Magnificent Mile Arts Festival

The Magnificent Mile Arts Festival was a major let down to say the least. I had good expectations for it, considering it was a juried show, but left thinking , “Who's responsible for this mess?”
The general set up of the festival was not clear. It was easy to navigate, but there was no flow or continuity from tent to tent. The show had painting, photography, sculpture, and jewelry. It felt really odd going from a jewelry tent into a painting tent. It seemed like it was set up so there were different types of work sprinkled everywhere, but it failed to create any sense of unity within the festival as a whole.
The show featured very traditional work, and didn't try to push the envelope. It was weighed down by paintings of landscapes/seascapes, flowers, and abstract work. One of the most interesting phenomena I noticed were a number of “self-taught” women painting in a type of abstract expressionist style (wrong gender and 70 years too late). The show ignores art movements from the second half of the 20th century, let alone post-modernism. The show just felt very pedestrian, and like connoisseurship was put on hold so the work would appeal to a greater audience base (and most likely have a greater chance of selling). However, to show watered down work to people only perpetuates the “my five year old could make that” attitude towards contemporary work. I'm not saying the whole show needed to be super progressive, but maybe challenge the viewers (just a little)?
On top of expecting a higher caliber of art, because it was a juried show, I expected the artists to be there to talk. I don't know the exact rules for being nominated, but I do know they are expected to show. However, a number of artists were not there; some had a friend or family member in their place (who typically didn't know much about the work) and others had no one. I feel like if you're going to have proxies at the festival, you might as well just have gallerists representing their clients work.
There was good art there, but it was overshadowed by the festival's faults. I will do those artists a favor and not mention their names. The names I should be mentioning are the jurors, but unfortunately I couldn't get a hold of them.