The festival that brought dozens of murals to Eureka is coming to a close. Organizers announced on Instagram last week that 2024 will be the last Street Art Festival in Eureka.
An organizer noted that their intention was never to have a permanent event, and said they are proud of the event’s murals and feel good about Eureka’s artistic direction.
“We kept it going through COVID and through really challenging years and the truth is, as we have kept it going, we find it’s harder to raise the money every year. It’s harder to get walls and it feels like we’re reading the community sort of and the excitement level and our energy levels,” said Jenna Catsos, illustrator and organizer of the festival.
The volunteer-led festival is held over a week in the summer and hooks up property owners or tenants who’ve got a wall with artists who can paint it. The host pays about half the cost of the mural, and the festival fundraises the rest through grants, sponsorships and festival sales, plus funding from the city of Eureka. The public can watch artists work and attend events like talks or go to the yearly block party, though no block party will be held in 2024.
The time and effort taken by the volunteers is significant, with Catsos saying the organizers always reach a point of exhaustion leading up to the festival, then have a magical time and then vow to do “one more year!” and the cycle begins anew.
“I think people always look at the festival and they think it’s the city of Eureka or they think we’re like, some really big official group and we’re just three ladies who wanted to do this,” she said.
The effort is the result of three organizers who commissioned murals in 2017 through the Black Faun Arts Project. The next year the festival was held full speed ahead, aiming to spur economic development of Eureka. Michelle Cartledge, co-owner of Humboldt Cider Company and the Local Cider Bar was on Eureka’s economic development commission and organizers together saw murals as a relatively inexpensive way to spur tourism and revitalize areas of Eureka. Swan Asbury, Eureka city planner and Catsos are the other two organizers.
Catsos added that the murals have done their job of spurring economic growth, drawing tourists to Eureka and adding color to the streets. She noted that the murals, which the festival has added to, have been written about in travel articles and is marked as a point of interest for visitors.
Catsos said that local artists have been able to train to take on mural painting through an apprenticeship program during the festival. “That has been a passion project for me, is having an education component to help develop our local artists so that they are ready to paint murals both in Eureka and beyond,” she said.
Catsos emphasized the ending doesn’t have to be sad, noting social media comments where those who love the festival want to keep it going.
“Now we’re making space for other events and things to happen in the community,” she said. She noted there were few community events in Eureka when the festival started, spurring the idea for the block party for artists and vendors. Now with the Friday Night Market and other events in downtown Eureka, she said it feels good to have perhaps sparked something and make space for other events.
The festival will continue the upkeep of the murals, correcting the fading and peeling of the murals and graffiti, which property owners agree to leave up for 5 years.
This year the festival is invite only for the organizers to focus on a backlog of artists; they get over 600 applications every year and can only choose around 20. It also has no geographical constraints inside the city like previous years to get in any final walls. The festival will be adding 25 to fifty extra-large banana slugs around the city.
Catsos noted they are still looking for walls that want a mural, and local wall-owners apply at www.eurekastreetartfestival.com/wall-application
Sage Alexander can be reached at 707-441-0504