Happy Valley welcomes 100,000-plus people, drops the football and turns artistic. Welcome to the 38th Annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (CPFA), or as we say, Arts Fest.

The annual Arts Festival begins Wednesday and continues through Sunday.

The festival encompasses art ranging from an architecture display to a stilt-walking artist.

"There will be plenty you can do for free, if you are on a student budget," Rick Bryant, director of visual arts said.

The festival will feature bands, a puppet artist, street paintings, and various art displays throughout the five days.

"I've never been to Arts Festival," Reece Lightner (senior-journalism) said.

"I just always hear it's a real fun time in the summer -- we have the 4th of July and then Arts Festival in two weeks. I guess the rest of summer will be boring."

The festival will be selling buttons, which act as passes to the jazz concerts held at Schwab Auditorium.

"A button will probably cost a pitcher of beer. Hopefully kids can sacrifice a pitcher of beer for the Arts Festival,"Bryant said.

In addition to the Schwab concerts, the button will also act as a one-time pass to the new Ixilum luminarium exhibit.

The luminarium is a blow-up building designed by the England-based Architects-Of-Air. It will be constructed on Memorial Field and open to the public.

Other events new to the festival include an expansion of the street theatre, a New Zealand-based stilt-walking artist named Lurk, and the official launch of Penn State's sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration with a public ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. Thursday in Schwab.

The Arts Festival is expected to attract a substantial number of guests, including Penn State alumni.

"People come from everywhere. A lot of people make their travel plans to be here every year," Joyce Hoffman, sales booth coordinator said . "We are expecting well over 100,000 people to be visiting."

Even Penn State students take a break from summers away from State College and make their way back to Happy Valley.

"Everyone is coming back for a few days to liven the place up," Katie Kolesar (junior-molecular biology) said. "I'm going to hang out with alumni and friends and go see some bands play."