Art City Austin is an event organized by Art Alliance Austin. I had heard of it but attended this year for the first time on April 24th. They close off about five blocks in Austin’s 2nd Street District downtown and 190 artists, many local, but most (all?) national set up a booth where they show off their goods. Lots of very good painting, some very impressive metal work, sculpture, glass, etc.

Read more for more details, photos, and the ever important description of the food available.

The atmosphere is super relaxed and the weather was fantastic. To walk around the street early in a sunny morning with a cold dark beer in your hand looking at paintings is one of the best ways to start off the day.

One of the best parts of the experience was the food court: some of the local food trailers that I’ve been meaning to try were there. I was not disappointed: an Argentinian empanada by mmmpanadas was delicious, and the Chi’lantro BBQ tacos were some of the best I’ve had in town. Tacodeli: meet your match. Then you could take the food to City Hall across the street and enjoy it at the stage where they had live music all day. Gotta love this town.

If you didn’t make it to Art City Austin this year, I highly recommend you add it to your calendar for 2011. Photo gallery below.