Kentuck Festival of the Arts, named by American Style magazine among the top 10 art fairs and festivals in the United States, will return to Kentuck Park in Northport this weekend for its 42nd annual festival.

An array of vendors and entertainment will be set up in the park adjacent to downtown Northport to advertise different wares and artistic talents.

“We’ve got artists coming this weekend, bands coming to play, musical groups, storytellers, artists that are actually selling their work, songwriters from Birmingham,” Amy Echols, executive director for Kentuck, said. “There’s just so many interesting things going on this weekend at the park.”

Hallie O’Kelley, a local artist, has been a part of the fabric of the Kentuck Festival. for 30 years. O’Kelley has hand made a new quilt for the festival for the last 15 years, said Kentuck Interim Director Emily Leigh.

“She started out screen-printing posters 30 years ago,” Leigh said. “And then, back about 15 years, she started making actual fabric quilts. They are on display at our offices. This year’s quilt will be on display at the festival itself. We even use the quilt as the festival logo.”

The University of Alabama’s own students and faculty are heavily involved in the festival’s activities, Leigh said. While it may be too late to volunteer for this year’s festival, she said interested parties should keep an eye out next October.

“It’s amazing; it’s so great that these wonderful volunteers show up for the festival and throughout the year,” Echols said. “I feel like I’m this one tiny part in this universe of all of these wonderful people.”

Leigh said she expects presentations from Marr’s Field Journal, the Black Warrior Review and UA Ceramics. Kirby Johnson and Amber Brown, of the Journal and the Review, respectively, will be doing activities with some of the children at the festival. Echols said faculty involved in the College of Arts and Sciences and New College will also be assisting in the festival’s events.

“We have artists from California, from Wisconsin, from all over the United States. The part I’m most excited about is seeing what’s new on the art scene in the U.S. That excites me more than anything,” Echols said.

The festival has deep roots in the Tuscaloosa community as well, Leigh said.

“In the first year, [Kentuck Festival] was the Northport Heritage Festival – Georgine Clarke, it was her vision to bring in all of these artists,” Leigh said. “A lot of outside artists who don’t have a connection to the commercial world, people who are making art for God, those kinds of artists, we bring them all together in this beautiful shady setting in Northport every year. [She made a] place to see not only trained artists, but people who are just inspired by God or by life circumstances and who just have to create.”

The 42nd annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts is set to return to Kentuck Park Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 19-20 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for a daily pass, $15 for a weekend pass and can be purchased at the Kentuck Gallery Shop or online at kentuck.org. UA students interested in attending the festival can take the CrimsonRide shuttles that will be running Sunday from 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. out of the Ferguson Center Plaza.