Hula hoops cast dizzying shadows across the Fairfield Hills lawn Sunday, September 14, where Tanner Chase of Velvet Orchid out of Bristol danced through her hoop routine. Surrounding her were a dozen children with their own hoops, aiming to keep them spinning. With Newtown Arts Festival going on around them, others celebrated under a baby blue sky with ribbons, rainbow splashes of paint, arts, crafts, demonstrations, sculpture, poetry reading, and more.

The two-day, outdoor festival was part of Newtown Cultural Arts Commission’s “ridiculous abundance of enriching activities throughout September all around town,” according to NewtownArtsFestival.com. Fairfield Hills was filled with music, food, crafters, demonstrations and hundreds of guests during the September 13-14 weekend.

Event chair Terry Sagedy told The Newtown Bee this week that the weekend festival is the centerpiece of September arts month the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission planned this year.

“Its highly anticipated return was everything we thought it would be: fun, exciting, whimsical, imaginative, well-attended and the crowd was delighted with what was assembled for them to enjoy.

“We’re thrilled to report that planning has begun for 2015,” he added.

Back at the arts festival last weekend, with feet planted on a broad white canvas, Haley Neuroth raised a paint brush and whipped dripping paint down across a thin strip of wood the size of a snowboard. With her was instructor Dave Brooker, who would take the afternoon’s spattered boards and assemble pieces into a larger piece of art.

His charge for the afternoon? Making public art, he said, so he thought to do it with residents’ participating. Large petal by painted petal, he would soon assemble a giant flower, he said. An anonymous donor made his project possible, and he hopes to display the finished results.

Casting his own rippling shadows amid a lawn filled with abstract metal artwork by Joe Sorge was 5-year-old Ty Jorgenson, whirling a length of satiny ribbon in circles. Despite the warm September day, Diane Cesaro of Avon had luck selling her upcycled sweaters and other goods made from recycled materials. She makes all her goods herself, she said.

Another trip across the lawn to view other displays found Olivia Lewis with her colorful and exotic bird, Wiz, which young Sam Kent stroked gently. Wiz’s feathers smoothed and fluffed with the little boy’s touch.

At another interactive painting project beckoning guests to pick up a brush was Rose Wheway with Ben’s Lighthouse. In a large upright canvas of Starry Night, she and others added their dabs of paint.

Residents Mimi Brown and Barb Toomey of Moongate Farm, which sells botanicals and more, found a spot to cool off in the shade beneath their tented booth. They had herb-infused oils — the ingredients for some of which were grown in Sandy Hook — cleansers, and more on sale.

Despite the many tents, activities, or participants of various booths or demonstrations was Tim Walsh, casting the longest shadow. The tallest man at the festival, Mr Walsh not only balanced on stilts and moved through the crowd, but juggled bowling pins — at the same time smiling from behind mirrored sunglasses.

The evening before the two-day outdoor community event, Newtown Cultural Arts Commission presented the second annual Newtown Arts Festival’s Rooster Ball featuring music by Gene Dobbs and food from Gallucci’s Catering. As the festival website promised, guests were invited to “enjoy cocktails, dinner, and dancing to the music of Eugene Dobbs’ Ultimate Nu Cullers band.”

Arts Festival Events Continue

While the signature weekend event has come to a conclusion, additional Newtown Arts Festival events continue through the end of the weekend.

On September 18, Mine Art! Gallery in Sandy Hook hosted “Preparing For Art.” The space planned to host a conversation and Q&A with a panel of visual artists about how they ready their studio, and themselves, to do the work of making meaningful things.

On Saturday, September 20, at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters will headline the eighth show in Newtown’s Live at the Edmond Town Hall series. Showtime is 7:30 pm.

The event is organized by Newtown resident Hayden Bates. Tickets are $25, available at www.edmondtownhall.org/liveateth.

(Newtown Bee Associate Editor John Voket spoke with Live at ETH Promoter Hayden Bates recently about this show. Read more here: Hayden Bates Bringing Most High Profile Show Yet To ETH, Saturday)

And on Sunday, September 21, NCAC will present the next offerings in its 2014 Sunday Cinema Series, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Greatest Year in Film – 1939.

At 1 and 7 pm is Mr Smith Goes to Washington starring James StewartDark Victory starring Bette Davis.

sponsored by Law Offices of James O. Gaston. At 4 pm is

Screenings are at Edmond Town Hall, and all tickets are $2.