Summer is just about here, and there are plenty of ways to soak up the sun and spark your creativity in downtown Forest Grove this season.

The Forest Grove Festival of the Arts returns from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, with a new lineup of musical performances and hands-on activities spread across a two-block radius of Main Street.

On the Festival Stage off 21st Avenue, Always a Story opens the evening with bluegrass and Americana storytelling, followed by song highlights from upcoming performances at Theatre in the Grove. Wen’ipt, a contemporary jazz combo with an Indigenous focus, closes out the night.

Visitors can get in on the action, too: Festival booths will feature interactive experiences like scene and monologue practice with Theatre in the Grove, community poetry writing with the Forest Grove Public Arts Commission and free bilingual poetry books — available in English and Spanish while supplies last.

And as always, local businesses are part of the celebration:

• Valley Art Association will host a drop-in craft activity at its booth in front of the gallery on Main Street.
• At Gann Brothers Printing, visitors can catch letterpress demonstrations of patriotic card designs, while the Carotids perform original heavy rock on the back deck. Downstairs, Erickson-Hall Studios will offer a demonstration focused on nature-themed water media techniques.
  Over at the Forest Grove City Library, Ballad Town Harmony will perform barbershop tunes as a chorus and quartet.
• Per tradition, the Forest Grove Festival of the Arts pops up every first Wednesday of the month through August in conjunction with the Adelante Mujeres Farmers Market, giving residents a chance to grab a bite to eat, pick up fresh produce and enjoy a vibrant, artistic atmosphere in the city’s core.

Full details and updates can be found at fgfota.org.