The Artica festival needs a new home.
The offbeat event has drawn experimental artists and performers to the St. Louis riverfront for 22 years, culminating in an annual Burning Man-like incineration of a large, wooden statue.
But the new owners of the festival’s customary site, by the former Cotton Freight Depot building north of Laclede’s Landing, have other plans.
Artica organizers said SCF, a company that operates barges on the Mississippi River and elsewhere, told them the site is now off-limits because of potential construction there.
“Where it happens has been such an integral part of what it is,” Artica board President Lohr Barkley said. “Moving it means a pretty significant change to the nature of the festival.”
The Cotton Freight Depot area is unconventional but “right off the beaten path,” Barkley said. It suits an event that has an underground, outlaw spirit, even though organizers do secure all relevant city permits. Precautions include having a fire engine nearby in case the event’s big, fiery finish goes awry.
Ownership of the riverfront site has changed hands before, and festival organizers typically renew their permission to use it every year. Artica planners made backup plans for the event in 2017 and 2022 when it was unclear if they’d have access to the usual site. On each occasion, though, they were able to proceed as they’d hoped.
The ideal home for Artica, organizers said, would be near the Mississippi River or at least downtown and within sight of the Gateway Arch, have a wide-open area suitable for multiple stages and offer an aesthetic harmonious with that of the festival.
“It has to have something special or unique about it, whether it’s the aesthetics and how it relates to the city or how people can interact with that space that in some positive way can contribute to the festival. Trying to find a site like that is challenging,” Barkley said.
The uncertainty comes at a time of growth for the Artica festival. Fewer than 500 people attended in 2017; the number rose to 1,254 last year. The 2023 event earned $56,067 in income, besting the previous high of $38,618 set the year before. Nearly half of the income typically goes straight to performing artists.
Nita Turnage and Hap Phillip founded the festival in 2002. It is now a nonprofit governed by a board of directors.
