At Amarillo’s Hoodoo Mural Festival on Sept. 26, art was not only something visitors could look at. A street gallery invited people to pick up spray cans and paint on a wall, turning public art into a hands-on activity. In its post-event report, KFDA quoted Arts in the Sunset creative director Mike LaFleur describing the interactive space and saying the festival was meant to inspire young people to create.
The event took place at Arts in the Sunset, a creative center in Amarillo. The Hoodoo Mural Festival’s site lists Amarillo, Texas, and Sept. 26, 2026, and describes its purpose as bringing communities together through public art, creativity and urban beautification. Amarillo Globe-News reporter Nell Williams, in a Sept. 28 story syndicated by AOL, reported that the Saturday festival ran from 3 p.m. until midnight and drew thousands.
Before the festival, the organizer’s FAQ advertised an Art Zone with activities for children from 3 p.m. until dusk, as well as some fun activities for adults. It also said children 10 and younger would be admitted free with a ticket-holding adult. Those details describe the announced program, not independent confirmation that the Art Zone operated during the event.
KFDA also described mirrors and other interactive pieces as part of the street-gallery experience. LaFleur used a mirror as an example of how an everyday object could become interactive when included in an art installation. The report documented two ways visitors could engage directly: trying spray paint on a wall and encountering installations designed to invite attention.
The program also gave working artists a public setting for their work. KFDA spoke with muralist Hayley Mcgaugh, who said Amarillo residents care about the arts and want the community to grow. She described the festival as giving a young artist who had recently graduated from West Texas A&M University an opportunity to gain exposure and continue growing in the community. KFDA identified the artist only by the first name Kara, so this remains Mcgaugh’s example rather than a profile of a named participant.
Artist Kamden Slough told KFDA that being surrounded by artists making very different work felt inspiring. That is one artist’s description of the experience.
The broader event report from the Globe-News counted artists traveling from several places, including Oregon, Toronto, Arizona, Denver and Orlando, alongside artists from Amarillo. The festival paired mural painting with other ways to spend the afternoon and evening. The Globe-News reported artisan vendors, food trucks, live music and a bucket-drumming activity where children and adults tried basic rhythms with drumsticks. The paper also described visitors sitting to eat or taking in the work around them. Those details show a program built around visual art while making room for people with different interests.
Mural-making extended beyond one day. The Globe-News reported that about 21 murals were painted as part of the project, with artists from several places working alongside Amarillo muralists. That number describes the project’s output, not a count of artworks completed during the festival hours.
The organizer says its goal is to unite communities through public art, creativity and urban beautification. LaFleur told KFDA that the event was intended to make art feel less intimidating and give young people a place to try creating. Mcgaugh’s comments described community support and a path for a new artist to gain exposure; Slough described the inspiration of spending time around artists. Their individual accounts offer a view of what the festival means to people working in the arts, without claiming that every attendee had the same experience.
The Hoodoo festival brought these elements together in Amarillo on Sept. 26: murals and muralists, a street gallery visitors could paint in, bucket drumming, vendors and music. Before the event, the organizer had also advertised an Art Zone for children. The sources document the program and the artists’ own views of it; they do not measure whether the event changed arts participation afterward. The organizer describes the festival as family-friendly, while the reports show a public event that combined completed works with invitations to take part in making art.
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