The 38th Annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts attracted visitors from many parts of the world this past weekend.

Festivities included the Children and Youth Day Sidewalk Sale and the fifth annual Italian Street Painting Festival.

"Every festival is unique in its own way because each one has different components that make it positive," said Philip Walz, who is the Arts Festival executive director. "Everything that we wanted to happen did."

The Student Book Store, 330 E. College Ave., sponsored the street painting festival, which involves artists using sidewalk chalk to decorate Hiester Street.

"This is our fifth year sponsoring the Italian Street Painting Festival. Our attempt was to bring some of the crowd of the Arts Festival to East College Avenue, and it has been fantastic," said Norm Brown, Student Book Store manager.

State College resident Asel Umarova said she spent 13 hours creating her brightly colored abstract painting.

"Today I'm just adding a few touch ups to my work with pastels," Umarova said.

This year, construction along Pollock Road led to a different arrangement of the Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition. Booths were stationed alongside a sidewalk between the campus mall and Burrowes Street.

"Sidewalk sales have been good ... This is my favorite art show to attend because it's clean and well run," said Marlow Gates of Leicester, N.C., who has sold handmade brooms at the Arts Festival since 1977.

Charles Nalle of Melbore Beach, Fla. created decorative ceramic pottery.

"I have been to many arts shows, but I really like it here at Arts Fest," Nalle said.

Tatiana Rakhmania of Hinton, W. Va. displayed handmade hats at the sale.

"Sales here have been OK, however, this is my first time at Arts Fest," Rakhmania said.

Hussein Saidi of Tanga, Tanzania displayed colorful contemporary African art at the Sidewalk Sale.

"Art has always been a part of my life since I was a small boy. Art is inspirational. My mind is full of art and I am happy to be here," Saidi said.

Walz said many factors went into the event's success.

"The weather here was tremendous. The audience was very positive and crowds were huge," Walz said.

Walz said about 110,000 people enjoyed the events and exhibits throughout the Arts Festival this weekend.

Students said they enjoyed the weekend.

"I thought the Italian street painting was neat. But really all of the art was pretty nice," Erynn Morris (freshman-political science) said.

"This is my first time at Arts Fest. I enjoyed the atmosphere and thought that it was wonderful to see a small college town turn into what seemed to be a big city," Lyndsay Cherry (freshman-sociology) said.