Bayou City Art Festival Downtown

Finally, made it to the festival and let me say — amazing art work, but expensive. Parking in the garage next door was $ 10, admission $ 17, water and soda $ 7, and my favorite art piece $ 5,500. One of those ain’t happening. Overall, fun until the heat irritates you and art prices make it worse. I went there expecting to spend at most $ 300 on an art piece but that amount will not get you anything you want. Wish someone had told me…

boring!!!

I’ve always wanted to attend this festival, but I’m weird about outdoor festivals, specifically Houston outdoor festivals. Y so hot? I get nosebleeds and stuff, srsly. However, Unilocal (thanks Farrah A.!) came through with the free pair of tickets hookup and it was a tad overcast on this particular Saturday (and by that I mean it was still lightly drizzling on and off), so it took these factors as a sign that I should probably buckle up and go get my Art Fest on.
So wow, my eyeballs were smacked with all kinds of awesome art — paintings, photographs, sculptures, jewelries, accessories, figurines, etc. I like, almost couldn’t handle the sensory overload. It was like being in an eclectic art museum, except you could actually buy the art because it’s like far more affordable and stuff. The fiancé was really quite enamored with several pieces, although we held off for the time being as we live in a pre-​furnished tiny closet (exaggeration, but you know what I mean…), but we will definitely have to return next year to stock up on one-​of-​kind home décor and collectibles.
The most unfortunate thing about our visit is that we arrived un-​hungry, so we weren’t inclined to sample edibles from one of the many food trucks that had parked at the Festival and the intriguing food stalls. Really, we should have known better, what a huge massive fail. Well also another unfortunate element was the gloomy weather, the attendance felt like it could have been more robust if not for the rain, so that must have been a sadface moment for most of the vendors. Although okay, the sun did peek through intermittently for a few minutes here and there and I started crying about melting and whatnot, much to the chagrin (embarrassment?) of the fiancé. Hey, who’s excited about Fall?!

This is the 2^nd year I have attended this event in downtown. I have been to the memorial location a couple of times too. These guys are very organized. They make it easy to come in and enjoy the art. Ticket prices are $ 15 per person.
Once inside, there are aisles upon aisles of artists. This organization makes sure their artists are very diverse. You get a great mix of everything from sculptures to photographers. They also bring on a lot of sponsors too. Ford, Xfinity, and Über were just a few of the major sponsors in 2014. It was cool getting some freebies from these guys. The artists’ prices are fair, you can find lots of affordable pieces, but there are some that you can only afford to look at.
Their interactive zone is great for the kids to create their very own art pieces. There was lots of food and beverage areas throughout. They just seem to have very bad luck with the rain!

A lot of great artist and great pieces. Second time going and will keep going every year that it is available. Wish they had more food trucks. But still a great experience and kid friendly.

Bayou City Arts Festival stands out among the crowded field of festivals. It’s extremely well-​organized and curated. The talent the festival attracts year over year is impressive: edgy, unique, yet accessible and affordable. The artists also appear to enjoy the festival — getting to understand the inspiration, the construction, the passion. The curators ensure the artists are of sufficient quality, as well as a wide variety of mediums: sculpture, oils, pencil/​pen, functional, jewelry, watercolor, photography.
I’d highly recommended attending either the Downtown (Fall) or Memorial (Spring) festivals, even if just to browse, discuss, and draw inspiration.