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PORT NECHES — After a year’s hiatus, the Art Walk on the Avenue is back.

The event is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on historic Port Neches Avenue in downtown Port Neches.

The art walk features more than 80 vendors, as well as food, music, crafts and a kid’s zone.

The idea for the event came from Julie Shields, an art teacher at Port Neches Middle School, who asked Esther Macha, a business owner on Port Neches Avenue, if she could periodically bring her students’ art to the avenue to display in different shops.

That was back in 2014.

By 2015 there were 35 artists coming to the event. This year’s tally of 80 vendors shows the growth.

What to see at the art walk

Local artists with a few from outside the immediate area will be on hand, as well as Port Neches Middle School students who will have their art at two booths.

There will be a bounce house and free train rides. Vendors will be selling snow cones and ice cream, coffee, pastries and more. The shops along the avenue will be open for business.

“It’s free to walk around and look for things to buy,” Shields said. “Come with your Christmas list and you will find one of a kind gifts for family and loved ones. Shop small, shop, local and shop unique.”

Debbie Plaia, executive director of the Port Neches Chamber of Commerce, said the event is a collaboration of the local businesses and the chamber.

“It’s one of my favorite events because we have so much talent in their area. It’s incredible to watch it come to life,” Plaia said.

One of the artists coming back is Logan Comeaux. The Port Neches man amazed attendees during the previous events and sold some of his biggest paintings at the end of the 2019 art walk, he said.

“People were coming and asking where the paintings were, and he said, ‘I sold them,’” Plaia recounted. “To see his face, that’s what the art walk is about. Esther (Macha) started this to have something on the avenue and to give artists who are really talented a way to show their work.”

Looking down the road a few weeks is the Port Neches Christmas Parade. Plaia said this year’s parade marshals are ‘The Golden Girls of Port Neches,” Jackie Burnett and Betty Sheffield.

“Our very own Lucy and Ethel,” she said.

The parade is set for 2 p.m. Dec. 4. For more information, call the chamber at 409-722-9154.