Attendees enjoy sauces, sales and Spring weather at Hamilton Art Crawl

Hamilton’s Art Crawl, a celebration of art, music and food taking up a stretch of James Street North returns Friday.

This year Art Crawl on James Street North will take place the second Friday of the month from April until October, with Spring in the air and “Art Crawlers” are ready to go.

During this time a portion of James Street between York Boulevard and Murray Street will be closed for pedestrian traffic only in the evening, so that attendees can enjoy more of the art, performers and vendors right on the street.

“I sell hot sauce,” said “Beko” Mbeko-Edem from Beko Foods Inc.

Mbeko-Edem will be on the street selling his Nigerian-inspired hot sauces, named after his beloved friend.

“My friend and mentor, her name was Veronica Thompson, passed away from ovarian cancer and she really inspired me and poured into me,” said MBeko-Edem. “One of the things I promised her before she passed away was that I was gonna come up with a product line which happened to be our Nigerian-Canadian scotch bonnet-flavoured hot sauce, and I brought that to fruition.”

Vendors were setting up early Friday afternoon, to get ready for the art fest.

“I paint, I draw – it’s a passion of mine,” said Anthony Giovannetti. “I do it as much as I can, I love going out to Art Crawls to try to make a little bit and get my name out.”

“I am a Hamilton-based drag artist and custom event wear-maker,” said one vendor who set up their table Friday afternoon.

The City of Hamilton has once again expanded art crawl with more days.

“We have been expanding this [event] since 2023,” said Cameron Kroetsch, Hamilton councillor of ward 2. “First, it started out with three months: June, July and August. Last year we added May, and this year we are adding October.”

The owner of Charred Rotisserie House, like many other business owners on James Street North are excited for the increase in foot traffic.

“And it’s great for us,” said Mark Morgenstern, owner of Charred. “The more people on the street the more business we do, so we are very happy. We wish to have a lot more of these kinds of events.”

“This is what we like about Art Crawl: seeing the street full of people after a hard winter,” said Naomi Mayer, who works at the Mulberry Coffeehouse. “I am really excited for this first one, the weather is nice.”

Everyone is hoping for a successful and fun Art Crawl season.

WATCH MORE: Road closures in place as Hamilton Art Crawl kicks off