For more than a decade, Serena “Rain” Lujan has held a graffiti festival in a Fresno-area park in honor of her late brother. Last year’s Bizare Art Festival drew more than 80 graffiti artists and 1,500 people from throughout California and other states.
But Lujan, 54, would like to bring the annual festival home to Modesto. “It’s the city we’ve lived in for over three decades,” she said. “It’s the city my brother lived in and where he passed away.”
Lujan rents Calwa Park near Fresno every January. The 20-acre park features a quarter-mile-long cinder-block art wall where graffiti artists and muralists create their work.
Lujan said she screens all of the festival’s artists to ensure their work is free of profanity and references to drugs, violence or anything else that is not family-friendly. There is no alcohol. She said the festival inspires graffiti artists to become their best selves and help others to do that as well.
The festival includes DJs, breakdancers and rappers, as well as artisans selling handmade clothing, hats, jewelry and other items. Lujan said there are at least two bounces houses for children and other activities for them, such as face-painting.