By Lacey Michael
Elmore Autauga News
Artoberfest will be held Oct. 4–5, 2025, in an inaugural event at 17 Springs Event Center in Millbrook. This year’s event will be their first and hopefully annual event for local artisans, musicians, and makers.
Genia Westbrook is the leading lady and driving force who has been coordinating, organizing, booking, and scheduling vendors, artisans, and makers to pack the indoor space.
Artoberfest has been a large undertaking, and many are eagerly waiting for this blast-from-the-past festival. This year’s event was born from the original art festival that was held decades ago in the same area of land space between the current Grandview YMCA and where 17 Springs lies.
This piece of land originally held the YWCO (Young Women’s Camp Organization), where their summer girls’ camp and the original festival took place. This same camp is where Westbrook was a camp counselor and where she taught arts and crafts, respectively. This camp and festival originally took place in the 1930s, and Westbrook believes that the last festival took place around the 1970s.
Westbrook was gracious to say that while she has been making sure the event takes place in October, there have been special people who have been her encouragers, helpers, and supporters along the way.
Westbrook shared that her mother, Gene Westbrook, “a force of nature”, has been her greatest source of support. She also noted that longtime friend Emily Jones has been by her side since second grade and has joined her at various art festivals and encouraged her to hold her own art festival.
Jones and Westbrook agreed that this festival should be indoors, as most of the festivals that they had previously attended were outside in the heat and at the mercy of unpredictable weather. 17 Springs became the unopposable choice in location as it could withstand the crowd as well as provide comfortable facilities for food trucks, artisans, and attendees. Having this event indoors will ensure that no one is affected by the weather this year.
“Going to the shows, you get instant feedback, so you know what people like as well as what people don’t like,” said Westbrook.
She says that these artists are often vetted and are immediately given feedback that is beneficial to the artists and makers. This helps artists streamline their work to get the most benefits monetarily, as well as contributing to their growth as artists.
Westbrook herself is also an artist. Her work is primarily acrylic and oil-based, but occasionally features pieces that combine both. She hopes to share her paintings at the festival.
Westbrook’s son, Matthew Clements, is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and will be sharing his musical talents on Sunday of the festival. Matthew is a talented guitarist who will be part of a jazz ensemble.
Westbrook shares her hope for this year’s festival and states, “I just want everything to go well for the artists.”
Westbrook mentioned that Jones’s husband, Huie Jones, has been a help and supporter at this year’s event, along with her father Joe Westbrook, Justin Jones, Melissa and Scott Cobb, Gary Clements, Joe Lauziere, and her son Matthew Clements. She also mentions a special helper, her aunt, Scotty Sparks.
In addition to the talented artisans, makers, and musicians, there will be food trucks to provide an array of sweet treats, snacks, and refreshments.
