The 29th annual
International Festival of Arts and Ideas is being held in the City of New Haven this weekend with "Rise" as this year's theme. It will celebrate the way people overcome challenges by rising above them through arts and ideas.
The festival kicked off at the beginning of the month and will continue through Sunday.
The festival brings more than 150 events and 85% of them are free for the public to enjoy, with family-friendly experiences, hands-on arts and crafts, cooking classes, dance classes and food.
The lineup of performances includes award-winning artists from every walk of life: Pulitzer Prize finalists and comedians, piano players, Emmy award-winning producers, authors and more.
Thursday night's headliner was Grammy winner Jon Secada. His numerous hits in both Spanish and English established him as one of the first bilingual artists to have international crossover success. Secada has written songs for Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.