Arts, Beats & Eats Packs Royal Oak For Its 29th Year

Downtown Royal Oak filled up again over Labor Day weekend as Arts, Beats & Eats returned for its 29th annual edition, September 4 through 7, blending visual art, live music, and food into one of Metro Detroit's signature late-summer gatherings.

A stacked lineup

Music was front and center, with more than 200 musical acts performing across the festival's stages over the weekend. The headliners spanned generations and genres — Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening, Third Eye Blind, Chris Young, and Kool & The Gang — giving the crowd a run of marquee names on the main stage.

Art and food too

True to its name, the festival paired the music with a juried art show featuring work from artists across the country, and a food lineup drawing from the region's restaurants. The combination has long been the event's formula: something for every kind of attendee, packed into a walkable downtown.

A Labor Day institution

Alongside the Detroit Jazz Festival across town, Arts, Beats & Eats anchors Metro Detroit's Labor Day weekend, turning Royal Oak into a destination for hundreds of thousands of visitors. Nearly three decades in, it has become a fixture of the region's cultural calendar — and a reliable send-off to summer.