The Arts, Beats & Eats Festival takes place every year over the long Labor Day weekend in Royal Oak, Michigan. Royal Oak is a suburban city about a 20 minute drive north of Detroit on I-75. Royal Oak is a popular entertainment destination for the Detroit area. It is well known for its downtown area full of literally over 100 independent retail shops, restaurants and bars. Thursday through Sunday on summer evenings, Royal Oak is full of 18-35 y/o's out on the town for a night of eating, drinking and dancing. Royal Oak is very safe with good police and fire/ems protection.
The Arts, Beats & Eats festival promoters have a contract with the city of Royal Oak to close the downtown area to motor vehicle traffic for the four days of the festival. The festival concentrates on the three things in its name. Long stretches of the city streets are filled with art vendors located on each curb selling their individually created art pieces. Festival goers walk down the center of city streets and stop at vendor tents to view the goods. Other stretches of city streets have food vendors filling each side. Think of a type of food you like and it will most likely be there. Interspersed among all these vendors are 10 smaller stages featuring every type of music (eg. rock, blues, soul, reggae, alternative, ...). There is a large main stage for the national music acts. There is a carnival area with rides and games for teens and middle schoolers along with an area with kiddie rides for toddlers. The festival footprint is large, but very walkable. Only park in official A.B.E parking lots and approved areas. The Royal Oak police a have notorious parking enforcement crew. They will write you a very expensive parking ticket or tow your vehicle within 15 minutes of you leaving your car. Be warned!
The daily cost to enter the festival is $3 USD ($5 USD after 3pm). There is a weekend pass option, but I don't know the cost. You must have food and drink tickets to make purchases from the vendors. The food and drink ticket price is $10 USD for 16 tickets. Food and drink purchases are 3-6 tickets per purchase for a plate of food. I'm not exactly sure, but I believe a glass of wine or beer is 6 tickets for festival goers who are 21 y/o. You may walk anywhere in the downtown area with your alcoholic beverage as long as you remain inside the festival footprint. All of the brick and mortar retail shops, restaurant and bars inside the festival footprint will be open. Most of the places have A/C and make a nice respite on a hot, sunny day.
Concerts on the main stage begin when the festival opens each day and must end by 11:30pm. In theory, you could arrive at the A.B.E. Festival at 6pm on Saturday, September 3rd and pay the $5 entry fee. Then for 3 hours you could eat the food and browse the art. Around 9pm go to main stage area and secure your spot in the huge GA parking lot in front of the stage and watch JR JR (formerly Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr) perform before the main act of the night, Our Lady Peace at 10pm! As I mentioned, the bands must end their play by 11:30pm. You might get a full OLP concert for the cost of your $5 admission to the festival. There is a small VIP area in the center of the main stage which holds about 100 people with folding chairs to sit if you want. The VIP area is secured with a low fence and security. The VIP area is GA. You must purchase an additional concert ticket to enter the VIP area. A VIP ticket is $35 USD + fees and taxes. I purchased 2 tickets to the VIP area for my wife and myself. The total was $82 USD.`The purchase of a VIP concert ticket includes the entrance fee to the festival. The huge parking lot will hold 5000+ fans on a sunny day with no forecast of rain. Rain will diminish the festival and concert attendance. On a sunny Labor Day Weekend with no rain, 400,000 festival goers have attended the festival over four days. On a rainy Labor Day Weekend, total attendance at the festival can be cut in half to 200,000 attendees over four days.
You may wonder why I know so much about Royal Oak, MI and the A.B.E. Festival. I am employed by the Royal Oak Fire Dept. as a Sergeant/Paramedic. I have helped provide EMS and fire protection to the festival for the past 5 years the festival has been in Royal Oak. Luckily, I'm not scheduled to work my 24 hour shift on that day and I won't volunteer for festival overtime as I want to see OLP perform. This festival is very professional and well organized. The Ford Motor Company sponsors the entire event and the Michigan Lottery is the sponsor of the main stage national music acts. The Royal Oak Police Dept. and the Michigan State Police will have a very visible presence throughout the festival footprint. You are encouraged to have fun eating, drinking, singing and dancing to all the musical acts. It's also fun to people watch. If you act responsibly and don't cause a disturbance which bothers others, the police will not interact with you. If you cause a disturbance or have a medical emergency, myself or one of my contemporaries will deal with you appropriately. Maybe I will meet you there. I'm so excited to see OLP in my fire department's backyard!
Main A.B.E. Festival page: http://artsbeatseats.com/
Main Stage Weekend Concert Schedule: http://artsbeatseats.com/beats/ (This page has the link to the limited VIP tickets).