Sidewalk Art + Music: Via Colori, This Weekend

Argh. I am late, late, late on this one, y’all — sorry about that. I didn’t want to blow it completely and neglect to mention one of my favorite local music/etc. festivals, Via Colori Houston, which is going on Saturday, November 19th and Sunday, November 20th in the area around Sam Houston Park off Allen Parkway & Bagby.

I keep meaning to check out the fest each year (this year’s the 6th), because it just seems like a neat, neat idea. It’s a street painting festival, where artists “buy” a space to turn into their own temporary pavement masterpiece, all while some of the best damn bands in town rock out on the two stages. Oh, and while the main spaces are all assigned before the festival, you can show up the day of and slap down $10 to play Michelangelo on your own 2-foot-by-2-foot square.

The whole thing’s a benefit, to boot, for the Center for Hearing and Speech, a nonprofit that helps children with hearing loss learn how to function in the hearing-enabled (is that a word?) world. The festival itself is free, which is especially cool (although I’m sure they’d take donations), but they raise money through food & drinks sold at the fest and by people sponsoring squares to paint.

And yep, I mentioned music earlier on; this year they’ve got awesome Bowie-gone-Rocky Horror rockers Roky Moon & BOLT! as headliners, plus sets by Sergio from {Buxton}‘s “other” band, {Ancient Cat Society}, longstanding indie-pop icons {Spain Colored Orange}, freaking mesmerizing avant-garde string quartet {Two Star Symphony}, zydeco heroes {Zydeco Dots} (who I’d swear have been around this city as long as I have), one-man-band {Benjamin Wesley}, {Runaway Sun} frontman {Andrew Karnavas}, & more. See here for the full schedule.

All together, this adds up to one of the coolest, most unique festivals this city’s currently got going, and hey, it’s both free and for a damn good cause. Swing on by tomorrow or the next day — the festival runs 10AM-6PM Saturday & 10AM-5PM Sunday. Check it out…