Review & Photos - 7th Annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival

Despite the fact we're in a drought, I am glad that it didn't rain on Saturday.

I know, I'm simply horrible to say such a thing.

But hear me out - on Saturday, it was the 7th Annual Luna Park Chalk Art Festival.

The Luna Park Chalk Art Festival "is an annual nonprofit event organized by volunteers to increase support for the arts in local schools and the community. The purpose of the festival is to provide a family-friendly, accessible venue to showcase the talents of local artists and students, foster awareness of the critical need for arts in schools and organizations serving youth, and to raise funds for providing grants and scholarships to meet that need." [lunaparkchalkart.org]

Last year I wanted to attend. We were going to bring our one and a half month old out for a day at the park. But since it was raining that didn't seem like a good idea. And apparently rain and chalk, for the most part, are not friends. Not unless you get really creative…

Anyway, this year it was sunny! Sun sun shiny sun hot sun.

My hubby and I packed up our 13 month old and headed to Backesto Park. It was hoppin'! Lots of people wandering around, checking out completed and in-progress chalk art pieces, listening to live performances, buying handmade goodies, or snacking on some food from a couple food trucks.

I love events like this. I really do. It's family fun, artsy, and it's at a park. It really makes me love San Jose even more than I already do.



So we made our way around part of the artwork, snagged a lunch from the truck Banjara Bistro. Chicken tikka masala in a crepe with a side spinach salad for me, and my hubby had the chicken tikka masala in an omelette. Then my hubby, a donut purist, moseyed over to Rollo's Donuts to bring back TWO donuts. However, he arrived with a bag of five instead. Apparently it pays to go to a donut shop a short time before they close. (Generous freebies.)

On to the artwork!

I noticed a *lot* of sea and sea life - fish, octopuses, and mermaids-a-plenty.



Pop culture references FTW!

Trader Joes not only had some artwork going on, they were giving out free snacks and water. Very generous and awesome of them. Unfortunately I did not win the "guess how many brussel sprouts" contest. Boo.

Both Dave Cortese and Sam Liccardo showed up to say a few ones. Not even going to get political here, but one sounded more enthused to be there than the other.

There were a ton of vendors, many of which I've seen numerous times at SOFA district or SJ Made events. There was something for everyone. If you like candles and knickknacks - they had that. Want designed t-shirts with local messaging - that was there (therethere.com to be specific, and a personal fave of mine.) Many of the chalk artists had booths as well. Working on the Back to the Future pixel art was David Canavese from OtherLife Art. I made a mental note to purchase one of his mixed pop culture referenced art pieces.

While we stayed for several hours we did not stay until the end so I didn't get a chance to see the final outcomes of some of the work-in-progress pieces I saw. But thanks to the magic of the interwebs, those photos are out there.

Follow Luna Park Chalk Art Festival on Facebook for updates - many people have shared their photos/links to photos via the Event page as well.

Feel free to check out the rest of my Luna Park Chalk Art Festival album of photos on Flickr. There are a lot of great pieces of work (in various stages) in there!

Also - see you next year! I made ornaments two years ago (for The San Jose Blog) at Christmas in the Park - I think next year we should have a sidewalk space to draw on. What do you think? I'm excited to participate!