Jerusalem International Arts and Crafts Festival

Once again at the end of summer,

there are lots of festivals on the streets of Jerusalem, Israel.

One of the most impressive is 

חוצות היוצר ירושלים

Khutsot Hayotser, the International Arts and Crafts Festival,

which may be hard to transliterate from Hebrew,

but it is hard to miss, right across from the walls of the Old City.

image Artist Colony Jerusalme

This event has grown for the last 40 years.

At least once a year the Arts & Crafts Lane comes alive.

There is an Israeli Pavilion with 200 Israeli artists and exhibits,

Hutsot Hayotser

Thousands fill the festival grounds

photo three clowns, image clowns

and some entertainers really stand out.

photo Nir Barkat

Mayor Nir Barkat was there on opening night and posed with potential voters.

mayor at arts festival, image Mayor Jerusalem

Making the rounds, he stopped by Hadassah College’s Neverland booth.

Each night of the festival a major Israeli musical performer stars,

 and last night Barkat introduced Shlomi Shabat to the Sultan’s Pool audience.

חוצות היוצר ירושלים

No Israeli event would be complete without food.

It was hard to push your way through the crowded main food court.

image Jerusalem crowd

Families found places to sit, eat, rest and listen to music.

The International Pavilion had booths from Asia,

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South and Central America, Europe, Africa and United States.

arts & crafts fair Jerusalem

Bulgaria had a prime location, but their stuff still was still stuck in customs.

image Turkish Muslim in Jerusalem

India was well represented.

image vendor at international arts fair

The nice lady of South Korea had a variety of fans.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Guatemala,Turkmenistan and Madagascar,

Angola to Zimbabwe and more: so why not Canada?

image African dress

Popular African musicians were among the many international entertainers.

iamge Khutsot hayotser

This huge event will host tens of thousands of Israelis from August 5-17.

image clowns, picture news broadcaster, live news from festival

The Israeli news Channel 10 was there live for opening night.

But as usual,

no matter how large or how many people are out on the Jerusalem streets,

if there is no violence,

it’s not worthy of the mainstream media’s attention.