Downtown Palo Alto trades car traffic for canvas this weekend as the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts takes over University Avenue for its 43rd year, running Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with roughly 250 artist booths, live music and a street chalk-painting expo spread across nine blocks.
The festival is a fine art and entertainment event hosted by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, according to a post from the City of Palo Alto, which describes art spanning all mediums alongside the street paint expo and live music. First held in 1983, the festival is produced by the Chamber in coordination with event contractor Pacific Fine Arts Festivals, which handles artist recruitment and logistics for the event. The gathering draws an estimated 60,000 visitors to downtown Palo Alto each year, making it one of the largest open-air summer arts events on the Peninsula.
The Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, a fine art and entertainment festival along University Ave, returns for its 43rd year Aug 22–23, 10am—6pm. Hosted by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, art spans all mediums w/250 booths, live music & street paint expo. https://t.co/nt0JFU1Z9Z pic.twitter.com/mJL4reRpWW
— City of Palo Alto (@cityofpaloalto) August 21, 2026
Street Closures Span Nine Blocks Through Sunday Night
The festival footprint covers nine blocks of University Avenue between High Street and Webster Street, with road closures extending to intersecting side streets between Lytton and Hamilton avenues, according to the City of Palo Alto. Those closures run from 1:30 AM tomorrow through 11 PM next Sunday, though High Street and Webster Street themselves stay open to cross-town traffic all weekend. Visitors arriving by rail have an easy option, too: the festival site sits within two blocks of Palo Alto's Caltrain station on University Avenue, about 35 miles south of San Francisco, per the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
On Tasso Street, the Italian Street Painting Expo features artists creating large-scale chalk murals directly on the asphalt, with proceeds co-benefiting local nonprofits Ada's Cafe and Palo Alto Youth Community Service, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce notes. Ada's Cafe provides employment for adults with developmental disabilities, while Youth Community Service coordinates local student civic projects. Kids can join in too, purchasing a 2-by-2-foot asphalt square in the Kids' Chalk-a-Lot zone near Tasso Street and Lytton Avenue, with proceeds also supporting Youth Community Service.
Street Piano and Live Demos Round Out the Entertainment
Beyond the booths, the festival route includes interactive attractions like Chopin & Chandeliers at Tasso Street and University Avenue, featuring a public street piano for passersby, and Artistry in Action, where artists perform live crafting demonstrations, according to the Chamber. Street pianos have become a recurring fixture of downtown Palo Alto arts events over the years. The Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto manages alcoholic beverage sales during the festival, with revenue from the beer and wine booths funding local youth and civic service projects.
Attendees should plan to bring their own bags: Palo Alto's municipal ordinance banning single-use plastic and paper carryout bags applies to all festival vendors, and organizers are advising visitors to bring reusable totes, per Pacific Fine Arts Festivals. For the artists themselves, participation isn't free — booth spaces range from $295 to $850 depending on size and placement, plus a mandatory 10% commission on gross pre-tax sales returned to event organizers, according to EntryThingy, with those vendor fees helping support the Chamber and its community programs.
The event has become a fixture of Palo Alto's late-summer calendar, with Hoodline having covered its 39th edition following a two-year pandemic hiatus and its 41st edition in 2024. This year's 43rd installment keeps the same formula intact: nine blocks of street closures, hundreds of artist booths and a chalk-painting expo that continues to draw crowds from across the Bay Area to University Avenue.
