ArtsGoggle Street Closure Information
A word to the community
ArtsGoggle is produced by Near Southside, Inc. and Near Southside Arts, the non-profit community and economic development organizations dedicated to revitalization and promotion of Fort Worth's Near Southside cultural district. Our offices are located at 1606 Mistletoe Boulevard across from Baylor Scott & White All Saints Hospital and we are Near Southside stakeholders who come to work inside the district every day with the goal of building community, enhancing infrastructure, advocating for progress, supporting businesses from our smallest storefronts to our largest economic anchors, promoting the area and championing economic growth. ArtsGoggle is the largest community festival produced in the Near Southside and annually we ask for all partners to unify in support of the event. Working closely with our property and business owners, the Near Southside, Inc. team produces ArtsGoggle in support of Fort Worth's local arts community. Today, ArtsGoggle is the largest festival of local art in North Texas, drawing crowds of 60,000+ to Magnolia Village and delivering a huge day of sales for our district's retailers, restaurants, and entertainment venues. The festival helps to meet our community goals as a state designated cultural district and bolster's the Near Southside's status as a vibrant entertainment district. We understand that ArtsGoggle can be disruptive to traditional daily operations of nearby property owners, residents, and businesses and work hard to mitigate as many conflicts as possible through clear and early communication and thoughtful event planning. As you can imagine, there are many considerations to juggle when producing a festival of this scale - especially when the festival set-up is conducted on such a short timeline to avoid prolonged street closures that would further impact nearby residential, medical, and commercial office stakeholders. Balancing the important community benefit of the festival while limiting the inconvenience experienced by others is top priority for ArtsGoggle management.
ArtsGoggle will be held on Saturday, October 19, 2024 from noon to 10:00 p.m. on W. Magnolia Avenue. Celebrating our 21st year, ArtsGoggle is the Near Southside's premier community event. The 2024 ArtsGoggle is presented by Trinity Metro and produced by Near Southside, Inc. and Near Southside Arts. ArtsGoggle is held on Magnolia Avenue from 8th Avenue to South Main Street.
A street closure will go into effect on Friday, October 18 beginning at noon to allow for the installation of the generators and two miles of electrical cables that support the participation of over 1,000 artists, 50 food vendors, and the ArtsGoggle Main Stage. Various other equipment is also delivered during this time such as sponsor tents, lighting towers, dumpsters, stages, and more. This work takes over 12 hours to complete and is vital to ensuring that the show is successful. In years past, we have attempted to install equipment later into the day on Friday but have unfortunately experienced difficulty with proper installation once the set-up extends into the dark hours of the evening. The darkness not only makes installation more difficult but has caused serious safety concerns for our electric crew and others who have encountered conflict from cars that intentionally pass through barricades and enter Magnolia Avenue while our crew is working. Thanks to the support of Fort Worth Police Department off-duty officers whom we hire as event security, we are able to hold the street closure securely but have also been advised by FWPD and our contractors that installation during the daytime hours is a critical factor to ensuring safety for all involved with the festival.
The street will be closed from Friday, October 18 at noon, and installation of equipment will begin as soon as all cars are removed from the street ensuring safe working conditions.
FWPD overnight security is hired to monitor the closed street on Friday evening.
Artists, food vendors, volunteers, and sponsors begin arriving to the closed street at 7:00am on Saturday, October 19 for set-up. ArtsGoggle partner arrivals and set-up occurs that morning and is an extremely high traffic moment for Magnolia Avenue and all north-south streets along its route. More than 2,000 cars will arrive for set-up during this time and will be directed to their specific area for set-up and then directed to parking facilities during the times of 7:00am to 11:30am. We ask for the patience of the entire community as more than 200 volunteers help to manage the arrival, set-up, and parking of our ArtsGoggle partners during this period.
ArtsGoggle is open to the public on Saturday, October 19 from Noon to 10:00pm.
At 10:00 p.m., the festival closes and volunteers once again work to notify the public to return to the sidewalk to breakdown can begin. Once the public has been removed from the street and FWPD declares that the street is safe, volunteers will assist ArtsGoggle partner-cars return to the festival site to begin breakdown. Again, during the hours of 10:00pm to midnight, more than 2,000 partner cars are expected to line the north and south side streets of Magnolia Avenue as they patiently await their turn to pull back onto Magnolia Avenue to load their cars with their tents, artwork, and supplies to depart the festival. This is a very busy traffic time and we once again as for your patience.
After all artist cars have departed the festival around midnight, ArtsGoggle contractors and producers begin the work of removing all infrastructure supplies from the street including generators, electrical cable, trash bins, lighting towers, tents, tables, stages and more. This work traditionally takes 5-6 hours through the overnight period of Saturday to Sunday. On Sunday morning, as early as possible, we will remove the barricades and re-open Magnolia Avenue to regular car traffic to support our businesses who host Sunday brunch and lunch services. Our top priority is reopening the street as early as possible to avoid any additional impacts to neighborhood businesses and residents on Sunday, October 20.
Magnolia Avenue should be reopened to the public by Sunday, October 20 at 10:00am.
Some event supplies are not able to be picked up by our contractors until Monday, October 21. Those include barricades, cones, sandbags, dumpsters and portalet event toilets. Please be patient with the pick-up of these items and know that it is our top priority to have them removed as quickly as possible post-event to ensure to full return of Magnolia Avenue to its pre-event conditions.
If you have concerns or would like to discuss your specific needs during the ArtsGoggle Street Closure period, please contact Mike Brennan, Near Southside President, and Megan Henderson, ArtsGoggle Director, via email to open a conversation at mike@nearsouthsidefw.org and megan@nearsouthsidefw.org. We will do our best to help find solutions that minimize any concerns related to ArtsGoggle's street closure and heavy traffic.
Thank you for your continued support of ArtsGoggle.
INTERACTIVE STREET CLOSURE MAP
STREET CLOSURE DISTRIBUTION AREA
This map represents the area where printed notices are delivered to nearby stakeholders to notify them of the street closure. Printed notices are delivered two times leading into the event. The first notice is distributed 60 days prior to the festival. The second notice is delivered 14 days prior to the festival, as a final reminder.