Playing under the water buckets wasn't the only way to get wet this weekend at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

Saturday's intermittent rain showers, out of place in the otherwise sunny weekend, soaked visitors and caused the postponement of some scheduled events.

Although the rain may have put a damper on outdoor attractions, it seemed to increase attendance at inside events, such as the much anticipated multimedia performance from Ensemble Galilei.

The group took the stage Saturday night to a full house at the Schwab Auditorium.

"It's the perfect storm," said Arts Fest Executive Director Rick Bryant, adding he was glad that so many festival attendees heard about the show.

He said many of the indoor performances throughout the weekend were better attended than past years, and the performance from local choral ensemble Essence of Joy even had as many attendees in the State College Presbyterian Church as the church sees on Easter Sunday.

Lisa Faust, the audience service manager at Schwab, said it was great to see the auditorium packed. However, she said she could understand that people who purchased buttons to attend the event and weren't able to get in would be angry.

"Because it's not ticketed, everyone with a button can come," she said. "Its just kind of a crap shoot."

Pete Stern, a professor if psychology at Penn State Berks and a festival attendee, said he wished the performance had been held in a bigger venue so more people would have had the opportunity see the show.

"We have to find something else to do now," he said. "We're really bummed."

Families and students who missed the opportunity to see capped performances enjoyed other forms of free entertainment on Saturday.

Jimmy Hall, whose performance was sponsored by the Penn State Alumni Association, played to a crowd on the Old Main lawn shortly after the rainstorm, but lawn chair space was limited and the wet grass was not seen as the ideal place to sit.

Fooling April drew a bigger crowd as the band played the stage on Allen Street. Kim Stezzi (junior-finance) was one of the many college-aged listeners who stopped to listen to the pop-rock band.

"Even though it rained, everyone came out and they're giving really good entertainment," she said.

Although both of these and other performances started late, Bryant said the storm wasn't a big deal.

"When I think about the bad weather, I'm just glad nobody's tent blew over and we didn't have hail," he said.

Tylan "Ty" Greenstein, member of the Atlanta band Girlyman, said that the storm was just a mild setback.

"It looked like the storm was going to blow through pretty fast," said Greenstein. "It worked out pretty well."

During the band's performance, Girlyman sang its song "Everything's Easy," with lyrics that seemed appropriate for the group's set: "It's cloudy today but no rain came/I sat and waited outside/ The trees in the wind were all shaking. But the storms pass us by."

Dispersed throughout the festival, hundreds of participating artists sat near their booths or chatted with potential buyers on campus and downtown. Judith Neugebauer, a jeweler from Milford, Pa., who was selling her work for the first time at Arts Fest, said State College was a great place to host the event.

"I'd like to come back some time when I'm not working and just enjoy the festival," she said, adding that the inclement weather would obviously slow down the festival, but that most people would not let the rain deter them.

Whit Bronaugh, a fine art photographer who had to close his booth early Saturday when the downpour hit, agreed that the rain was something that had to be coped with.

"If you do art shows, you deal with weather," he said.