‘I depend on it.’ Fresno vendors protest ban of outdoor events at ArtHop

The first few times Fresno artist couple Crystal Rocha and Joseph Rodriguez saw the city’s monthly ArtHop celebration get canceled – in those instances, due to rain – they took matters into their own hands.

“We used to be able to pay most of our studio rent with one ArtHop,” Rocha said, who’s a visual artist and regular vendor at the monthly event. “If it got rained out, or canceled, or it was really slow, that made a big difference.”

In the winter of 2023 after a string of rained-out ArtHops, they decided to organize ReHop: a “mini ArtHop” on Broadway Street, where the couple used to have a studio. Other studio renters joined them, opening their doors to artists and vendors looking for a chance to make up lost income.

Now that the future of ArtHop is in limbo following Councilmember Miguel Arias’ July 19 announcement that all outdoor activities would be canceled at the next event Aug. 1, Rocha and Rodriguez are worried about other Fresno artists, vendors and small businesses, some of whom feel like they’re being punished for helping make ArtHop so popular.

“I do have my seller’s permits and my tax certificate,” said Eugenia Gonzalez, who’s been selling handmade jewelry through her small business Eugi’s Crafts at ArtHop for the past two years. “I don’t know, what else do they want?”

The announcement – which took many vendors by surprise – renewed debate over what defines ArtHop, who it’s for, and who’s in charge.

The event itself has been around since the ’90s. What started out as a humble assortment of gallery exhibitions administered by the Fresno Arts Council has morphed into a massive street fair drawing tens of thousands of people to downtown Fresno.

“Everybody knows that the first Thursday in downtown Fresno is the place to be,” said Mike “Oz” Osegueda, president of Fresno Street Eats, who helps organize permitted vendors in the Brewery District on ArtHop nights. 

Some have praised this evolution of ArtHop, crediting the people of Fresno with making it bigger than anyone ever thought it would be.

Others have taken issue with the event’s unrestrained growth and the lessening attention on art – at least in gallery settings.

That includes John Ostlund, president of One-Putt Broadcasting and the Fulton Group downtown, who used to host ArtHop at his Fulton Street building every month. He reevaluated after the event turned into “trinkets and tacos,” he said.

“The crowd that showed up for the tacos and trinkets was really hard on our gallery. It was just a much different crowd,” he said. “The gallery suffered some real damage.”

As for the outdoor crowds, city officials haven’t pointed to any particular safety incidents that triggered this crackdown. 

The concern, however, is that the growing “footprint” of ArtHop is stretching police services – a cost the city fully absorbs since the event is one of few where the city doesn’t charge vendors or artists for police overtime, Arias said at the news conference.

Part of the goal of the pause on outdoor ArtHop is for the city to “get ahead” of future health and safety concerns, Arias said.

One possible compromise that’s emerged in these discussions is to split the baby.

Arias told Fresnoland the city is currently considering whether to break ArtHop up into two distinct events. This framework would still allow vendors to continue operating outdoors at no extra cost, he said.

He declined to elaborate, pending further discussion with all stakeholders.

The councilmember shared Monday that the city is convening an informational forum at Fresno City Hall Wednesday at 6 p.m. about the future of ArtHop and Fulton Street events, according to a social media post.

While the city continues to deliberate, vendors are worried about their livelihoods.

Some organizations are rallying behind these vendors, whether that’s by organizing outdoor vendors in protest of the Aug. 1 decision or opening their doors to vendors to set up inside their downtown venues, free of charge.

“We just want them to have a space to be able to come together, still be able to make any sales that they may make, and just make them feel supported,” said Marissa Arreguin, manager of Invictus Ink, which will be hosting vendors on Aug. 1.

Who’s really in charge here?

What happens in downtown Fresno on the first Thursday of each month is collectively known as ArtHop – but really, it’s like the event consists of “two different worlds,” said Elliott Balch, president of the Downtown Fresno Partnership.

On the one hand, there’s the ArtHop that happens largely inside Fresno art galleries in downtown and the Tower District.

That’s the part that’s managed by the Fresno Arts Council, said the council’s executive director Lilia Gonzáles Chávez in an email to Fresnoland.

“It is this consistent event that is ArtHop,” she said, “and ArtHop as we know it is not being canceled or changed.”

Then, there’s the street fair that takes place outdoors and draws dozens of vendors to downtown Fresno, not just of art but also food.

A handful of organizations work closely with vendors at different downtown hubs to acquire proper permits, Osegueda said.

That includes Fresno Street Eats, which manages vendors in the Brewery District on Fulton between Inyo and Mono.

Other organizers include The Alley in the Valley, Bad Kids Club and Mas Fresno.

