About this tour
Twice a year, Houston throws one of the Southwest's premier outdoor art festivals — the Bayou City Art Festival, drawing juried artists from across the country to sell their work in a springtime edition set in Memorial Park and a fall edition downtown. This short walking loop pairs the festival's leafy spring home with the park itself, a vast green expanse that dwarfs New York's Central Park and serves as Houston's outdoor living room. You'll stroll from the festival grounds into the park's restored prairie glades and along its wooded trails, tracing a landscape with roots in a World War I army camp. Come during the festival for the art, or any day for the trees — either way it's a breath of open air in the middle of the city.