Deep Ellum: From Painting the Tunnel Walls to This!

The 20th Annual Deep Ellum Arts Festival kicked off on Friday for it's three-day run. With so much going on in Dallas this weekend, it wasn't that hard to decide which event would be more fun. Before arriving at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival, I went by the "Party in the Park at Reunion Park". Sure, there was some big name entertainment names (Springsteen will close the event on Sunday).

The Anatole was loaded with tour buses for the final four teams. People were forming long lines to park and go inside just to slap the hands of the four teams players as they came out to board the buses to take them to Jerry's World aka AT & T Stadium in Arlington.  There was just to much basketball for me. I remember my college days and the NCAA hype. I guess that been there, done that, while exciting at the time,  moves a rung up or a  rung down the ladder depending which way you stack the events over time.

I have always liked Deep Ellum. It has undergone change, both good and bad, over the years. The days of the old school bus painting of  "California or Bust" as the film festival grew, are just memories now. So are the annual painting of the tunnels on Good Latimer. The tunnels are filled in  now, covered in Dart tracks for the Green Line and two Deep Ellum stations on it's way toward Fair Park and Mt. Pleasant. Some of the businesses that were there when Bonnie and Clyde hung out in Deep Ellum are still there today.  Rudolph's Meats and Sons of Herman come to mind for an example. Bars have come and gone and made comebacks even. So have some restaurants. But, artist, musicians, and film companies have been the glue that have held the canvas of Deep Ellum together.

So, I guess before I knew it, I already did know it that I would end up at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. And that I did, going directly to my favorite little parking spot where it cost me fifty cents to park for 5-hours. The one thing about parking in Deep Ellum is that you most likely will end up with a parking ticket if you don't park in "controlled" parking  lots. And with the major capital improvements going on with street and water projects not due to be done until fall of 2014, meter parking is all but out on Elm or  Commerce Street or Canton. Main being out by default as the festival was on Main Street from Hall Street west to Good Latimer. One of the things that I like about the Deep Ellum Festival is that largely, it is an adult event except for being totally pet friendly. Sunday was on my agenda to attend but the 90% coverage of rain forecast will cut that out this year. As I was leaving on Saturday, vendors were already putting out their Rain Sale signs. Still, it was enjoyable to be absorbed in eclectic people, talent from the four live stages, street performers, chalk art and the like. Not to mention running into old friends that one sees but once a year at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. Here are some images from Saturday.

My favorite Hat Vendor! I love the color. Some lady needs one of these for the up-coming Kentucky Derby! Really.

My thanks to these wonderful people (both here and below) who were all about what Deep Ellum really is--good people!

This is my favorite. When I ask if I could have a picture of her or the corn dogs, her laugh was like hearing my mom's laugh when she was truly happy.