Thousands expected for Beaufort chalk art festival featuring top artists and live music
A chalk art festival is coming to downtown Beaufort this weekend and organizers say the two-day event will attract the nation’s top street artists and possibly up to 10,000 people.
Organized by the Freedman Arts District, Chalk It Up!, which is free, will run from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on the 1500 block of King Street. Artists will create huge chalk artwork on the pavement in a parking lot while talking about their work with the public.
The artists will start with a blank slate Saturday morning and work progressively, on their hands and knees, for 17 hours over two days to create their huge pieces pieces, said Linda Sviland, the festival chair.
Food trucks will be on the site and musicians Walker Dean and Ashley Holland will perform Saturday with the Deckhands Band and Edward and Ryan performing Sunday. A kids-zone tent with feature hands-on art activities.
Sviland expects the lion’s share of the attendees to show up Sunday afternoon because that’s when the art work will be finished and judging can begin, but people are encouraged to check the progress of the artists all weekend.
Atlanta’s Chelsey Scott, Lisa Gaither of Raleigh and Erik Greenawalt, Pittsburgh, all prominent street artists who travel across the country, are among the some 40 artists who will be in Beaufort for the city’s first chalk art festival.
Freedman Arts District, a not-for-profit that encourages arts and artists in downtown Beaufort neighborhoods and economic revitalization of the district, is hosting the festival.
This week, the district announced it had received an anonymous $100,000 grant to beginning planning an art museum and center in the district that will feature the work of local artists and inform residents and visitors about the area’s history.
This story was originally published March 21, 2024 at 10:14 AM.
