Pasadena Chalk Festival to Move to Brookside Park, Reschedule to September

The Pasadena Chalk Festival will move from The Paseo shopping center area to Brookside Park adjacent to Kidspace Children’s Museum and reschedule from Father’s Day weekend to September 26 and 27, 2026, producer Light Bringer Project announced Thursday.

The 33rd annual festival, a Father’s Day fixture in Pasadena for more than two decades, will draw on a different setting and a different season after the Pasadena-based nonprofit said four other events were already scheduled in the Civic Center area in June.

Light Bringer Project, founded in 1990, identified the conflicts in a press release as the Pasadena Police Department Classic Car Show, a Juneteenth observance, Pasadena Pride, and the Hemmings Great Race, which is finishing its Route 66 Centennial run at Pasadena City Hall the same month.

Three of those events have publicly confirmed dates at or near Pasadena City Hall: the 24th annual Pasadena Police Department Car Show on Saturday, June 6; the city’s fifth annual Pasadena Pride celebration on Saturday, June 13; and the Hemmings Great Race finish line ceremony in front of City Hall on Sunday, June 28.

In its announcement, Light Bringer Project said the demand for drawing space at the festival, which draws more than 500 artists, is “ever-expanding,” and that the previously planned Father’s Day weekend in the Civic Center would have offered less drawing space than in past years.

The festival is moving across town to Brookside Park, where Kidspace Children’s Museum is located at 480 N. Arroyo Blvd. According to the press release, Light Bringer Project asked Kidspace whether it would be open to hosting the festival in the museum-adjacent area of the park, and the museum agreed.

The press release described the new setting as offering trees, shade, picnic tables, and free parking, and said Light Bringer Project would partner with Kidspace on hands-on chalk artmaking activities for families during the festival.

The Pasadena Chalk Festival began in 1993 as “Chalk on the Walk” at Pasadena City Hall’s Centennial Square, with more than 150 artists in its first year, according to Light Bringer Project. The festival moved to Paseo Colorado, now called The Paseo, in 2004, and was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2010 as the largest street painting festival.

Light Bringer Project, which also produces the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade and ArtNight Pasadena, said proceeds from the chalk festival fund arts education programs in Pasadena and Los Angeles schools.

The press release said more announcements about the September event would follow in the coming weeks. Start and end times, the artist application timeline for the rescheduled event, and details of the Kidspace partnership programming were not included in Thursday’s announcement.

Information about the festival is available at pasadenachalkfestival.org.