41 years strong
Insider's Guide to the Bayou City Art Festival: When to go, where to park & whatnot to miss
The 2012 Downton Bayou City Art Festival celebrates featured artist CharlieHardwick.Bayou City Art Festival
The downtown festival takes over City Hall and its environs with eclectic art,ethnic foods and music that focuses on Houston's roots.Courtesy photo
The Bayou City Art Festival has been a biannual Houston institution for decades, but its 41st year has brought some changes in the form of a new executive director, Kelly Kindred.
"We don't want to add money to artist booth fees or raise gate prices, but we still want to grow," said Kindred, who is working with the board on strategic planning initiatives and with a sponsorship consultant to consider ways to make the established art fest even bigger and better.
"The artists are always the heart and soul of what we do," Kindred told CultureMap. To that end, a portion of the festival has been moved from Tranquility Park (which always presented programming difficulties) to the verdant grass of Sam Houston Park.
When to go
The festival will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Artists' booths will be set up throughout the weekend — don't forget to drop by the booth of featured artist Charlie Hardwick, who will be set up between City Hall and the reflecting pool.
Tickets ($12) can be purchased by credit card online in advance, but guests must pay in cash at the gate. Admission is free for kiddos 12 and under.
Where to park
The car situation is sure to be congested near the downtown festival grounds, but the BCAF website lists the closest parking garages to each of the four gates (Lamar at Bagby, Walker at Bagby, Walker at Smith and McKinney at Smith) — and none is more than a 5-minute walk.
Another option, if you're coming from Montrose or the Museum District, is METRORail. The Main Street Square station is just a handful of blocks from the festival entrance. And you can even take your bike on the light rail.
What not to miss
The annual Art Heist, which takes place Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. on the steps of City Hall, is BCAF's biggest money-maker for its nonprofit partners. For a $50 ticket, guests get free food, open bar access, VIP parking (worth $20 in itself) and admission to the festival. The $100 splurge gets all of that, plus a one-in-four chance to snag a piece of art from the vault. Be sure to wear your rock star best.
Music-lovers may also want to plan a trip around the schedule over at the Local Roots, Global Culture stage, which features everything from Czech accordionists to gospel singers, blues, mariachi, southern Indian devotional music, honky-tonk and zydeco. Who needs ACL Music Festival when you've got all of these diverse Houston musical traditions?
