The Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival returns for its fourth year on a scale that calls into question whether the word “marginal” still applies.

The Absurdist Street Carnivale held in downtown Roanoke on Saturday will feature "Punch & Judy" performances, among other strange things.

With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and participation by Jefferson Center, Taubman Museum of Art, O. Winston Link Museum, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke College and numerous downtown Roanoke arts galleries, you could argue the festival has gone mainstream.

“The festival itself isn’t marginal,” said artist Brian Counihan, the event’s founder. The goal, he said, is to provide exhibit and performance space “for art that normally doesn’t have a place to show.”

The festival starts Thursday and ends March 8, with a Fat Tuesday celebration and fundraiser at Community High School. As in previous years, $20 “passports” stamped with the festival’s symbolic rubber chicken are for sale at marginalarts.com.

The passports grant admission to the Taubman and Link museums during the festival, as well as all events listed (note: most of the events are already free). The passport also serves as admission to one of the “Step Afrika” shows on March 5 and 6 at Jefferson Center.

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