Board | History | Management | Beneficiaries

The Pecan Street Festival is a free, bi-annual juried arts and crafts festival held on 6th Street in Austin, Texas.  The show features artisans from all over the United States who display and sell homemade art and craftwork. Festival goers can find paintings, sculpture, woodwork, candles, jewelry, cowboy hats, home decor, games, and other useful and whimsical household items.

THE PECAN STREET FESTIVAL BENEFITS OUR COMMUNITY
As their gift to the community, the Pecan Street Merchants Association produces the festival each Spring and Fall, and selects several local non-profit organizations to benefit from proceeds. Fall 2011 Festival beneficiaries include: Austin Boxer Rescue; Austin Pets Alive; The Knights of Columbus; Bowie High School Girls LaCrosse; and the City of Austin.

SPECIAL EXHIBITS INCLUDE:

• Doc Seaton’s Magic Side Show
• The LEGO Experience Tour
• The Wahl Face the Day Tour

WHAT TO EXPECT:
Local musicians provide entertainment on three stages. The festival is the largest art festival in Central Texas, attracting over 300,000 people per event and generating $43 million in economic impact.  Like Austin itself, Pecan Street Festival attendees are diverse. Festival admission is free, so people from all walks of life flock to the streets. Some come to buy art. Some come for food, others for the music, but they all come to take part in a tradition that is 100% Austin and has been known for the last 33 years as a great way to spend a weekend.

LOCATION:
Sixth Street is the heart of Austin’s live entertainment scene and the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world. It is lined with many historical houses and commercial buildings dating from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The storied old buildings now house numerous bars, a host of live entertainment venues, art galleries, casual cafes and upscale restaurants.

WHY IS IT CALLED PECAN STREET FESTIVAL?
When Edwin Waller first laid out the street plan for Austin, the north-south streets were given the names of Texas rivers in the order in which they appeared on the Texas map. While Waller had recommended numbers for the east-west streets, they were instead given the names of trees. Later on, numbers replaced the tree-named streets and what had been Pecan Street became today’s 6th Street. The Old Pecan Street Spring and Fall Festivals honor the original name of the street.