A FESTIVAL FOR KIDS IN GALVESTON.
The Grand Kids Festival in downtown Galveston will mark its 25th edition on May 1, but in some respects, it’s entering virgin territory.
Last year’s festival was canceled outright, a casualty of the pandemic. Even now, public gatherings on this scale have been scarce in the island city. But when festival director Sarah Piel recently spoke with someone in the county’s health department, this person cautioned her that Galvestonians were ready to swarm.
“She said that I needed to be prepared, because it’s like bees in a beehive,” says Piel. “She said people were so excited to be out and about that she was just amazed at the influx of people. That is what we’re excited about and nervous about at the same time.
“We want (the festival) to be successful, but we don’t want it to be overpowering,” she adds.
This year’s event, which is free to the public, is also a prelude of sorts to The Grand 1894 Opera House’s scheduled reopening on June 5. Spread out over several blocks of the Strand Historic District, it will have a lighter footprint than previous years. Organizers are expecting around 2,000 people, Piel says, and the number of vendors will be roughly half that of previous festivals, with booths spaced out twice as far apart. (Masks are encouraged but not required.)
The underlying principle is the same as any other year, however: to allow children to witness and engage with an array of creative activities.
“It’s like the ‘a-ha!’ moment,” Piel says. “That’s the thing that I love about the festival for me. My background is as an educator, and I’ve taught kindergarten for 11 years, and it’s like that wonderment of teaching someone to read, or add, or subtract. They’re like, ‘Ah! I did that myself!’ ”
“There’s a lot of curiosity for children,” adds Maureen Patton, executive director of The Grand, which produces the festival. “That’s what they are, and I think that’s one of the benefits of the festival — it really gets them thinking about things that maybe they have wanted to ask a question but they haven’t had a chance to.”
The sheer amount of things to watch, see and do at the festival, even with the reduced number of booths, is staggering. Of course, there are familiar staples, such as pony rides and a petting zoo. But there’s also the “Chalk It Up Island Style” street-art competition and a raft of performers: country-flavored children’s musician Will Dupuy (a former member of the South Austin Jug Band); Lightning McQueen and Mater from the “Cars” movies; and the Tipi Tellers, a group of Native American storytellers who — right in the middle of Postoffice Street — erect a tepee Patton estimates could be two or three stories tall.
“It’s huge, and it accommodates probably 20 kids inside,” she says. “I think they’re going to do 10 this year for social-distancing purposes.”
Other scheduled demonstrations are rather more exotic: Sky Kings Falconry; speed-painter Jessica Haas; aerial hoop artist Chelsea Lauman; and “Memory Turner” Mike Stall, who shows kids the wonders of a lathe by turning blocks of wood into vases, bowls and pens. “Critterman” Dave Kleevan will stop by to show off some regional wildlife (including gators), and a team from Southwest Dairy Farmers will be on hand to demonstrate how milk travels, as Piel puts it, “from a cow’s body to the refrigerator at the grocery store.”
“That might inspire some kid to want to be a farmer one day,” she adds. “You never know what’s going to strike somebody. We try to have as many opportunities as possible to spark an interest in art (or) other activities.”
Besides expanding kids’ artistic horizons, the festival also provides another vital service. A slew of nonprofit and other service organizations — including the Family Service Center of Galveston County, Galveston Police Department, CASA child advocates, UTMB Health and the Galveston Children’s Museum — will set up shop to pass out information and connect with the community.
According to Piel, who is also The Grand’s director of education and resource development, many kids who go to the festival might otherwise be unaware these sorts of resources are available to them.
“There’s a lot of reach in Galveston, and you have to know the right people, and you need to know how to access it,” she says. “We want to be that hub that really provides those opportunities for families.”