The Salem Arts Festival promotes the arts in downtown Salem through a collaborative multidisciplinary festival, highlighting the existing artist community and encouraging general community participation in the arts. The Festival runs annually through the first full weekend of June in a combination of indoor and (primarily) outdoor venues, and typically features a gallery with 40-50 visual artists, live mural slam, 60+ live performances (involving 300+ performers), artisan street fair (70+ vendors), a collaborative public art installation, and numerous interactive arts activities.

Salem400+ themes will be incorporated into the design of the annual community art project, Salem 400-inspired designs will be featured for the mural slam, and there will be a retrospective of a well-established Salem artist in the Old Town Hall gallery!