The DUMBO Arts Festival was a multi-site celebration of the arts, bringing innovative and challenging artwork to a diverse audience and providing a career-making platform for artists from around the world.

Founded in 1997, the DUMBO Arts Festival was the single largest free art event in New York City until its closure following the 2014 festival. First known as the D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival, the three-day happening was initially established as a grassroots artists’ initiative to showcase the neighborhood as a springboard for new art and ideas. Taking advantage of the unique urban landscape and high density of artist studios, the first D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival included open studios, live painting, live music, fashion shows, dance performances, and film screenings.

The organizers of the inaugural D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival—DUMBO residents Joy Glidden and Tyson Daugherty—went on to found the DUMBO Arts Center, the first non-profit arts organization in DUMBO and steward of the festival from 1998 through 2009.

With the DUMBO Arts Center’s announcement of the end of the festival in 2009, festival sponsor Two Trees Management Company stepped in and took over lead sponsorship and organization of the festival. In the following years, festival attendance grew to over 200,000 annually.