Kids, local Ukrainian residents and other community members fill the Santa Barbara Mission grounds for I Madonarri chalk festival

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Even the local weather offered a warm welcome back for community members returning to the annual I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival at the Old Mission Santa Barbara.

On Sunday afternoon, the grounds surrounding the Mission were filled edge to edge with community members, local vendors, chalk-stained children running from grandparents trying to cover them in sunscreen, and of course, rows and rows of colorful chalk paintings.

Nearly every square was filled with finished or soon-to-be finished pieces, and spectators watched as artists crafted on hand and knee throughout the second day of the three-day-long festival.

Sunday's chalk artists ranged from workers and volunteers prepared with knee pads and professional palette assortments, to parents and children decorating the pavement and, occasionally, their shoes.

Festival goers wandered the Mission lawn to enjoy live music as well as food and specialty items from the Italian Market, all of which benefit the festival's presenter: the Children’s Creative Project.

Among the local vendors was a table of blue and yellow filled with home-baked goods and items organized by local Ukrainian residents to send support for their home country.

Organizers said this I Madonnari festival comes from a sister festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy, which started in 1972 produced by the Centro Italiano Madonnari.

As seen on the festival's website: "The I Madonnari Street Painting Festival is the first festival of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It was created in 1987 by Kathy Koury, the executive director of the Children’s Creative Project, as a fundraising event to benefit our arts education programs."

Monday will be the last day of the 2022 I Madonarri festival, but the chalk paintings will continue illuminating the Mission grounds until washed away by the rain.