Chalk the Block, El Paso's largest free public arts festival, returns to the Downtown Arts District on October 3 and 4, drawing roughly 200 chalk artists and more than 45,000 attendees to watch temporary sidewalk masterpieces take shape over a single weekend. Artists hoping to compete for prizes have until August 15 to get their applications in, and the clock is ticking for anyone still on the fence.
The festival, presented by Raiz Federal Credit Union, is built around a juried chalk art competition that organizers describe as the centerpiece of the entire event, according to the City of El Paso, Texas Municipal Government. Artists can apply directly at chalktheblock.com/get-involved.php, and competitors are grouped into three categories: Showcase for advanced artists 18 and older, Emerging for intermediate artists 18 and older, and Student for currently enrolled high schoolers. Whichever category they enter, participants create their sidewalk chalk pieces under a tight window of less than 24 hours during the festival weekend before judges hand out awards, per the Chalk the Block Facebook page.
This year's festival runs Saturday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, October 4, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the City of El Paso Events calendar. While chalk artist applications remain open through August 15, vendor slots for local artisans, cottage food makers, and food trucks already closed on July 31, per a City of El Paso press release from June.
A Small Sidewalk Contest That Became a Downtown Anchor
Chalk the Block wasn't always a two-day, 45,000-person affair. The festival launched in 2008 as a one-day sidewalk chalk art competition with just 12 artists at Arts Festival Plaza near the El Paso Museum of Art, according to the event's official website. Nearly two decades later, it has grown into the region's largest free public arts festival, and city data presented in May 2020 showed attendance climbing 26% between 2015 and 2020 alone as part of a broader municipal push to expand downtown public-private programming.
That growth hasn't gone unnoticed outside El Paso, either. The festival won the Texas Downtown Association's 2010 Best Promotional Event award and has been recognized locally as El Paso's best annual event, the event's website notes.
Free Admission, Thousands of Chalk Sticks, and Four Museums
Beyond the competition itself, organizers distribute more than 7,000 pieces of free sidewalk chalk to festivalgoers each year, letting visitors of all ages create their own art in designated non-competition zones scattered across downtown. Festival visitors also get free admission and hands-on activities at four municipal cultural institutions during the weekend: the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso Museum of History, El Paso Museum of Archaeology, and the El Paso Mexican American Cultural Center.
None of that comes free to organize, of course. The festival is co-programmed through a public-private partnership between the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the El Paso Community Foundation, with additional support from state grants and corporate sponsors. That structure has helped Chalk the Block generate an estimated $1.2 million for the local economy each year while functioning as a small-business incubator for local artisans, craftsmen, and food trucks, according to the city's Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
Deadline Approaching for Artists
For artists still weighing whether to enter, the window is closing fast. Applications for the chalk art competition are due August 15, and interested competitors can submit through chalktheblock.com/get-involved.php ahead of the October weekend when their work — however temporary — will be seen by tens of thousands of visitors across El Paso's Downtown Arts District.
