This weekend, music streamed from the streets between the George W. Hawkes Library and Theatre Arlington. The songs ranged in genre and were interspersed with the sounds of people talking to one of the more than 70 vendors along the corridor.
The West Main Arts Festival spread across nearly three blocks of Downtown Arlington and celebrated a decade of the event.
“We’ve grown quite a community, but I think the most satisfying thing is helping the artists and musicians,” said Mark Joeckel, director of the West Main Arts Festival and founder of Create Texas.
Before the West Main Arts Festival was filled with vendors, music or food trucks, it was an idea inspired by the community that gathered for a mural project and the collective efforts of a group of artists about 13 years ago.
Joeckel remembers finding a blank wall at the Park Plaza shopping center — which he described as the ugliest wall he’d ever seen.
“That’s when I took a picture of it and I just posted, ‘Who wants to paint the ugliest wall? Who wants new murals on the ugliest wall in Arlington?’ And that’s what really triggered it,” Joeckel said. “We had our first meeting there at Plaza Pub.”
From there, it was only a matter of getting approval from the owner before the wall was transformed with 500 feet of murals.
The momentum led to the creation of pop-up events and music shows in that parking lot, Joeckel said, leading to the birth of the West Main Arts Festival.
The six-hour event began at noon, with three separate musical acts starting off the day on stages and places across the plaza. At the same time, various vendors and artists began their work for the day.
Catalina Currea paints her mural at West Main Arts Festival on Sept. 19, 2026, while an attendee answers the question “What fills your heart with joy?” on the other side of the canvas. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)
Catalina Currea’s nearly finished mural stands drying, awaiting the artist’s finishing details at West Main Arts Festival on Sept. 19, 2026. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)
This was Catalina Currea’s first time at the festival. The North Texas mural artist’s nearly finished piece sat on the sidewalk that afternoon and featured an expanding orange, yellow and blue sunset, blooming bluebonnets in the foreground, Arlington’s Dream Sculpture, and the roller coasters of Six Flags amusement park stretching across the horizon.
She wanted to mix the beauty of nature and landscapes with unique Arlington symbols.
“West Main is just a place of community,” Currea said.
Booths at the festival showcased pottery, wood turning, crochet, mixed-media paintings and other artistic creations. One booth, toward the middle of the festival, displayed brightly colored vejigante masks and carved coconut shells — a mask with roots in Loíza, Puerto Rico.
Two handmade carvings made from coconut shells hang for display outside Ramon Valdes’ tent at West Main Arts Festival on Sept. 19, 2026. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)
Ramon Valdes, 57, learned the trade from his father and sells his work online and at markets like West Main.
“People feel like (the art is) something new for them, because they have never seen this before,” Valdes said. “I bring it here because I’m living here now. I have to promote more my style, my legacy, for my dad.”
In addition to celebrating 10 years of the festival, Joeckel sees the milestone paired with the ongoing success of Arlington Charities, a local nonprofit dedicated to food insecurity.
Joeckel’s father David Joeckel, along with other members of the Arlington Ministerial Alliance, helped found Arlington Charities in 1978.
In a building that was once a JCPenney, Arlington Charities took root, with Mark Joeckel and his family spending many afternoons helping out.
“That was a significant legacy and I’m proud of that. I wanna make sure to fulfill that to where in 50 years, people will tell about whatever I did quietly to help the community here,” Mark Joeckel said.
Mark Joeckel receives a temporary tattoo on Sept. 19, 2026, at the West Main Arts Festival. (Gianna Ortner-Findlay for Arlington Report)
This year, a portion of the festival proceeds additionally will be donated to Arlington Charities, “to support their mission of helping Arlington families in need,” according to an Instagram post by West Main Arts Festival.
Gianna Ortner-Findlay is a freelance contributor for the Arlington Report. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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