti Mission will cover life-saving medical costs and health care, including inoculations, nutrition, regular doctor checkups, medical tests and if-needed hospitalizations
      • 10:30 a.m.: Citizen Yoga, the first yoga studio in metro Detroit to offer alignment-based Vinyasa, Blend and Slow Burn classes, will host a class during the festival. Proceeds from the class will proudly benefit HAVEN of Oakland County, providing shelter, counseling, advocacy and educational programming to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
  • Oakland Community College (OCC) Culinary Demo 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. on Friday on the OCC Stage., and 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. on Monday on the OCC Stage. Chef Athena Bolger CCC, FMP will demonstrate infusing tasty spirits and use those same spirits to build the perfect cocktail, prepare a summertime crowd-pleasing pitcher of libations and a pitcher of mocktails. Award winning Chef Doug Ganhs CEC and his amazingly talented protégés will demonstrate how to create vibrant hand carved fruit and vegetable centerpieces to brighten up your table.
  • Silent Disco. New to Arts, Beats and Eats, the Silent Disco might be a lot of fun for older kids through teens, as well as for adults. More than just an experience for the ears, the silent disco is a massive dance party where people are dancing and having fun in an environment that is completely silent of music. With 300 headphones on site, this year’s first-ever silent disco will offer attendees their choice between two colored channels with music provided by world renown DJs, including DJ DomiNate from Traverse City and Detroit's own DJ Psycho.  Silent Disco sessions happen as listed below; links are provided to each DJ if you want to check them out in advance before deciding whether it's appropriate for your family:
  • Autism Alliance of Michigan Family Days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Check-in begins 9:30 a.m.; you must be checked in before noon. One sign-up per family includes free admission for up to 5 family members on the day of choice, free parking at the Sherman and Lafayette Parking Structure, free carnival rides (open an hour before the festival opens at 10 a.m.), free bottle of Aquafina water upon entering the festival between 10 a.m. - noon, and free lunch for the first 550 registrants featuring Milo's Tea. Must have a family member on the ASD spectrum to be eligible. Registration info and link here: http://artsbeatseats.com/family-days/
  • Meters Made Beautiful: Amateur and pro artists have made some beautifully fancy and cool updates to parking meters around town. Check out the gallery here and then go find them in real life! Would make a fun scavenger hunt activity for the kids!
  • On Stage. Since Beats is the festival's middle name, there is way more music to enjoy than we have space to write about. See the full lineup here. A few things you might want to check out with the family:
    • The Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music: Royal Oak's own rock band music school has students performing twice this weekend. Catch them Friday at 11:30 a.m. on the Soaring Eagle Rock Stage, and Friday at 1:30 p.m. on the Detroit Institute of Arts Kids Stage.
    • The full Flagstar Bank International Stage lineup is totally worth checking out. What better way to learn about different cultures around the world than through their music? They've got everything from Polynesian Dance to klezmer music to Irish dance, and beyond.  Also check out the Aston Neighborhood Pleasure Club, performing on Sunday at 5:45 p.m. The ANPC features at least one Ferndale dad and is just a fun group to listen to!
    • Detroit Circus Friday at 11:45 a.m., Saturday at 11:30 a.m., and 5 p.m. in the Think Ford First Performance Pit. 
    • Dueling Pianos Friday at 5:30 p.m., Saturday at 6:30 p.m., Sunday at 6:30 p.m. and Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Think Ford First Performance Pit.
    • George Tait, Mind Tapped (psychological magic show) Friday at 1 p.m. in the Think Ford First Performance Pit. 
    • The entire DIA Kids Stage, featuring everything from storytelling to science to magic tricks and puppet shows.
  • Detroit News Kids Zone. In addition to the DIA Kids Stage, the Kids Zone includes: 
    •  FREE Arts & Crafts, presented by Oakland County.  The crafts will be put together by Detroit based non-profit Arts and Scraps.  Utilizing recycled materials from around Detroit kids and adults can create a musical instrument and learn about unusual food, as well as invent the perfect food, play a junk xylophone or build a giant marble run and see how many sounds can be created on the musical ramp.
    • Detroit Red Wings Hockey Skills Challenges. An interactive hockey zone with Electronic Top Shot Net, Hockey tables, video games and the opportunity to win player autographed merchandise and tickets to the upcoming Red Wings hockey season.
    • Moonwalks by Inflatable Playspaces in Royal Oak
Getting There/Parking:
  • Walk: If you live within walking distance of downtown Royal Oak, your best bet is to walk or bike. It adds to the fun, and will definitely be easier on your wallet! All residential streets within a mile or so of the event are permit parking only, with permits valid only within a few hundred feet of each house (so if you have a permit for your street, you can't use it to park on a street closer to the fair). All parking meters downtown (even those that are outside the festival area) are closed as well. 
  • Bike: If you bike, you can park your bike for free on Washington just south of Lincoln or on Washington near Second Ave; there will be 900 spots total available. The festival has compiled suggested bike routes here! Bike corral hours: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Fri-Sun and 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Mon.
  • Sanctioned Lots: Starting 1:30 p.m. Friday, festival-sanctioned lots will start charging $15 per car for parking, and starting 5:00 pm. on Friday, festival-sanctioned garages will start charging $15 per car for parking as well. Festival-sanctioned lots/garages have an orange "Park for Parks" logo. Revenue from these parking areas supports police, fire and other public services for the event, with surplus going to support Royal Oak parks. A list of sanctioned parking areas is here. Other private entities may charge more/less for parking in their lots. 
  • Shuttle: Saturday through Monday, if you need to drive but want to save a few dollars, or if you live closer to the north end of the city, you can park at/walk to Royal Oak High School and take the shuttle from there. Parking at the high school is $10, but riding the shuttle is free! ROHS is at 1500 Lexington Blvd in Royal Oak (just off Crooks between 13 and 14 mile). The shuttle will run 10:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Sat and Sun, and 10:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. Monday and drops off near the Royal Oak Post Office.
  • Bus: SMART is the green way to the annual Arts, Beats and Eats festival this year in downtown Royal Oak! Riding SMART to the festival helps the environment, saves you money and helps avoid the hassle of parking and traffic congestion. Several routes will take you directly to the festival. Not sure which route works for you? There are two ways to find your ride SMART. Call SMART Customer Information at 866.962.5515 to talk with a representative. Or, visit www.smartbus.org and check out the Google Transit Trip Planning feature.
  • Stay updated: Tune into 1640 AM for updated parking info throughout the weekend. 

