BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — For the 12th year, local artists from Broken Arrow have gathered at the Chalk It Up festival to sell their crafts, celebrate art of all kinds, and compete for cash prizes in the chalk art competition.
The theme for this year’s competition was “In My Own Backyard” and artists only had two days to create their entries out of chalk. Ricketts said some of the artists took the theme literally, while others interpreted it more figuratively.
Beyond the famous chalk art competition, the festival also featured artists selling their handmade wares, food trucks and live entertainment.
Ricketts estimated that over the two days the festival ran, they’d seen about 10,000 people come through with about 2,000 to 3,000 people at the festival at any given moment.
Ricketts said, “It is an absolute dream…What’s amazing about this festival is it brings amateur artists as well as professional artists that have been doing this forever all together in the same place…We have people walking all down the festival seeing all the artwork. It’s just a celebration of everyone, bringing everyone here together to view art, to buy art, to see art, to enjoy art. It’s beautiful.”