Renowned as one of Michigan’s best-run and best-attended family festivals, (including earning the Detroit News’ “Michigan’s BEST Summer Festival” title), the Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair is set to return to the City Center campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 25-27 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Sterlingfest’s unique combination of arts & crafts, music, food and fun means three days of sun-drenched, summertime delight for Sterling Heights families and friends.  Celebrating its 33rd year, Sterlingfest mixes the tradition of an arts & crafts fair with a jazz and blues stage, a Suds’n’Sounds stage, Coach’s Ice Cream Kidzfest children’s activities and entertainment stage, a family midway, local restaurateurs and a main concert stage.  Among the highlights of Sterlingfest 2013:

Arts & Crafts Show
An event staple since Sterlingfest’s beginning, the Art & Crafts Show provides visitors a chance to browse fine arts and selected crafts and to purchase exquisite sculptures, watercolor paintings, striking photographs and many other unique hand-crafted items offered by juried exhibitors.  The Art & Crafts Show is set in a street fair-like setting at the heart of Sterling Heights’ picturesque City Center campus on the corner of Utica and Dodge Park Roads. Artists show and sell their work with a backdrop of lively music from the jazz and blues stage. Visitors to the arts & crafts fair stroll past the city’s historic Upton House, by a water lily studded fountain and along the Sterling Heights sculpture walk, featuring the city’s public art along with a “SterlingScapes” exhibit of large-scale outdoor sculptures on loan from cutting-edge Michigan artists.

Sterlingfest Stages
The 2013 Sterlingfest schedule of events features a variety of great live music to keep visitors entertained, including more than 20 jazz, blues, classic rock and Top 40 acts.  Free activities and live family entertainment in the Coach’s Ice Cream Kidzfest Tent promote fun for all ages.  Jazz & blues acts performing throughout the day and evening concerts featuring fantastic tribute acts, highlighted by the annual Sterlingfest Balloon Launch, promise to draw upwards of 120,000 people from throughout metropolitan Detroit to the Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair.

Sterlingfest Restaurant Row
A remarkable assortment of Sterling Heights dining establishments bring their show on the road to offer delicious entries, snacks and desserts at Sterlingfest’s Restaurant Row in the center of the fairgrounds.  From mouth-watering BBQ ribs to hot dogs, hummus, pierogies, chicken wings—even crab cakes and shrimp, you’ll find a dish to please every pallet from 12 local restaurants and a host of food vendors on site.

SHRCCI Suds ‘n’ Sounds
The Sterling Heights Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Suds ‘n’ Sounds Tent, offering a lively mix of pop and rock bands and adult beverages, has become the unofficial epicenter of family and high school reunions.  Social media sites promote Sterlingfest’s Suds ‘n’ Sounds as THE place for thousands to reconnect under the big top to dance, sing and celebrate fellowship of days gone by.  The SHRCCI Suds ‘n’ Sounds Tent is open until 11 p.m. on Thursday and stays open one hour later, until midnight, on Friday and Saturday nights.  $2 admission after 6 p.m.