Some aspects of managing the street fair fall to the City of Fresno by default, including safety, traffic control, and clean-up – but those tasks have become taller orders in recent years.

“As the Street Fair on Fulton has grown,” Gonzáles Chávez said, “it has developed aspects that require that the City and the County be more vigilant in monitoring that activity to ensure that the public is safe.”

The Downtown Fresno Partnership has raised its hand to help bring more “structure” to the street fair.

The organization submitted a $200,000 proposal to that effect to the Measure P arts grants program, Balch said – though its application wasn’t ultimately selected to receive funding.

“There’s some staffing that’s involved in permitting the vendors, keeping track of all that, and being able to kind of run that,” he said. “We were directly attempting to address this issue.”

Although their application got denied, Balch thinks there’s still a role the Downtown Fresno Partnership can play with organizing the outdoor part of ArtHop.

“Even before the Measure P applications, we were really doing some work to show the city: Here’s what we see all the costs being and how do we work together to address those,” he said. “So I’m optimistic.”

Who is ArtHop for?

As ArtHop continues to evolve, so have its crowds.

Some have praised that evolution, including vendor Armando Aragaon, a vintage clothing vendor who runs NeverEnding Story Relics with his wife Amy. He said ArtHop reminds him of how he used to feel going out to Fresno’s bygone pedestrian mall on Fulton Street.

“ArtHop is 100% for the people,” he said.

The event, and particularly the street fair component, is credited with bringing a whole new generation of people downtown.

“We see the value particularly for the under 21 crowd that is the majority of participants,” Gonzáles Chávez of the Arts Council said. “Given the demographics of Fresno, we don’t have enough free events for our young people, so I hope this closure is truly temporary.”

Osegueda said ArtHop has generated the kind of renewed interest in downtown that the city has been craving. 

He’s worried the city’s framing of the issue as a safety concern could perpetuate stereotypes about downtown.

“Some people are going to see what Miguel Arias said – which is, ‘Hey, we’re going to take a one-month break’ – some people are going to view that as, ArtHop is canceled forever. Some people are going to see it as: downtown is dangerous,” he said.

“It’s going to set back a lot of the momentum that we’ve had downtown.”

That also makes Osegueda skeptical about the possibility of splitting ArtHop into two events.

“I don’t know how you take 15,000 people,” he said, “and say, ‘Hey, come on Wednesday now.’”

Ostlund of One-Putt Broadcasting and the Fulton Group, on the other hand, said he’d consider putting his building back on the map for ArtHop if the street fair became a separate event – though he wants clarity from the city on the future of ArtHop before he organizes a reopening.

“I think that we sure would,” he said, “but I can’t plan it in two weeks.”

How ArtHop vendors are responding

Many vendors were caught off guard by the cancellation of the outdoor component of ArtHop.

For Rocha, she often takes one day off after ArtHop to rest – then, the next day, she starts gearing up for next month’s.

Something like two weeks’ notice “pulled the rug out from under the community,” her partner Rodriguez said.

Some downtown brick-and-mortars have stepped up to provide vendors with an indoor space on short notice – though each venue can only hold so many vendors.

The Rosè teamed up with The Alley in the Valley and Afterhours to provide indoor space for 30 vendors, according to an Instagram post.

Invictus Ink, which just opened in the Brewery District in June, is also providing 30 indoor slots, though they filled up quickly.

“As new business owners,” Arreguin said, “we know what it’s like to rely on everyday business.”

Some organizations are also planning to defy the Aug. 1 order to conduct outdoor events only.

A July 23 Change.org petition, authored by The Alley in the Valley, said it’s still planning to manage outdoor vendors on Aug. 1. The petition garnered over 4,200 signatures as of July 29.

Rocha and Rodriguez have also shared plans to organize an outdoor event in protest of Arias’ announcement on social media.

Gonzalez, who operates Eugi’s Crafts, said she’s one of these vendors planning to still operate outdoors at the Aug. 1 ArtHop.

“I’m gonna risk it,” she said.

In addition to selling handmade jewelry and other crafts, Gonzalez is also a farmworker. Her wages from working in the fields aren’t enough to survive on.

Vendors like Gonzalez who still set up outside Aug. 1 could face fines from the city’s code enforcement team. Arias said code enforcement would be patrolling Thursday to ensure vendors follow the ban on outdoor activities.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Gonzalez said, “but I need the money. I depend on it.”

A previous version of this article incorrectly reported Lilia Gonzáles Chávez’s title. She is the executive director of the Fresno Arts Council. The story has been corrected.

Fresnoland’s Danielle Bergstrom contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Mike Osegueda is a member of Fresnoland’s board.