Strollers

Strollers are welcome at Arts, Beats & Eats, but depending on the level of crowds, you'll need to navigate carefully. If the weather is moderate and dry, expect the streets to be wall-to-wall people, which can make stroller travel a little tricky. When that happened to us one year, we just stuck by the Kids Zone, which is where our crew wanted to hang out anyway, and then my husband and I returned later that evening for a date night. If you have little ones and can check it out on Friday, that will probably be the least crowded option.

Food

"Eats" is right in the name, so you know that food is part of this festival. Food and beverage tickets are 16 for $10. You cannot bring in any outside food/drink (except for little kids sippy cups/baby bottles). Vendor rates for their items vary -- last year bottled water could be had for 1-3 tickets, and food items from the more well-known restaurant participants were around 4-8 tickets. The booths will be labeled to indicate options that are low fat, gluten free, low carb, sugar free and vegan. A few recommendations:

  • Achatz Pies (mmm...pie!)
  • Atomic Coffee (I mean...it's coffee!)
  • Cool Jacks (yummy ice cream sandwiches)
  • La Feast (delicious Mediterranean) 
  • The full list is here: http://artsbeatseats.com/eats/

Some of the restaurants downtown (including within the festival area) will remain open for the weekend, providing alternative options. One great local spot is The General Store on Washington (near the train tracks), which will have its usual stock of snack items, juices, water, milk and specialty items. If the food vendor crowds are overwhelming, the General Store might be a good place to grab a protein bar or some crackers and find a picnic spot nearby.

Rides

There are two ride areas: Sherman Ave parking lot (north end of the event, near D'Amatos) and the parking lot bordered by Seventh Ave and Main St. Rides will cost 4-6 tickets (ride tickets are purchased separately from food/beverage tickets), which equals to $2.50-$3.75 per ride.

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