Unless City Hall and a downtown Ottawa business owner come to terms, this year’s Third Friday arts festival won’t be outside on a closed Madison St. In 2020 and 2021, it was in the 200 block of W. Madison on some Friday evenings (the third Friday of each month) from April to September.
Mayor Dan Aussem says that was fine during the pandemic, because it helped local businesses facing an unprecedented shutdown. He says it’s time for a change.
Open Space Art Gallery owner Amanda Weygand says having it somewhere else isn’t the same.
Weygand says some artists who’ve been at fairs at other Ottawa spots and didn’t like it tried the Third Friday festival on Madison and loved it. She plans to be at next week’s City Council meeting to make her case.