Watch the video to see how much fun we had at the Omaha Summer Arts Festival

Last month the 38^th Annual Omaha Summer Arts Festival was held in downtown Omaha. It was the first time that my boyfriend, Tim, and I had ever been. Once we got there we wanted to check out all of the art booths. It was really cool and there were so many different styles. They had photographs, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and wood items, just to name a few. The 135 artists were from 26 states and seven of those were from Nebraska.

It was a beautiful night in downtown Omaha. Around 80,000 people attend the three-day event.

There was beautiful art everywhere. I’d like to make this a yearly event for us and see all of the new items displayed every year.

What’s for dinner?

We knew that we wanted to eat dinner at the Festival and picking out what to eat was just as hard to decide as our art favorites. It smelled so good while we were walking around and there were all different foods to choose from. We saw Maryland crab cakes and gyros but I noticed a pizza oven towards the beginning of the night so I knew I wanted to make my way back there. I’m obsessed with pizza, especially thin, tasty pizza. Dante Ristorante Pizzeria made wood fired pizzas and they stretched out the dough right in front of us. They use ingredients from local farmers and use generous toppings.  We also split the sangria and it was refreshing after the hot day.

This is me with the margherita pizza (basil, mozzarella, and olive oil)- it was delicious. The sangria is on the left.

Dancing and drinks

The music was upbeat and fun all night and when we finally settled into the concert area, we got to catch some songs from Mingo Fishtrap. The band is described as a mix between N’awlins grit-down funk and horn-fueled Motown pop. This was a really fun, laid back atmosphere with people dancing around or up in front and then people casually chatting with their drinks. It wasn’t too loud where you couldn’t hear the person next to, so it was a great, chill atmosphere. We chose some adult beverages during our time at the show. I had a Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy and Tim had a Lucky Bucket beer. I’m now obsessed with the Summer Shandy and I need to look for it in Lincoln. It was so light and tasty and it would be a great drink to have on hand this summer when we grill outside.

You can see people were enjoying themselves… some were dancing in front, others were just relaxing and taking it all in.

There was another area that we didn’t check out but I want to mention it in case you have kids. The children’s area wasn’t open Friday evening but on Saturday and Sunday they had a children’s fair with art projects and activities for kids. Kids could decorate cookies, do spin art and get their faces painted. If you go next year, just make sure and check the schedule if you want to partake in the kid specific activities.

That was pretty much what we covered and you can see for yourself how much fun we had in the video at the top.