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Second Place: Arts in the Park

Third Place: Richmond Folk Festival

It's no surprise that Curated Culture's downtown arts walk snags the top spot again, even with the recent upheavals and controversies surrounding the monthly gallery crawl. "It's a great honor," First Fridays' founder and director, Christina Newton, says. "The art walk isn't just about promoting arts and culture, it's also about community development. … If we want to see these unique venues stick around we all have to pitch in and support them any way we can." Taking second place, the Arts in the Park event in May features hundreds of artists convening in and around the Byrd Park carillon to showcase homemade jewelry, fine art and crafts. And it's easy to forget, with all of the wonderful music, about the plentiful arts, crafts and folk traditions featured during the Richmond Folk Festival. Not to mention, music is art too.