The East Lansing Art Festival debuted in 1963 as Greenwich Village Days, a sidewalk art sale designed as a project for a student advertising club at Michigan State University. Later, the ELAF was presented as an event to spark interest in downtown East Lansing as a premier place to shop. In the 56 years since its inception, the Festival has morphed into a major community undertaking that presents hundreds of artists and craftspeople and attracts tens of thousands of visitors.