Nearly 4,000 people are expected to attend the North End Urban Arts Festival on Saturday.
The annual festival is known for colorful artwork, music and Mexican food. This year's event will add pop-up shops including a retail store, a coffee shop and an art gallery inside empty storefronts near the former Nomar Theatre to encourage entrepreneurship in the historically Latino neighborhood.
Festival organizer Armando Minjarez says there will also be pedestrian and bike friendly spaces.
"We’re going to add landscaping, additional lighting – really turning a space, really inviting, you know," Minjarez says. "[It's] very much like the spaces that I grew up around in Mexico, right where you see grandma and grandpa sitting around kids running around, local vendors selling their paletas or elotes. We really want to recreate something that we are already familiar with."
Fifteen local graffiti writers and artists are expected to create vibrant street art during the festival.
The festival will be held on Saturday near 21st & Broadway from 3 p.m.–10 p.m.
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Carla Eckels is interim news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.
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