Monty Trainer has been around Coconut Grove for a while — not quite as long as the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, but darn close.

The arts festival started in 1963, and Trainer opened the popular Monty’s Raw Bar and Restaurant on Dinner Key six years later. “I started getting involved in ’69,” Trainer said.

At first, he sponsored the event. After selling his restaurant in 1992, Trainer’s involvement in the festival only grew. Now Trainer is the president of the festival’s board of directors.

And this year, Trainer is celebrating the festival’s landmark 45th anniversary with good art and good food from Feb. 16 to 18.

“We are expanding the culinary part of it,” Trainer said. “I like to work with all our local hotels: the Grand Bay, the Ritz-Carlton, the Sonesta. We are really trying to push our local chefs here.”

Cooking demonstrations will take place at the Culinary Pavilion Showcase, located at the Seminole Boat ramp, near Mary Street and South Bayshore Drive, right in the middle of the festival. Featured chefs will include Douglas Rodriguez of OLA at the Sanctuary; Andrew Litherland and Miguel Magana of the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove; Chris Cramer of the Sonesta Bayfront Hotel Coconut Grove; Enrique Villardefrancos of the Grand Bay Miami Hotel; Oscar del Rivero of the Jaguar Ceviche Spoon Bar & Latam Grill; and Eleanor Hoh of the Wok Star.

But the event is really about the artists — 330 from all over the world who will display their pieces. Thirty percent of these artists did not display their works at the festival last year, Trainer said. “It is all about the artists anyway,” Trainer said. “This is one of the top shows — the number one show — in America.”

About 150,000 people visited the Coconut Grove Arts Festival last year, Trainer said. In times past, before organizers added a $5 entrance fee, the show attracted as many as a million visitors.

“There were just so many people you could not view the art,” Trainer said. “It was like walking in a Georgia chain gang with people shuffling through.”

Since the fee was added, the crowds have not been as thick, and there is “a little more room to see art,” Trainer said.

And more room to see featured concerts. On Sunday, the University of Miami’s School of Music, led by Dean Shelton “Shelly” Berg, will take center stage. Armando “Chocolate” Armenteros will also perform Latin jazz.

Xavier Cortada, a local artist and environmentalist, created this year’s environmental protection-themed poster, and a percentage of the admission fees will be funneled to the Coconut Grove Arts and Historical Association’s Building Fund, which will be used to build a permanent home for the arts festival.

The Coconut Grove Arts Festival will be held on McFarlane Road, South Bayshore Drive and Pan American Drive from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 16-18. Admission is $5. For more information, visit www.coconutgroveartsfest.com.

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