Red Poppy Festival in downtown Georgetown on April 27-29
The 19th annual Red Poppy Festival is April 27-29. The signature festival on the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas starts Friday night and runs all weekend with three days of music, entertainment, family fun, and features more than 120 arts and craft vendors.
Joe Nichols is the headliner Saturday night. Matthew McQueen will open for Nichols at 6 p.m. Longtime festival favorite Dysfunkshun Junkshun is back for the Friday night concert at 7 p.m. There is no admission charge for the concerts or other festival activities. Feel free to bring your own chair and cooler if you are coming for the day.
Other festival highlights include the Red Poppy Parade on Saturday at 10 a.m., and the Car Show on Saturday at 11 a.m. On Sunday, come see the One-in-the-Hole ball drop with 28,000 ping pong balls dropped on Austin Avenue at 2 p.m.
The Red Poppy Kid’s Fun Zone is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The Fun Zone includes an obstacle course, a huge slide, a bounce house, a basketball game and a toddler playground.
The Red Poppy Festival is on track to become a zero-waste event. Food vendors are using compostable plates, dishes, drinking straws, napkins, cutlery, and cups. Look for recycling and composting eco-stations and help the festival to become zero waste. In 2017, attendees helped divert nearly 70 percent of waste generated at the event from the landfill.
Entries for the Red Poppy Taste Awards, a cooking competition featuring all things poppies in sweet and savory foods, must be submitted on April 25. Winners will be announced on stage Saturday night. For more information, visit redpoppyfestival.com/things-to-do/red-poppy-taste-awards.
For a full schedule and all the details, go to RedPoppyFestival.com.
The Red Poppy Bike Ride will be held Saturday, April 21, the week before the festival, and the Red Poppy 5K will be held Sunday April 22.
The official 2018 Red Poppy Festival poster is on sale for $5 each at the Visitor Center at 103 W. Seventh St. T-shirts are available for purchase at the festival.
Where are the poppies? For a map showing the locations of red poppies in Georgetown, stop by the Visitors Center at 103 W. Seventh St. (Or see an online map at redpoppyfestival.com/things-to-do/red-poppy-tour.)
Street Closures
Austin Avenue closes Friday morning: Starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 28, Austin Avenue will be closed from Sixth to Ninth streets. Traffic will be detoured to Rock Street. (This is to allow the placement of the main festival stage.) Austin Avenue will be closed through Sunday at 11 p.m.
Other streets around the Courthouse Square will close at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 28 to allow for vendor set-up. Streets around the Square will remain closed through Sunday at 11 p.m. An expanded street closure area will be in effect on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. (noon) for the Red Poppy Parade. To see the parade route, go to redpoppyfestival.com/things-to-do/parade. Detailed street closure information can be found at redpoppyfestival.com/parking.
Free Shuttle on Saturday
A free shuttle will run on Saturday, April 29, from 9 a.m. to midnight. The shuttle will pick up and drop off passengers at the First Baptist Church located at 1333 W. University Ave. The drop-off location is at the corner of Austin Avenue and Ninth Street.
Event Parking
The Williamson County parking garage at Rock and Fourth streets and the public parking lot on Austin Avenue between Fifth and Fourth streets (next to The Monument Cafe) will be open during the festival. Public parking lots on Martin Luther King Jr. Street at West Eighth and West Sixth streets are also available. There is no charge for parking.
Handicap parking is available at the parking lot at 10th and Main streets.
The City parking lot at Sixth and Main streets will be closed starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 27.
For a complete schedule and all the details, go to RedPoppyFestival.com.
