Tucson's Annual Family Arts Festival

March 13, 2007

Festivals are common in Tucson during the winter months.The weather is warm, but not hot, which makes Tucson a major tourist destination during this period for people wanting to escape cold northern climates.

Convention and meeting business booms and the population expands as winter residents return to their homes in Tucson. It is a great time for everyone to get out of their homes and enjoy the weather.

The festival is an annual event in which numerous local arts groups come together and show their stuff. Like any city, Tucson has numerous amateur and professional or semi-professional arts groups which this festival brings together for a weekend at the height of the winter tourist season.

Like other big events, businesses and organizations are invited to help fund the festival, which is free to the viewing public, by being a sponsor and/or purchasing a booth in which to promote their product or service.

As a result I was there this year both to visit the event as well as to assist in manning the booth the college I work for had at the festival.

However, despite the fact that I was spending part of a Sunday afternoon in January working, I enjoyed it. I enjoy meeting and talking with people so the work part was no problem. I also got to visit the festival, something my wife and I probably would have done anyway if it hadn't been one of the weekend's on which she was scheduled to work (her real work, not the fun stuff like I did for work that afternoon).

The festival is large, occupying both the Presidio Park behind the Pima County Courthouse and continuing along the pedestrian walkway and foot bridges over both W. Pennington St. and W. Congress St. to La Placita Park adjacent to the Tucson Convention Center. The two parks and the walkway with its two pedestrian bridges were packed with both exhibitors and visitors.

In addition to booths displaying the offerings of local artists, arts groups and various ethnic organizations there were numerous booths selling various specialty foods and stages with music and dance performances.

Like summer time festivals in northern cities, Tucson's Family Arts Festival is an opportunity for residents and visitors to go outside and have a good time while also enjoying the the warm and balmy weather of the season.

Unlike northern cities where people seek the warmth of the inside of their homes in winter, in America's Southwest the best weather is in the months other than summer as the summer heat forces people to seek the interior cool of air conditioned homes and buildings.