<a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/?attachment_id=8183" rel="attachment wp-att-8183"><img src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Picture-52-500x332.png" alt="Mayfest Photo from Mayfest Facebook" title="Mayfest Photo from Mayfest Facebook" width="500" height="332" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-8183" /></a>

What do 120 artists, a mobile art bus, professional cloggers, a geological dig, 75 performers, something called a nacholupa and downtown Tulsa have in common?

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<strong>39th Annual Mayfest</strong>
When: Thursday-Saturday, 11am-11pm; Sunday, 11am-6pm
Where: On Main Street from 3rd past 6th
Cost: Free.

Some of my favorite things about Mayfest this year, some old, some new: 
Bike Valet. Tulsa Hub is a non-profit bicycle resource and bicycling advocacy organization promoting action transportation and human-power initiatives. Offering a no-charge secure bicycle valet at Mayfest and showcasing innovative bicycle art and engineering projects, Tulsa Hub will also provide information about ongoing local bicycling activities, educational opportunities and vehicular-cycling consciousness.  Come to 3rd & Main to secure your bicycle.
Youth Art Gallery: The Youth Art Gallery, located in the Performing Arts Center at 3rd and Cincinnati, proudly displays art from over 500 talented students of Tulsa County.  The Youth Art Gallery will be open Thursday-Saturday 11am-6pm and Sunday 11am-3pm and is sponsored by Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
Invitational Gallery: The Invitational Gallery will host Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, panel discussion with Green Country farmers presented by Tulsa Green Drinks on Saturday, May 21st at 6pm.  This event will feature vendors from the Cherry St. Farmers Market who will take questions from Tulsans eager to learn more about why it is so important to source food locally.  Free and open to the public. 
“Green” Gallery: PaperView: This 2011 Mayfest specialty gallery has been created to showcase artwork created in the spirit of Tulsa’s sustainable future.  The Green Gallery was first displayed at Tulsa International Mayfest in 2010 and was inspired by Mayfest’s move towards a more sustainable festival and Tulsa’s development of a more sustainable future. Over twenty Tulsa artists repurposed a variety of materials from wood to textiles to electronics.  This year’s gallery will focus on artwork made with reused, repurposed or recycled paper products.  Awards will be given for Best in Show and Best Use of Materials at the opening reception on Thursday, May 19th from 5-7pm, which is free and open to the public.  The “Green” Gallery: PaperView is located in the lobby of the Park Centre Building at 525 S. Main. The “Green” Gallery will be open Thursday 11am-7pm, Friday – Saturday 11am-6pm and Sunday 11am-3pm and is sponsored by Waste Management, hosted by Kanbar Properties. 
Performing Artists: With over 75 performances on 3 stages, you’re sure to find a performance to enjoy at Mayfest!  Be sure to catch the free national headliner act Phil Brown’s Guitar Army at the Williams Green Stage at 3rd and Boston at 9:30pm on Saturday night.
KidZone: Mayfest's KidZone is expanding in 2011!  Bring your children to KidZone to create art projects, chase bubbles, draw with sidewalk chalk, play catch in the park and listen to great musical performances on the KidZone Stage.  In addition to all of the fun art activities we’ve had in the past, we are adding a fossil dig tent this year.  Tulsa Geosciences Center will be leading the fossil dig and kids can take home what they find!  Be sure to visit on Saturday to participate in the Bear Clinic presented by The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis and enjoy the national entertainment acts presented by the Tulsa Children’s Museum and Tulsa City-County Library.  Art in Motion will feature a Tulsa Transit bus being painted by students of the Tulsa Girls’ Art School on Saturday.  KidZone is located at 6th and Main on the H.A. Chapman Centennial Green and features a variety of activities for children of all ages to enjoy the arts.  A complete KidZone schedule is listed before the performance schedule.  KidZone will be open Thursday-Saturday 11am-7pm and Sunday 11am-6pm and is sponsored by The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis and Williams.
Tulsa International Mayfest Festival Chair, Mary Jo Sartain, 
announced today that the Mayfest Mural will be reinstalled before Mayfest 2011.  The 
mural artist, William Franklin, will begin painting the mural at Third and Main on May 9th, 
weather permitting.   
The return of the Mayfest mural. The mural which was begun in 2007 was painted over late last year when the Hyatt  Regency took over the hotel property which had been part of the Crowne Plaza family. The entire outside of the hotel will be repainted to reflect the new Hyatt Regency ownership. Four years of the mural had been painted over.
Art in Motion
 
Tulsa Transit and Tulsa Girls Art School Project, Inc., again have partnered together to paint an “Art in Motion” bus at Mayfest. For the second year, students from Tulsa GAS will transform a 35-foot Tulsa Transit bus into moveable art. 
 
The bus will be painted on Saturday, May 21, beginning at 11 a.m. at Mayfest’s KidZone at the H.A. Chapman Green, located at 6th and Main.
Last year’s Art in Motion bus featured the downtown Tulsa skyline. This year, Tulsa GAS students will paint a representation of Tulsa’s “green country.” The purpose of Art in Motion is to raise awareness of Tulsa Transit and Tulsa GAS, and to inspire people to see art and beauty in everyday objects. 

More than 350,000 are expected to attend Mayfest this year - that's quite a difference from the first Mayfest back in '78. Crazy. 


Up for grabs: 

A $50 gift card toward the purchase of art to be used during the festival; 
Two Mayfest t-shirts ($30 value)
A signed Mayfest poster ($25 value)

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post about the first thing you do when you get to Mayfest. If you've never been, and after having read everything that's going to be going on there this year, tell us what you think you'll tackle first on your maiden voyage. 

<strong>I'll accept entries until tomorrow (Thursday) at 10am</strong>, and I'll announce the winner shortly after, before the festival opens at 11am. Random.org will separate the really lucky from the not lucky enough. 

May the force be with you.

Other Mayfest stuff on TDT: 
Ask a Tulsa Celebrity: What's your favorite Mayfest food (answered by Dewey Bartlett, Eric Himan, Chera Kimiko and Rick Couri, Julie Chin and Okie the Bull Shark at Oklahoma Aquarium). 

<em>Mayfest photo from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tulsainternationalmayfest">Mayfest on Facebook</a>.</em>