Got Chalk? Resilient, Popular Pasadena Chalk Festival Returns Saturday

Hearts crumbled like bits of chalk up and down Colorado Boulevard when it was announced back in April that the new owners of The Paseo would not be sponsoring The 30th Annual Pasadena Chalk Festival.

Light Bringer Project, producers of the event,  were informed that the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Onni Group—which bought The Paseo from Capref Group last October—would not be providing the financial and labor resources the festival had always relied upon.

Fear not, chalk artists and fans.

The Light Bringer Project, with help from various city partners, will present this year’s Chalk Festival on Father’s Day weekend, June 17-18, on the Plaza at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street, directly across from its former location. 

Once again, the free festival will feature over 500 artists who will be creating nearly 200 chalk murals. In addition to the artworks, the festival will feature an art Gallery with a silent auction, live DJ, food concessions, and a beer garden.

“We’re excited to partner with The Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Pasadena Convention Center and the City of Pasadena, who all came together quickly to rescue this year’s event. Our city places great value on arts and culture, and this is a perfect example,” said Tom Coston, chair of the board of the Light Bringer Project.

Coston also happily explained the range of art and artists to be on display for this year’s event. 

“You’ll see graphic art and sometimes graphic novel kind of stuff,” he said. 

“You’ll see animation, and traditional art with art, with artists recreating museum masterpieces, like a rendition of a Van Gogh work, or “The Blue Boy,” works like those,” he added.

Coston continued , “You’ll see art that is inspirational, that perhaps  shows something heroic being done, something that is very inspiring and moving.”

There are also lots of portraits of family members, said Coston , but at the same time, visitors can expect to see “fantastical” art, he explained. 

“You’ll  see highly imaginative art that looks like it comes from another world,” said Coston, “and art that looks like illustrations from children’s books. 

“Coston continued, “I’ve always  been kind of amazed by the different styles that are out there. So, since we have so many murals, almost every genre is on display.”

Those artists also choose the various winners of the event themselves, said Coston. 

“What they do,” he said,  “is that on Sunday, they get ballots and every artist gets a vote, but they can’t vote for their own mural in any

category. And then, they go around and they vote for their favorite of all the murals in the whole event. 

“This is our way to also get them to look at each other’s murals too, so that they notice what everybody’s doing,” he continued. “And then we tabulate the votes and we award the prizes that they basically give themselves. And then we award three first place prizes.”

While it would be crass and cliche to note that all of the artists would be winners, all of the artists will be winners. You can chalk that up.

The festival is open and free to the public from 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. More information is available at pasadenachalkfestival.org.