Features: 100 juried artists, gallery open studios, restaurant exhibitions throughout downtown, music and sidewalk, chalk drawing for all

Arts Fest Beverly will feature many attractions this Saturday, June 21: Free parking; 100 juried artists exhibiting everything from fine art to jewelry; music; exhibitions in many downtown restaurants; a kids center, even interactive, communal sidewalk chalk art a la Mary Poppins — just stop by, pick up a piece of chalk and start drawing.

One thing it won’t have will be the wafting odor of fried, greasy sausages and fried dough.

Beverly Main Streets, which organizes the annual event, allows no outside food vendors at the festival, which draws about 4,000 people every year.

“Beverly has many fine restaurants offering a wide variety of foods in many price ranges,” said Gin Wallace, Main Streets executive director. “We can’t see competing with our own restaurants.”

This year’s festival will include an 80 percent return rate for exhibiting artists, mostly from the North Shore and many from Beverly.

“We try to have something for everyone,” said Jennifer Pierce, show chairwoman and exhibiting artist.

This year, for the first time, students from Beverly High School and Recovery High School, located in the Cummings Center, will be exhibiting and selling their work.

The students will be exhibiting at Ellis Square, near the Art on the Spot sidewalk chalk art interactive exhibition sponsored by Montserrat College of Art students.

The jury judged artists’ work via photos and the show bans mass-produced work out of hand. Photographic prints must be limited to 500 from one image. Parts of finished works can’t be mass produced or consist of “embellished prefabricated items.”

“This is all original work made by the exhibiting artists,” said Wallace.

General categories include fine art, photography, jewelry, fiber, wood, sculpture, glass, ceramics and mixed media.

Organizers purposely expanded the festival’s scope this year to encompass the whole of Beverly’s downtown art scene.

“We have so many art resources surrounding us in the city including Montserrat College of Art, Endicott College, many local galleries and artists at large that we have expanded his year’s festival to include a variety of interactive art activities, open studios, art galleries, community booths, children’s activities and street entertainers in addition to the 100 artisans,” said Pierce.