Via Colori Street Painting Festival

Wonderful FREE festival! This two day festival takes place on the streets surrounding Houston City Hall. You can park close in a garage or luck out with street parking. We went the second day because of the weather and in hopes that more of the art would be completed.
There are kids from middle school and high school age doing some amazing work, but the majority of art is done by adults. Each square is sponsored by some organization and then an artist does their chalk drawings in the square. Some are done as a group effort and some individually. There are artists from around the world and many have a sign saying their name and their hometown.
Some of the artists make their pieces interactive and you can stand on them and take photos. As you wander around, there are vendors giving away freebies like Kind granola bars, etc… There were also a bunch of food trucks where you could grab lunch. There is even a kids area where for a donation, kids can decorate a small square of the street.
It’s a fun and beautiful FREE festival. Definitely worth going to.

This is one of the best festivals in Houston… and it’s free. It’s paid for by the square that corporations or donors buy. The squares are painted by artists that donate their time, energy, and creativity. The big winners are you, the attendee, and the deaf children that Houston Center for Hearing and Speech help with the donations.
It’s been around for ten years (2015 marked their ten year anniversary), and it’s grown and migrated just a bit northwest. By a bit, I mean, it’s no longer wrapped around Texas Heritage Park. It’s wrapped around City Hall and a few tributaries.
I don’t recommend getting VIP tickets. Yikes. The perks were not worth the donation to exclusivity. Granted, it was their first year with this added feature (honoring Lisa Benitez), so there were bound to be some hiccups, but. Yikes. There were snacks (crap) and wine (crap) and a schedule of events, but they didn’t really stick to their plan. Also and basically, I left after some woman with stanchion issues blocked me from the photo booth, without a word to me. It was weird and awkward (she was mumbling to herself).
Instead, I left and enjoyed the event. Oh, and got some food from a food truck.

Definitely a must see. Street artists from all over the world gather for this extraordinary event. The detail in their drawings are just unbelievable. So much talent! This is a family event so bring everyone along and have your cameras or phones ready to take multiple photos. Loads of food, drinks and entertainment on hand. There is also a section for the little ones to take up their inner artist and try some street chalk drawing and arts and crafts.
This is an event you don’t want to miss. I say to myself I’ll go every year, but somehow I skip a year or two in between and I am sorry that I do.
Street parking on Sundays is free if you can find a spot if not there are lots around the area or garages. Metered parking on he street is available on Saturdays. Definitely a must see for the whole family!

I’ve attended this event the last couple of years. It’s always a fun time. The best part? It’s FREE. Granted, unless you come early, you won’t find any street parking so you might have to pay $ 10 for the family to park at one of the nearby garages.
There are always an abundance of vendors on site handing out goodies. But the whole reason you come is to see the art. If you want to see the artists at work, come Saturday. It’s remarkable how they can put their idea to the ground in such a short amount of time. However, if you’re like me and you are impatient, come on Sunday, when most of the artwork is finished.

Fun and artistic! Loved it!!! Just hate downtown parking. but that can’t be helped. We were driving around at least for a good 20 minutes… found a decent spot that was at least ²⁄₃ blocks away. The place wasn’t that big but it was definitely fun. Did everything in a good 45 minutes…(we were late. like arrived at 4:30 and the event stopped at 5. LOLLLL). Definitely be going again next year :)

I was highly impressed with the Via Colori Festival! 2014 was my first time attending and this year Saturday was rained out so artists only had one day to complete their projects — which made it all the more impressive! All of the proceeds go to the Center for Hearing and Speech. There are many festivals and events to choose from in Houston, but I recommend making and effort to try Via Colori if you’re around that weekend. 2015 will mark the festival’s 10^th year and they plan to make it an even larger event!

I’ve always wanted to attend the Via Colori Street Painting festival and this past Sunday, I was finally able to do just that. Perfect, beautiful weather, cool street art, and free entry, now that’s my type of event.
I enjoyed how the festival was set up, it had a great flow which allowed you to see all that it embodied without struggling to see the art. Since it rained on Saturday, the artist had to double time their street art to make up for lost time, but it still came out awesome! I noticed two stages with bands, one in the from of city hall and one in the back. There was also groups performing choreographed dance sequences that was pretty cool, even though the sound system kept cutting out, but they still kept stepping!
Foods trucks were allowed at this event and there were also many other vendors for beer, food, sweets, and other junk you may want to purchase. This was definitely an awesome festival and I will definitely return next year!

I’ve gone to at least 4 or 5 of these and it’s usually a lot of fun and it raises money for the Center for Hearing and Speech, but I’ve noticed the last couple of years, a lot of the buzz is gone. This year gets a free pass due to the cold and rainy weather but it seems that they haven’t really added anything new and it’s the same thing every year — a few kids’ events, side walk art, a local garage band, and a weird High School «stump the yard» type dance. This year’s addition was a DJ that was playing Eminem with the bad words in it which doesn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t want kids to hear it given that this is a kid friendly event.
If you’ve never been there, you should definitely go, but I really wish they would add something new to the event.

This event was absolutely beautiful and artistically done. I love all the color and different stlyes of art. I was really impressed and there were many people who attended and brought their cameras to take pictures.
This event is for such a good cause and it allows some publicity for the artists. I absolutely love it and can’t wait to come back next year!
It’s the 10^th year this weekend so congrats to Via Colori! It was chilly outside, but they had a high turn-​out rate. A definite must-​go next year.