The details
The annual event is hosted by the Texas Gourd Society and showcases art vendors, gourd art classes and a gourd art competition.
This year’s competition theme is “cactus” and community members of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to participate. Categories are separated by age and skill level and ribbons will be awarded for best of show, peoples’ choice and more.
Children will have the opportunity to learn how to create their own gourd art and take their creations home at the festival’s imagination station.
Community outreach coordinator Rona Thornton first found gourd art while living in San Diego and being gifted a gourd by a friend. Since then, Thornton has expressed her creativity through gourd art and joined the society’s Austin patch.
Thornton described the accessibility of gourd art through its forgiving nature.
“It's just the limits of your imagination and anything goes,” Thornton said. “There's no right, no wrong. If you screw up you can cover it over and fix it up.”
Gourd art can range from simple paintings to luminaries, lamps, beaded designs and more. Thornton said the Austin patch of the society is hoping to expand by introducing first timers to the art via local programs and monthly patch meetings where members complete a project.
“We're just trying to get more younger people interested to carry on and carry forward,” Thornton said.
- Oct. 17-18
- Dripping Springs Ranch Park, 1042 Event Center Drive, Dripping Springs
- www.texasgourdsociety.org/festival-information
