Sat 7/8-Sun 7/9 @ noon-6PM
Rooms to Let CLE, like so many festivals, evaporated from the schedule in 2020, and when it came back the following year it was … different.
It was originally a distinctive event that occupied a handful of abandoned houses around the Slavic Village neighborhood slated for demolition, with artists taking over various rooms and other spaces to create site-specific installations. It drew attention to the fact that the neighborhood was the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis of the early-mid 2000s, and many of the installations dealt with the injustices and inequalities inherent in that crisis.
It’s unclear if that model was left behind because of the lack of appropriate houses or because the pandemic was still lingering, making crowding into close spaces uncomfortable, or for some other reason. In any case, 2021 and 2022 basically turned into a street festival, with artists filling storefronts and empty lots at East 55th and Broadway (once Slavic Village’s “downtown”), beautifying this rather forlorn area, and music, vendors and food taking over the sidewalks.
You can find out more about some of the participating artists on the event’s Facebook page. And Garden Walk Cleveland takes place in Slavic Village on Sunday so if you go that day you can check out two festivals for the price of one — and that price in both cases is free.
They still need to change the name and rebrand the event though.