Joe CapozziCommissioners approved the contract this week.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect approval of the contract with SunFest.
SunFest of Palm Beach County, the nonprofit that runs the popular but struggling downtown West Palm Beach music and arts festival, will operate the 2025 Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival, ByJoeCapozzi.com reports.
Why it matters: It will be a collaboration of two beloved Palm Beach County attractions.
A one-year contract for SunFest to run the downtown chalk art festival in February for $271,000 was approved unanimously Tuesday night by Lake Worth Beach city commissioners.
To be clear: SunFest is not moving to Lake Worth Beach. SunFest officials have offered no update since their vague November announcement that the 2025 event would not be held in May along the downtown West Palm waterfront for the first time since the inaugural event in 1983.
Under the plan Lake Worth Beach approved, SunFest’s staff and volunteers will help the city put on the Street Painting Festival, which is free and attracts thousands of visitors and artists from around the world.
Back story: The city took over the Street Painting Festival in 2021 after the nonprofit that had overseen the event since it began in 1995 voluntarily dissolved. The festival has been a challenge for the city’s small staff, prompting leaders to seek help for the next chalk art festival, set for Feb. 22-23.
In its pitch to the city, SunFest noted that it has produced a variety of events beyond its signature festival. They include: Bright Nights, a 21-day holiday light show produced with Roger Dean Stadium in 2009; MoonFest in 2003; Taste of CityPlace in 2015; and Sabor Y Vino from 2017 to 2019 at Downtown at the Gardens.
Read Joe Capozzi’s full story here.
Read SunFest’s proposal to run the Street Painting Festival here.
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. He publishes the Lake Worth Beach Independent on Substack, covering the town where he lives.
