Rain expected for opening night of Chalk the Block Arts Festival
The annual Chalk the Block Arts Festival is set to start tomorrow night at 6:00.
According to the ABC-7 weather team, rain is also expected for tomorrow. Right now the First Alert weather forecast is for light intermittent showers through out the day, with more moderate rainfall expected at around 8:00 pm.
But what does this mean for the Chalk the Block Festival?
ABC-7 spoke with Ben Fyffe, the Assistant Director for the El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department who said they are, and have been monitoring the weather very carefully. He said that festival organizers are prepared in the case that rain happens during the day, or even at night.
Fyffe said “The entire crew is ready to activate to prioritize installations that might need electrical equipment covered.” He said that systems are in place to protect any exhibit that requires electricity, or water sensitive aspects to the exhibit.
Fyffe told ABC-7 that there are many exhibits that will not be affected by the projected rainfall. Those exhibits and the festival will continue as planned saying, “We also have a lot of activities going on around us that will not be hindered by the rain,” and if people who are attending the festival do not want to get wet, or just want a quick place to dry off,” he said,”of course everyone can head into our beautiful free museums to dry off if they need to.”
Fyffe said the interactive activities in the kids zone, exhibits in The Museum of Art, The Museum of History, and the 200 arts vendors in attendance will not be impacted by weather.
He told ABC 7 that they have a plan for the 50 chalk artists that are scheduled to create temporary sidewalk art in the case of rain. Fyffe said if the rain happens during the day on Friday, they will “push back the start time of the chalk artists on Friday night,” he said “to give the sidewalks time to dry.”
Fyffe said that if the rain happens Friday night while the chalk artists are creating art, festival organizers have tarps standing by to cover the art work until the rain passes.
He told ABC-7 that rain or shine, he encourages everyone to head to El Paso’s Art District to enjoy the Chalk the Block Arts Festival. He said “This is a once a year event. You blink and you miss it.”
The forecast for rain is for Friday. The ABC-7 weather team is not forecasting rain for Saturday or Sunday at this point.
Chalk the block encourages people to go to their web page https://chalktheblock.com or their social media pages to get up to the minute updates on weather and festival changes.
