My mother was in Rome for Mother’s Day this year, and Nathan’s birthday was the 9th, so we packed our Escape bag and headed to Greenville for the annual Artisphere festival to celebrate. I LOVE downtown Greenville! I can’t get enough of Falls Park and Main Street strolls, so being able to stroll down Main Street while taking in various cultural art forms was quite a treat.

With visual, performing, and culinary arts, there were so many areas to direct your attention to and something for everyone, including the littles … mine weren’t with us, but if they been I’m sure they would have beelined towards Falls Park where you could build your own creation out of colorful, plastic tubes.

Wine and Craft Beer Experience

Being who we are, we grabbed a $1 wristband, which granted alcohol privileges, and made our way to the Suntrust sponsored Wine and Craft beer Experience tent. Here you were able to sample 5 taste for $10 and had a pretty good selection of craft beer and wine to choose from. I’m more of a dessert wine kinda girl and the sweetest offering was a Rosé, so I ventured out of my boxed and tried a few different recommended reds, but used my last punches on the Rosé. Being a huge beer fan … Untappd is his Instagram … Nathan went for the craft beers, having some he already knew he loved and sampling others he had never tried before. While we were provided with a selection of Lowe’s Food accouterments with your entry fee, neither of us had eaten at this point, so we moseyed on over to Culinary Arts Café for some of Greenville’s best local fare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Culinary Tent

There were 8 different restaurants to choose from, but we narrowed our picks down to 4, going with:

The Trappe Door: Lamburger Sliders – this was Nathan’s selection, and quite out of the box for him, but he seemed to enjoy it
Barley’s Greenville: Cheese Slice – even though it was plain ole cheese, this pizza was so good and I’ve found myself comparing other pizzas to it ever since
Larkins on the River: Parmesan Truffle Fries – another one of Nathan’s selections, so I can’t say how they taste, but they looked really good; Sriracha Bacon Mac & Cheese – OMG yum is all I can say … I ate it all before realizing I never asked Nathan if he wanted any … oops; Strawberry Lemonade – maybe it was due to the heat melting the ice kind of fast, but neither of us was really crazy about this and I really wanted to love it because I love flavored lemonade
Mimi’s Steakhouse of Japan: Chicken Fried Rice and Steak Fried Rice – this was some of the best fried rice I’ve had in a really long time. It wasn’t overwhelmed with a large assortment of vegetables, just carrots and peas, and came with a perfectly made shrimp sauce that set the dish off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Music

We actually sought out The Trappe Door after we left the festival as Nathan had heard it has a vast selection of uncommon beers. I still haven’t acquired the taste for beer, so I had the Trappe Door Moscow Mule … just watching it being made was a work of performing art in alcohol form. I digress … back to the festival … we were able to grab a great table at the Culinary Arts Café Stage and caught an Asheville based soul roots and funk band, Hustle Souls; they definitely have a funky sound and if you’re into that, you’ll enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Arts

From there, we walked off our food and alcohol by taking in some of the art at the various tents and even managed to catch a snippet of the International Ballet perform a selection from Markitenka Pas de Six before returning to our room.

We wanted to be right there where the action was, so we booked a room at The Westin Poinsett and it did not disappoint. We lucked into a room on the 8th floor, overlooking Main Street, which gave us a great view of the festival below. The front desk agent mentioned it may have been a bit loud in the room due to the proximity to the action, but we could only hear the music if we if opened the window, which we did, so we could still feel apart of the excitement. Shortly after getting back, we had a knock at the door and it was a lovely gentleman delivering a slice of birthday cheesecake for Nathan, which he loved and made him feel very special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early the next morning, we were able to make it before the festival opened again to really to get view the art in the Greenville County High School Juried Exhibit, which having a child who’s so into art, was what I really wanted to see. The exhibit featured student art selected by visual art teachers from 14 public high schools in the county. Each teacher got to select up to 8 pieces and the ones they choose did not disappoint. I was excited to see some of my favorites were selected for top awards, but every one of them was an amazing creation that’s certainly far more than I could dream to create.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to get back, so I could celebrate Mother’s Day with my babies, but before we left, we may or may not have stopped over at the Culinary Arts Café for another slice of Barley’s pizza and more of Mimi’s fried rice.

If you’re in town for the Artisphere and find the historically beautiful Poinsett Westin is all booked up, the Downtown Embassy Suites is another great location. You won’t have a view of Main Street, but you will be able to catch some of the amphitheater shows from your balcony.